User Comments - SF_Rachel

Posted on: Making people do things with 让，令，and 使

Probably because I am a very contrary person, this made me think about resistance and interference. What about "don't let" and "don't make" constructions with ràng? Am I anywhere near the ballpark here?

下次，别让我喝这么多酒。Xià cì, bié ràng wǒ hē zhème duō jiǔ. Don't let me drink so much next time.

你不可以让我爱你。Nǐ bù kěyǐ ràng wǒ ài nǐ. You can't make me love you.

其实你不可以让我做什么. Qíshí nǐ bù kěyǐ ràng wǒ zuò shénme. In fact, you can't make me do anything.

痛了，别让我笑。Tòng le, bié ràng wǒ xiào! It hurts, don't make me laugh!

我们的办法会让你说。Wǒmen de bànfǎ huì ràng nǐ shuō. We have ways of making you talk.

Okay, that last one isn't negative but it seems like it could come in handy.

Posted on: Buying Batteries

Thanks, very helpful!

Posted on: Adjusting the Temperature

Thanks! You're right, it was the disyllabic thing that threw me!

Posted on: Adjusting the Temperature

Looking for a bit more clarification on the expansion sentences. I saw two new (for me) vocabulary words for "mood": 情绪 and 心情. Before adding them to my SRS, I looked them up in the hopes of finding differences in shades of meaning.

Although neither my dictionary nor nciku explicitly say so, I get the impression from sample sentences in both places that 情绪 has an implication of negative moods.  This word seems to come up when talking about moods affected by things like anxiety, depression, peevishness, etc. On nciku, even the more positive colloquations using this word seem to suggest a change in state away from something bad.

心情 on the other hand seems a bit more neutral to positive. Without other modifiers, it might suggest a relaxed state, or possibly one of being open to being acted upon (particularly excitement).

All in all, it seems pretty subtle.

Posted on: Adjusting the Temperature

Gosh, best expansion sentences ever, very useful kinds of things here! In the last sentence, is it reduplication or an error in the last expansion sentence where to re-engergize (adjust one's mood) is 调节调节心情?

Posted on: Buying Batteries

A couple of questions about the expansion sentences.

In 这些知识现在用不到 I notice that "knowledge" is preceded by 些. I think I've seen in some other lessons and maybe a Qing Wen that 些 typically suggests that something is plural. So is 知识 something that can be singular or plural, or plural only? In this sentence, is there a suggestion of multiple pieces of knowledge, but perhaps in other contexts you might only talk about one singular knowledge?

Next question. In the sentence about how many people are participating in the wedding, the characters refer to 他的婚礼, but the sentence translation says "her wedding." Is this a simple error in the translation, or is there some sort of cultural thing being communicated here? (For instance, the West weddings are so much about the bridezilla's "big day" that even if you were asking about a man's wedding it's really her wedding; but in this sentence the speaker is referencing the groom.) Probably just an error -- I have been known to overthink things just a tad!

Posted on: I want coffee!

The original Latin pronounced it with the hard C, so the pronunciation is in fact closer to German (and Chinese). Anytime you see the C in classical Latin, it would be a hard C (Church Latin, however, used the soft C).

Posted on: Help at the ATM

Great lesson.

So if 取款 qǔkuǎn is the more formal written way of saying 取钱 qǔqián, would it be acceptable in spoken Chinese to say 存钱 cúnqián in place of 存款 cúnkuǎn?

I work in banking for the "merchant services" department (i.e., we help merchants accept 信用卡). This came up yesterday when a couple of friendly colleagues asked me how to say "merchant services."　I ended up referring to our corporate "diverse services" marketing communications manual. Does 商家服务 shāngjiā fúwù sound about right? The manual is comprehensive and looks pretty accurate, but our marketing team struggles with this phrase in English, so I wouldn't be surprised if they stumbled here.

Posted on: Calling an Ambulance

Coming to this lesson very late but I'll second the first part Toainw's comment: the audio and the transcription on the page simply do not match on this line of the expansion. I noticed this myself working through the expansion section today.

Helen's explanation that for why the audio is correct is helpful -- but I respectfully submit that it would also be helpful if the written portion matched the audio.

Posted on: Reviewing in Class

I second this question about 读 (dú)!

读 = read aloud？

看 = read by sight？

对不对？

I think I have previously seen something like

这个字怎么读?

zhè ge zì zěnme dú?

"How do you read (pronounce) this character?"