User Comments - John

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Yunnan

I love this stuff. Goes so well with beer! :)

Posted on: Passive Verbs and 被

Connie recently found another interesting example of the "be forced to" usage of 被: 被旅游 ("involuntary travel").

http://www.ccvic.com/pinglun/jishi/20100511/150696.shtml (Chinese article)

Posted on: Must-Have Modals

Yes, you can use 应该 in those ways.

You're right that there is some ambiguity in this usage. But we have the same thing in English... If you say "he should be here today" are you expressing your judgment of his responsibilities (it's his duty to be here!), or are you expressing that you think there is a high probability that he really is here? Ambiguity will never go away, but people continue communicating just the same... :)

Posted on: Must-Have Modals

This is a bit tricky, because Chinese doesn't even have tense like English does; it makes more use of context and grammatical aspect.

We can look at the topic though. We just don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that there's a way to "convert tenses" from English to Chinese. Doesn't work that way.

Posted on: Must-Have Modals

"Yao" is rather broad in its potential uses, but as we mentioned in the podcast, it's almost always informal.

Posted on: That's Not Your Food

This problem with the exercises is on the list to be fixed.

Posted on: Learning English in China

Chanelle,

Catherine is personally looking into your case. We'll have everything working properly soon.

Posted on: Suffix Magic

I was referring to 可比性, right? The thing is, it's a noun. Technically, you could use "comparability," but it just sounds so awkward...

Posted on: Upcoming lessons, lots of Chinese and a "jia you!"

Marco! Great to see you on here. (And thanks for the inside scoop.)

Posted on: A Tour of the Office

Hehe, that's still progress!