User Comments - auntie68

Posted on: F1 in China

P/s: Here is some useful F1 vocab from that 早报 article; do please note that Singaporean Mandarin is not always correct Chinese:

车手 = pilot, driver

一套三天的看主台的套票＝ A 3-day Grandstand pass

安德逊桥转弯处那里是整个赛道最偏窄的地方.

= The Anderson Bridge curve is the most narrow point in the entire circuit.

受邀到名流包厢 = To be invited to the Paddock Club

现场观看 F1 = To watch F1 in situ, first-hand

车手可加速前进 = The cars can really accelerate (here)

Padang前方的赛道是相当长的直路 = The stretch of track in front of the Padang is a relatively long straight

更换轮胎 = To change the tires

HTH...

Posted on: F1 in China

Hello again everybody. I trust that uncle changye won't be angry with me if I share with you the F1 vocab which he generously provided in the comments to the "Baseball" Ele lesson:

Hi auntie68 and billgloveruk, I am afraid that I do not have much interest in Formula One, but just out of linguistic curiosity, I have found the following websites about F-1 terminology in Chinese.

The translation of “aerodynamic downforce” are “空气动力学所产生的下压力”, which I think sounds a little clumsy.

Probably just saying 下压力 would be enough when you are watching a F1 race with your friends. For the record, Formula One race is “一级方程式赛车” in Chinese.

Gee, this word reminds me of mathematics. I think “一级规格赛车” should be much more appropriate semantically. 英语 to 汉语 http://www.maplesky.net/data/2006/0719/article_3283.htm 汉语 to 英语 http://en.itfensi.com/specialized/education/120355685628759.html Circuit names http://www.newenglishworld.com/detail.asp?newsid=3603 

Double thanks to changye, my Mandarin teacher on CPOD!

Posted on: F1 in China

Thanks, Amber. But I think that 街头赛车 is more like street racing? You know, when amateurs race their cars late at night? Would 夜间公路赛 be an acceptable term in China? Again, thanks.

Posted on: F1 in China

Wah! CPOD even has me reading Chinese newspapers voluntarily (a "first" for me!). According to this article, a night street race is a 夜间公路赛 :

http://sports.zaobao.com/pages10/f1singapore080917a.shtml

The Mandarin in Singapore newspapers is "dumbed down" because our literacy is well below Chinese or Taiwanese standard.

So anybody who can handle the language of this UI lesson should have few problems with the language. In fact, I see that the English versions are provided for terms like "grandstand", as well as for driver and team names.  Enjoy!  

Posted on: F1 in China

I'm so deliriously happy! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!

Lovely lesson. I've already got my ticket for next weekend's 新加坡站的正式赛 ... it was an incredibly generous present from Stunt Toddler's father doing the school run and the "after-school programme"!

We're all going, except for poor ST. Poor little guy. "Ferrari" was one of the first words he learned how to write... he even does the extra-long "横" stroke on the "F" which stretches out over the rest of the word.

Yup, the Stunt Toddler's a real petrolhead ("赛迷“？ "车迷“？). At his great-grandfather's house he has an electric car (top speed: 5km!!) which he clatters over the kerbs of our unusually long driveway. His idea of fun is doing the following things at top speed: parallel-parking, reverse-parking, and trying to thread his car through the narrowest possible spaces (he flips one side-view mirror back with his hand at the very last moment, for additional clearance).

This year's birthday treat was: luge rides with his Dad at Sentosa. No engine, but plenty of speed. He was yelling "Super fast! Super fast Daddy!!!!!!" all the way down. We are still working on his mother, who won't allow his grandmother to buy him his first real kart (*what's the Chinese word for karting?), or at least some karting lessons.

I would really appreciate it if somebody could tell me how to say "street race" and "night race" in Mandarin? Thanks!

Sorry CPOD to 离题 so much! But you have made me feel so, so happy!!! Thanks!

Posted on: Getting Internet at your Apartment

Hello. Hmm... interesting. Okay, I think that 论月的话 could replace 包月的话 in this podcast, so to that extent, the 包 and the 论 are interchangeable. 

Although you might lose the notion of "all-inclusive coverage for a fixed price" which is conveyed by this use of 包. Cf. 包饭，包工，包销，包租 etc.

