User Comments - Mingmao

Posted on: Where Is The 在 At?

Vera, I think it is okay for the Chinese host to use full Chinese sentences so long as he or she speaks slowly and the English host makes sure to translate everything the Chinese host says.

In some lessons, the Chinese host will speak an entire sentence in Chinese, but repeat a particularly difficult word--just that one word--in English, with a pause around the English word. This makes it especially easy to follow the Chinese sentence, and I think it works very well in most cases.

One of the most valuable things about Chinesepod lessons is getting a chance to hear natural Chinese conversation. The host discussions are every bit as useful as the dialogues in this respect. When the Chinese host speaks partially in English, this benefit is lost. I think that speaking slowly, enunciating clearly, and translating afterward are much more useful than speaking partly in Chinese and partly in English.

Posted on: Shaven Dog

我也要谢谢你的解释。(:

Posted on: Shaven Dog

See lujiaojie's comment above; she explained this well.

Posted on: Stop Playing with that Cell Phone

I just found this episode through the comments; it never downloaded to my feed. Why are so many of my subscribed lessons not downloading anymore?

Posted on: Differing Attitudes to Medicine

The text of the lesson in the tab at the left is incomplete. There is no pinyin, no key vocabulary, and no supplementary vocabulary.

Posted on: Differing Attitudes to Medicine

Translation question: 

The line:
吃药就不会疼了

is translated as:

"Taking medicine doesn't hurt."

But in this context, I thought it meant:

"After (she) takes the medicine, she won't be in pain anymore."

What does 疼 mean exactly, here? Does "吃药就不会疼了" mean "taking medicine does no harm"? 

Posted on: Differing Attitudes to Medicine

I have a translation question. The last line of the dialogue is:
那康康你好好休息,阿司匹林我留着自己吃。

It is translated as: 

Kangkang, rest up. I'll leave an aspirin for you to take.
I would have guessed the meaning to be more like, Never mind then. Kangkang, you rest; I'll take aspirin myself (when I need it).

Could you explain how we are to know that this sentence means that the speaker is leaving some aspirin for Kangkang to take herself later, rather than the speaker saying she is leaving it for the speaker herself to take later? 

Posted on: Detective Li 3: The Broken Glass

Thank you very much, Zoey.

Posted on: Labor Dispute

In many other lessons, John will ask the Chinese co-host to verbally explain  what a certain character is, so that listeners can picture it while listening. I find this very useful. 

In this and other lessons, Jason spells out the pinyin and tones of new words, which is far less useful; we can hear that. The exception, of course, is the 后鼻音, which the Shanghainese actors usually drop. Words with "ing" or "in" and "eng" or "en" endings should always be clarified by the English-speaking host when the Chinese co-host is not careful to make this distinction him- or herself. 

In this lesson, I would very much have liked the 偿 of 补偿金 to be verbally explained (赔偿的偿 would have sufficed, for me anyway), and the 仲 and 裁 of 仲裁. Please consider incorporating more verbal indications of which characters are being used for potentially difficult or confusing words in future podcasts. 

Further, 讲道理 is explained in the discussion, and defined in the vocabulary as "to speak sensibly" or "to speak reasonably." I was under the impression that 讲道理 means "to be reasonable," just as 讲卫生 would mean to be hygienic, rather than to talk about hygiene. 

Posted on: Detective Li 3: The Broken Glass

"刚说完,只听“啪”的一下,足球打破了一扇窗 户。"

Is "只……的一下" a grammar pattern? What are 只 and 的一下 doing here, exactly?