User Comments - SF_Rachel
SF_Rachel
Posted on: Manly Beards or Pretty Boys?
August 24, 2012 at 8:55 PM谁以为澳大利亚人天天骑袋鼠？这么一个愚蠢的想法！每个人都知道你们雇用它们作为男管家。
Posted on: Romantic Movies and Real Life
August 24, 2012 at 5:26 PMlujiaojie, 谢谢你的阐明这个问题。
Posted on: Romantic Movies and Real Life
August 23, 2012 at 2:04 AMI notice in the dialog that you can 喝粥 but you can also 吃粥。From Elementary times I've known that you 喝汤, but this 粥 situation suggests that there's some sort of a continuum involved.
What about other not-solid/not-liquid foods? 喝 or 吃？
Posted on: Romantic Movies and Real Life
August 22, 2012 at 2:03 PMThanks floalvarez. I was hoping somebody would find a nice way to make this point and you've made it beautifuly.
Posted on: A Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
August 22, 2012 at 7:48 AMThis is super-interesting, thanks for asking the question, RJ. This is the sort of subtlety that's easy for an English speaker to overlook. I can get used to the idea that Chinese doesn't have a dedicated singular case for nouns, but I didn't stop to consider that native speakers still often will linguistically want or need to distinguish a singular from a potential plural. Thank you!
Just one follow-up @question from me. if without the 那个 it could be 好几个 girlfriends, does that mean it could be a party of ex-girlfriends on the line together (anything's possible!), or is the distinction more between "that ex-girlfriend of yours (you know the one I mean!)" versus "(any) one of your ex-girlfriends"?
Posted on: Romantic Movies and Real Life
August 21, 2012 at 5:56 AM'"but are of little interest to men" as I think a lot of men either openly or secretly like them too'
Fair enough. I have been known to, on occasion, greatly enjoy a movie where people competitively throw or kick rounded objects.
Posted on: Romantic Movies and Real Life
August 21, 2012 at 4:12 AMkong-yi -- my experience was that I started studying UI lessons about 6-9 months after starting Intermediate levels. But it took about 40 UI lessons before I felt reasonably "comfortable" i.e. not like I was just kidding myself.
My personal rule of thumb is that when you've completed half of ChinesePod's recommended number of lessons for a level, it's time to start sampling the next level; when you've completed 3/4 of the recommended lessons, the next level should be a systematic part of your rotation. That'll keep you moving forward and help you avoid feeling frustrated with a cold-turkey type level switch.
Posted on: Romantic Movies and Real Life
August 21, 2012 at 4:03 AMRJ, speaking from the Bay Area in the 21st century (alas, no time machine for the 60's, Mark, sorry) I agree with your definition. :-)
Though I'll take Wikipedia to school for defining the genre as being "mainly romance." A better definition I think would simply be movies that women like but are of little interest to men. Chick flicks center on women characters and usually marginalize or objectivize male characters (so, no wonder men don't like them). Yes, lots and lots of stupid, soul-deadening romance (and "Titanic" is a great example of the worst kind of regressive movie romance where the male and female leads are both reduced to love objects).
But in many other chick flicks romance is only a plot device for driving other issues such as female friendship or empowerment. Some chick flicks where romance is not the main course include: "Beaches," "Boys on the Side," "Legally Blonde," "Muriel's Wedding," "First Wives Club" etc. And there's a whole subgenre about dealing with/becoming our mothers or mother surrogates ("Stepmom," "Terms of Endearment," "Joy Luck Club").
Mark -- Is it possible you were thinking of the term "skin flick"?
Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners
August 19, 2012 at 8:59 PMI agree, some lessons on terminology for, and ways of talking / asking about writing characters and character components would be useful, though I'm not going to hold my breath for it. (And "all" the radicals sounds ambitiously comprehensive!). Actually, it would be a great subject for a VIDEO Qing Wen.
There is this UI lesson that talks quite a lot about radicals.
Posted on: Manly Beards or Pretty Boys?
August 25, 2012 at 12:32 AM呸。看起来并不像一个卫生的地方存放餐具.