User Comments - John

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

Yes, it has everything to do with "the Chinese government trying prevent foreign words and acronyms from furthur becoming a part of Chinese society and culture."

History is not on China's side on this one. Governments cannot control the development of a language. (They can only subtly influence it.)

Posted on: New Employee in the Office

Don't be depressed! It really is a lot of vocabulary to learn and become comfortable with. Relisten to some of the past lessons you've studied (dialogue only) to booster your confidence. You've already come a long way, and if you keep at it, you'll get there!

Posted on: New Employee in the Office

Sorry about that! We're fixing it now.

Posted on: New Employee in the Office

Ah, good one. More and more important these days!

Posted on: Useful Phrases #1

rennell1,

After seeing watyamacallit's comment, I checked again and realized I had checked the wrong sentence the first time. So I can confirm the issue you're experiencing, and we'll fix that right after Chinese New Year.

Thanks!

Posted on: Useful Phrases #1

Thanks you for pointing that out. I read too quickly and checked the 3rd sentence, not the 6th.

Posted on: What's up?

The problem is that there are multiple Chinese phrases that can translate as "not bad" in English, so if you get multiple "not bad" on the right side, you have to get lucky to get them all right. We'll see if we can fix this!

Posted on: What's up?

It's a stock phrase for all beginners, and everyone understands it, but the Chinese rarely use it themselves with each other.

You can use it, but chances are, the better your Mandarin gets, and the more you start to emulate native speakers, the less you will use it.

Posted on: 太空旅游

1) 翻 is the verb, 跟头 is the object. So you just say 翻跟头, or 翻了跟头.

2) Right, 体操.

3) I had to look this up, but it appears that cartwheel is 侧手翻.

4) 手倒立 or just 倒立. It's both a noun and a verb.

Posted on: Merry Christmas!

Thanks! Glad you enjoy.