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auntie68

Posted on: Yang Jie's Diary: Everyone Is Dating
May 6, 2008 at 1:02 PM

With Mandarin, you'll be fine if you keep an open mind. I'm willing to say -- at risk of being corrected by more knowledgeable users -- that even a very simple construction like "很大的屋子“ （hen3da4de wu4zi) actually means, "[which is very big-] house" -- strictly speaking -- rather than "very big house". Try letting this digest for a bit, see whether constructions like ”是的“ （”correct- [it is]") and "好的“ ("fine -[it is]") seem to make a bit more logical sense... All the best, again...

Posted on: Yang Jie's Diary: Everyone Is Dating
May 6, 2008 at 12:54 PM

Hi light487. The secret to getting comfortable with Chinese is: mastering 的. Do you think you can stay with me for my next few sentences? Basically, Chinese is heavily based on what is called (in "plain English") -- "adjectival phrases". That is, strings of constructions -- mostly including verbs, explicit or only implied -- which function as adjectives. And these constructions are delineated by the word... 的. Let's try one in plain English: In Mandarin, "the teacher I hated most in primary school" becomes "[the] I [in primary school, most hated ]-teacher" --> 我小学最(zui4; "most")讨厌(tao3yan4)的老师“. I guess that applying an authentic Mandarin construction, you would be a "[towards-pretty-Chinese-Chickbabes-very-have-interest]-White Australian male". Were the sentence in Chinese, the 的 would come straight after the closing square bracket and it would have the effect of turning everything within those square brackets -- including verbs, everything -- into an adjective that qualified "-White Australian male". In the brutal language of grammar, the 的 marks a predicative adjective, as opposed to an "attributive" adjective. Some examples: "big" as a predicative adjective: "He lives in a big house with his cute Chinese chickbabe girlfriend" "big" as an attributive adjective: "His Chinese chickbabe girlfriend has surprisingly big bazookas for a Chinese girl". Note that the predicative adjective "big" qualifies (and is also included in) the VERB "to live", whereas the attributive adjective "big" qualifies a NOUN ie "bazookas". The distinction is clearer in other European languages than it is in English, but I hope you can detect a subtle difference. So when Jenny says, "是的“，she is actually saying "[right/correct-] it is". Here the 是 merely means "right/correct", it doesn't mean "to be". And the 的 adds the sense of "-it is" to the construction. Hope this hasn't ruined your Chinese studies forever! I'm not a native speaker! Pls check with your gf and ask her for examples using 的。Good luck!

Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 6, 2008 at 1:42 AM

谢谢你, luliaojie!

Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 6, 2008 at 1:23 AM

Erm, changye, your full and helpful answer came within 40 minutes of my appeal for help, that's not "late"! Thank you for jogging my memory wrt 公 and 母 ： I remember being happy about recognizing the words 母鸡 and 公鸡 many, many years ago when I was in primary school and Chinese class was a nightmare of near-total incomprehension for me. And special thanks for introducing 牡 and 牝 to me... that was a new one! I have a question: If you're talking about a puppy or a kitten, do you still use 公 and 母 (which sounds sort of mature to me), rather than 雄 and 雌 ？Eg. Could one say, "小母鸡" ? Thanks once again in advance...

Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 6, 2008 at 12:23 AM

P/s: I think 雄 ／雌 also works for plants too. Basically, 男 and 女 only apply to human beings. Help, where's changye when you need him!

Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 6, 2008 at 12:18 AM

Hi steeveepee33, urbandweller: I'm not 100% sure that you can use 男 and 女 to describe animals. A male animal is 雄性 (xiong2xing4), and a female animal is 雌性 (ci2xing4), not 男性 and 女性. I'm looking it up now, but I hope that a native speaker will come in and put us on the right path.

Posted on: 简体字与繁体字
May 5, 2008 at 11:56 PM

Hi rich. Here are the two words as defined by my little dictionary; the sense I get is that 推行 conveys the idea of promoting (or increasing awareness about) something, whereas 执行 means to carry out or implement something: 推行 tui1xing2: (动）推广经验，办法等，使能够普遍通用，实行。 Eg. 国家正大力推行环境保护政策。 执行 zhi2xing2 (动）按照决定，命令等去行动。 Eg: 军人要严格执行命令。 Eg. 由于计划生育政策执行得很好，中国的人口得到了有效得控制。

Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 5, 2008 at 11:39 PM

calkins, your cat is so gloriously... erm... big-boned! I love her, love her, love her. Btw, as a child, I always found the imagery and characters in Dr Seuss books too scary. As an adult, I seem to find them even scarier. Am I the only one?

Posted on: Singapore
May 5, 2008 at 11:29 PM

Hello hitorikiri6993. Yes, Singapore is the Kiasu Nation. It's Hokkien for "scared to lose", hence kiasu means being over cautious/over-competitive in a selfish, even foolish, sort of way. Eg. National University of Singapore students are infamous for being kiasu: "Exam coming, better buy a back-up calculator for my back-up calculator so I don't get stuck if my calculator and the first back-up calculator fail on the day of the paper..." I've seen univ students hiding "their" copy of a vital law textbook somewhere on the next shelf, to make it harder for classmates to find it! Btw, "kiasi" means a slightly different thing: Kiasi means "scared to die", it means being yellow, cowardly. Hee hee...

Posted on: Singapore
May 5, 2008 at 1:30 AM

Hi light497, gesang -- Going by various threads and lesson comments posted over the years, it does seem as if the transition from Elementary to Intermediate is indeed a particularly tough one. Light487, why not try listening -- just listening, not studying -- to Intermediate lessons? Even if you don't catch very much at first. Skim the English translations in the pdfs first, if you find that it helps you to get a grip on the context. Merely listening to a number of Intermediate lessons, alone, may be beneficial because the sentences in the Intermediate lessons are longer, the actors more expressive (because the scriptwriters' material is richer and deeper). It's a great way to tune your ears to the rhythms of Mandarin. Hang in there! As I've written in other threads, one day you'll hear a little "click" and be surprised to realize that you are basically comfortable with that level, and the only "difficult" words are (more or less) the specific new vocab highlighted in that lesson. And don't be intimidated by the "banter"; that always takes getting used to. I am also studying Japanese, with JapanesePod101, and struggled a bit when I first reached the level there where some explanations were covered in the Japanese banter. But a few months on, it's no longer a problem for me. Trust yourself, light487, you Mandarinomaniac you!