User Comments - RJ
RJ
Posted on: Qipao Dresses and Marathons in China
October 14, 2008 at 11:48 PMChanelle and Amber, you both look very nice. Amber I heard you say you had 3 ....um where are the other 2 pictures? :-)
and spandex.... Boooooo!
Posted on: Party Time at ChinesePod
October 13, 2008 at 10:51 PMbbbdwan,
I believe the may 19th date stamp is an error. I assure you Henning has it right and if you notice the comments on the welcome N&F start in Dec 2007. N&F is a relatively new addition to cpod. John will have to tell you when he started, but I think not long after the beginning.
Posted on: Good Night
October 13, 2008 at 10:37 AMPanda......you just have to be more interesting than the tv.:-)
Posted on: Numbers in Chinese
October 13, 2008 at 9:54 AMRM-
You just have to express in multiples of wan (10,000) first before the smaller groupings.
An empty hundreds or tens place may be read as "ling"
when there is a series of zeros you only need to use "ling" once because its obvious.
You could take the easy way out and read as individual digits like a phone number. It prevents transcription error.
your number would be ( I think)
liu wanwan qi bai qi shi ba wan ling si
or liu yi qi bai qi shi ba wan ling si
We know Amber is dead in the water on this one but maybe with Connies help there could be a follow up. Its one of those things that will always be a problem and conversions must be re checked unless you write a program to do it. Im sure there is one out there.
RJ
ps- I am just pulling your chain a little here. It is very confusing and if I got it right it was half luck. I wouldnt loose any sleep over it.
Posted on: I'm pregnant!
October 13, 2008 at 8:59 AMHuibert, Changye - I think of it as an "eat-bad" stomach. It is the kind of stomach you get when you eat bad or eat spoiled. If you eat bad food - you get an "eat-bad" stomach (or we would say an ate bad stomach but Chinese doesnt inflect). Its really not that different from our espression: "was it something you ate?" I love Chinese word economy.
I agree with you also that we should think about it. For me, making it literal is how I learn Chinese. Paraphrasing does me no good. I want to learn the underlying mechanics of the language.
RJ
Posted on: I'm pregnant!
October 13, 2008 at 8:33 AMChris- I always thought of it as when we say in english, the last couple of days. The "couple" here means "two" but the expression usually means in the neighborhood of two. I dont think you would change the liang based on that philosophy but I could be wrong. as for applying to other than days - I dont know. Amber will rescue us. I would think you could do this.
Posted on: The Boy That Cried Wolf
October 13, 2008 at 8:17 AMChangye - I like the way you think. :-)
Posted on: Post-Holiday Preview
October 12, 2008 at 1:27 PMLight -
I despise daylight savings time. I dont care where they set the time (pro daylight or not) but put it somewhere and leave it. All the arguments for DST are lame and/or outdated. If its so great, leave it there. Changing back and forth just adds confusion to a global business world.
Whats nice about China is they just decided it was stupid, so they dont use DST. In addition, they made the whole country one time zone. So what if the sun doesnt come up until 9 or 10 am in the Gobe desert. Who cares? If its dark, turn on a light, if not,... dont. Simple user instructions. ^_^
Posted on: The Boy That Cried Wolf
October 11, 2008 at 7:44 PMJohn, understood! The idea is fine but the transcripts should be supplied even though as students we should put off using them until the end. Essential to communication (listening and speaking) is putting the whole sentence together, not just the main ideas and vocab. There are many small connecting words that are difficult to pick up at first, yet they are necessary to complete a thought. Many short one syalble words that sound similar are hard to differentiate between. After some practice, this should get easier just like it does if you live in China. A great tool but I need some way to know if I have it right or not. Accents, voice inflections, mumbling, background noises, and individual physical differences or differences in style all affect this. Over time we should be exposed to different speakers. I thought this lesson on the wolf was great. It was a lot of work to connect the last 10% of the dots. A great learning experience. I enjoyed it very much. Time well spent, and now I can listen to it over and over knowing I got it just right and I can reinforce those patterns in my mind. If you provide a transcript and someone jumps right to it, its their loss but you still should do it. If you want to police this, release the transcripts a day or two after the lesson. I have the same problem with intermediate lessons. The banter is difficult. Not the main ideas but the small words that tie everything together.
Another plus is that we can see the lips move and facial expressions. Also helpful. It just keeps getting better. Keep up the good work!
RJ
Posted on: Introducing the Managers
October 15, 2008 at 2:00 AMcan 久仰 be used in less formal situations? It seems so much easier to say, and I like the message better than 认识你我很高兴. If it can not be used is there another less formal equivalent?