User Comments - Mingmao

Posted on: Making the Move from China

Is the translation correct for the first line? The host discussion described 动静 as movement and making noise.

Posted on: Making the Move from China

My 2¢ on the whole -n / -ng ending issue and practising listening comprehension with varying accents. 

My impression is that learning with non-standard accents is not only unhelpful, but also counterproductive. My experience with Chinese is that with usages with which I am very familiar, I can understand them in context, even when the speaker has an extremely strong regional accent. When vocabulary is still new to me, having a clear accent makes a huge difference in being able to understand. I think that understanding people with various regional accents comes naturally once someone is comfortable with the material; however, at the learning stage it is a major impediment. It adds another layer of confusion to the already mentally-challenging task of learning another language, and slows down learning. What's more, as someone above has pointed out, if a student is learning most of their vocabulary from Chinesepod, they could easily end up internalizing pronunciation errors that could have been avoided. 

I too wish that Chinesepod actors would make more of an effort to avoid this particular error. There are many minor deviations in the pronunciation of Shanghai-Mandarian as compared to the "standard" pronunciation, but the -n / -ng issue actually presents a loss of information, not merely a change in sound. As such it has a particularly harsh impact on learning.

Posted on: A Hands On Approach

几天前 is more like "a few days earlier," as one might say when recounting a story.

Posted on: Syllables and Verbs

That is still quite confusing. That sounds like a monosyllabic verb is assigned to a disyllabic verb, which sounds like the result would be a three-syllable word.

Why is 配 appropriate here, and not 变成?

Posted on: Chatting at a Family Gathering

"听说二姨妈的干女儿又找了一个男朋友"

Does this sentence imply that the goddaughter has had a lot of boyfriends? Does it imply that the goddaughter was long without a boyfriend? Is it in some way emphasizing the previous lack of boyfriend?

Posted on: Chatting at a Family Gathering

The dictionary says that 姨妈 refers to one's mother's sister, if she is already married. Is this always the case? Is there another term for one's mother's sister if she is not married?

Posted on: Train Ticket Scalpers

I see. Thank you. (:

Posted on: Train Ticket Scalpers

Thank you. (:

Posted on: Preparing New Year's Dinner

Thank you so much. (:

Posted on: Train Ticket Scalpers

Ooh. I see. I was confused by the preceding statement, "验 real or fake." But yes, I have heard of 验血 as a blood test. Thank you for pointing that out. (: