User Comments - John
John
Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams
February 8, 2011 at 3:50 AMThe whole 折 thing doesn't work quite the same as normal numbers. It works like a decimal number (which is basically what it is, anyway). So you don't name the units; 5% off is 九五折. The pinyin could more accurately be displayed as "jiǔ wǔ".
瞧 (qiáo) is less common than 看, and is very colloquial. 瞧 (qiáo) is also not as broad in meaning; it's not used to mean things like "read" or "study" or "watch (TV)" the way 看 is.
Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams
February 8, 2011 at 3:47 AM1. Actually your basic phrase structure was quite good, and seems natural in Chinese. You don't HAVE to say, "an ad where...," and oftentimes abandoning the original English phrase structure results in more natural Chinese sentences. Chinese makes extensive use of the "topic-comment" structure, where you first introduce a topic, then you say something about it. So good job!
2. No, 问 is not used for this purpose. There are a host of verbs to choose from, such as 让, 叫, etc. In this case, I think 劝 (quàn) would be a good choice, meaning something like "urge."
3. You can actually just use 人, or 人人 (although the latter is usually used as a subject, not an object). "All people" would be 所有的人.
Posted on: Turn in Your Homework
February 8, 2011 at 3:40 AMGood question. I'm going to have to defer to the native speakers to answer that. They'll be back from vacation in a few days!
Posted on: Of Kings, Emperors, and Presidents
February 8, 2011 at 3:39 AMI'm no Canadian, but I'll do my best to answer your question.
Canada has a prime minister, which is usually called a 首相. Each Canadian province has a premier, which is usually 总理 in Chinese. Apparently in the case of Canada, though, the prime minister is called a 总理, and the premiers of the provinces are each a 省长. I could use some more clarification on this myself!
Queen Elizabeth II is referred to in Chinese as 伊丽莎白二世, while Prince William is 威廉王子.
Posted on: Of Kings, Emperors, and Presidents
February 8, 2011 at 3:28 AMHappy to do it!
Posted on: Bringing Pets into China
February 8, 2011 at 2:46 AMAs we say at the end of the podcast, this is the real procedure for bringing in dogs or cats to Shanghai, but not for Beijing or other cities.
Posted on: Inside the Baozi Business
February 8, 2011 at 2:44 AMAll excellent ideas!
Posted on: Inside the Baozi Business
February 8, 2011 at 2:43 AMI was relistening to this lesson today in the ChinesePod office, and it actually made me pause the show to go down and get some baozi. Alas, all the baozi vendors are still gone on CNY holiday, so I had to settle for a "tea egg" (茶叶蛋).
Here's a photo of the closed baozi shop:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpasden/5426424215
Posted on: Inside the Baozi Business
February 8, 2011 at 2:36 AMThe two hardest expressions from the interview:
叶落归根
棍棒之下出孝子
If you're advanced or close to it, I'm sure that's enough for you to look them up on your own...
Posted on: Of Kings, Emperors, and Presidents
February 8, 2011 at 3:58 AMReference: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/46734254