I'm not sure that the two words are interchangeable in every context. Eg. 按质论价 probably can't be turned into 按质包价。 

Re-reading your 现代汉语词典 definition of 论, I noticed that the operative word in the definition is not 按照, it is actually 说 : "按照某种单位或类别说” . So it still requires a verb, eg. 论月(租的)，论斤(卖的) etc.

Whereas the 包 in 包月 (and 包饭，包工，包销，包租) doesn't. Eg. "在附近的饭馆里包饭。“ Here the construction itself can function as a verb. Not 100% sure, but I think you could say, "你们可以包月吗？“

Waiting for some native speaker CPOD teacher to come in now with a correction that will remind me of how ignorant I am... thanks baomaijin for the fun "Grammar Ping Pong"!

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 3: A Call for Innovation

As a Singaporean, what really stuns me is the fact that he has enrolled his daughter in a local school, rather than one of the international schools:

http://www.mysinchew.com/node/13297?tid=14

Going by the posts on sites such as http://www.expatsingapore, you would get the impression that only an expat who's an idiot would enroll his/her child in a local school. Our expats love to bash us for having schools which produce robots, but I consider myself to be a fairly typical Singaporean, and I'm not a robot! Jim Rogers sounds pretty realistic and intelligent on the subject of Singaporeans being "bad in English and bad in Chinese"; it's very true, but he has a handle on it.

The part of that interview which makes it impossible for me to think of Jim Rogers as a "putz" (that's "prick", in English and Yiddish) is his last quote, where he says that he measures his own "worth", not in money terms, but in terms of how good a father he can be to his daughters. I like that!

Hmm... this article mentions that he is staying at the Treetops... that's only about an 8 minute walk from my home. Perhaps I should start walking that way with the Stunt Toddler, so that we could bump into Miss Happy "accidentally on purpose"... after all, he is a Mandarinomaniac too, and she does seem like a nice girl!  

Posted on: Getting Internet at your Apartment

@baomaijin: Hello. Sorry, I don't know the answer to your question! We'll have to be rescued by CPOD and/or Uncle changye.

FWIW, I didn't get the sense that 包 here had the sense of 按照. But I'm not a native speaker. I understood it to mean that the subscription plans "cover" or "include" a certain period of service or coverage, at a predetermined, fixed rate. So to me, 包月and 包年 meant, "Monthly-covered for a fixed rate" and "Yearly-covered for a fixed rate" (which is dreadful English, I know!).

Your written Chinese is better than mine, so here are the 2 (out of 6!) definitions of 包 in my Little Dictionary, which seem to come closest to the sense of 包 in this context:

(1) (动）容纳，含有。

(2) (动）负责完成整个任务。Eg. 包任务／ 这件事我包了／ 把这项工程包下来／ 这样做，包你满意。

But that's only my personal guess, which may be wrong. You can try looking up 包餐，包工，包销，包租 in your own dictionary to get a sense of how this 包 works.

Posted on: Checking Baggage

@bababardwan: You were all on the right track! I love that. 

Posted on: Checking Baggage

@user14047 & light487: The word you're looking for is 寄存 ji4cun2. The chinese definition in my Little Dictionary is: 把东西等暂时放在别人那里，请人保管 , which I believe can be translated as, "To put something temporarily with another person for safe-keeping".

Here are the examples from my Little Dictionary:

行李寄存处。

= left-luggage office; checkroom

他把衣服寄存在亲戚家里。

= He kept his clothes at his relative's place.

你的书可以寄存在我这儿。

= You can leave your book with me.

And a nice clear example from my Other Dictionary, which defines 寄存 as "deposit, leave with, check":

把大衣寄存在衣帽间。

＝ Check a coat at the cloakroom.

I'm sorry I don't have the time to pinyin-ize anything this morning. Hope you have roll-over tools! And I'm not sure if this word is still current in China; CPOD may be able to offer a better one.

P/s: 托运 literally means to send something by freight. In this context it clearly refers to check-in luggage. Literally, the question is: Do you have anything to send as freight on this flight?

@calkins & ptsmith: Calkins is right. 光临 (guang1lin2) is a very fancy expression which conveys respect!I'd translate the actual words as: "Honourable Presence". Here are some more examples:

敬请光临

＝ Your presence is cordially requested.

欢迎你们光临指导。

＝ We welcome you and would appreciate your advice.

HTH.