User Comments - RJ

Posted on: Swimming Pools and the Beijing Accent

Oh,..... those cucumbers.

Posted on: Do you have a cold?

Marty

It is not done as far as I know.

Posted on: Catch the Train

not sure what happened here but the system is insisting on two posts. So be it.  Love the roos btw.

Posted on: Catch the Train

Changye - thank you, that helps a lot. A little different than expected.

bbbdwan,

thanks mate!

Posted on: Catch the Train

Hughchina,

yes, you are correct. 劳驾 lao2jia4 is used to mean "excuse me". The characters mean something like "work" and "drive" (as in drive a cart). Perhaps driving a cart through the streets required you to yell out so pedestrians would get out of the way? I defer to Changye on this one but the phrase is used today to mean excuse me. 

bababardwan,

Do you use saddles on those "Roos"? Must be a heck of a ride. Thanks for taking the joke in the spirit it was intended. Cheers back.

RJ

Posted on: Catch the Train

Light,

you were asking about how to get people moving in front of you. I think in Oz they use a cattle prod but in China you can say:

 让一下 (Rang4 yi1 xia4). Which is like "make way". Since you are a polite young man you would say qing wen, rang yi xia or dui bu qi rang yi xia.

Posted on: What will it be?

Owen,

actually the discussion section for both lessons opens here. I am guessing this is one of the lessons that was updated and re-written but this one got left with a small glitch.

Posted on: What will it be?

Owen,

these are two separate lessons. "What will it be" does not mention 咕咾肉 in the dialogue or the vocab because it is not part of the lesson. They only talk about 肉 - which is meat. Nothing was "left out." They are not talking about a certain "dish". The other lesson ("what'll it be" ) does talk about the dish  咕咾肉 and it is therefore mentioned in the vocab on the pdf also. You can access "what'll it be" by going to the second to the last page in the newbie channel as you pointed out, and it opens fine for me. Why the search function result does not open I dont know. Some of the very early lessons were re-done and /or re-written to improve quality and then the old version was deleted. This may have been  one of them and perhaps the old version was not cleanly deleted. Many dishes in China go by several names and they also sometimes vary by region.

Posted on: Catch the Train

mmysdf,

so many sour grapes for such a new name.

I think I speak for most when I say Ken's involvement here is welcome. One could pick apart either host, or any host for that matter, but I tend to think his contributions far outweigh any percieved shortcomings. Chiongzibide gives you some good advice. I have some for you too, but I will keep it to myself. Take care.

RJ

Posted on: Leaving Luggage with the Hotel

kesirui,

as Pete says, there are many. 哎哟 (aiyo) 哎呦（ai you) and  哎呀 (aiya) are all used. I always thought aiya corresponded best to "yikes" but I guess that would be subject to individual interpretation. I would love to see a list of all these mood particles. Maybe Pete can dig one up for us?