User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: What is a Chengyu?
April 16, 2008 at 6:08 AMhenning, your "老婆's chengyu" anecdote was really witty. Hee hee. Thanks.
Posted on: Ordering Noodles
April 16, 2008 at 3:57 AMcasie, thanks! bazza, that makes sense to me. Thank God for casie. That additional 上 -- just one character -- in her native-speaker formula makes all the different. Because it changes the "my dictionary said" to "it is said".
Posted on: 钻石
April 15, 2008 at 2:48 PMDear changye -- 你不用操心了。要是你不敢在假货天堂买钻石的话， 还可以向我们华侨女子学 “再生钻石“ 的技巧。 指一个女人不停地改善（“renovate"?) 她所拥有的珠宝， 把某个钻石戒指的钻石再次 "reset" 为设计完全不同的首饰。 That way you never have to buy diamonds. And nobody knows how much -- or usually, how little -- bling you actually own, provided you keep shuffling your bling around constantly, like mahjong tiles... Only joking, I hope you know that!
Posted on: 钻石
April 15, 2008 at 1:57 PMuser42993 + rjberki -- I just looked up "bling" in a few different places, and everything I read seemed to confirm that there's no way to separate the origins of this slang term from black rappers, black professional boxers, and their black fans. But I also see that even the President of France has been called a master of "bling" recently, so maybe the term has "somewhat entered" the mainstream...
Posted on: Ordering Noodles
April 15, 2008 at 10:28 AMHello bazza. I honestly don't know the answer, but how about rephrasing it slightly as: 据我的词典［看来／ 来说／ or even nothing more] ? Hmm, maybe the 据 could even be a 根据...Why is Mandarin so difficult? Aarghh! Thanks for asking this question, I need to know the answer too.
Posted on: 钻石
April 15, 2008 at 6:27 AMYes, thanks, espela. I sort of guessed that the 刷 had something to do with swiping credit cards。But it didn't click for me how that goes with 使劲; guess that's because I don't live in China and hardly ever hear the latest expressions! I can't imagine a Singaporean man saying that! Again, thanks.
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 嘛 （ma)
April 15, 2008 at 5:01 AMAhh, okay, that makes sense. Thanks misterjess.
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 嘛 （ma)
April 15, 2008 at 2:42 AMMaybe, "to be into [the mystery of something]" ? Aaarghhh! Most constructions with the fourth tone "好" are easier to understand, eg., 好喝酒 (hao4 he1jiu3; to be fond of drinking) or 好跳舞 (hao4 tiao4wu3; to be fond of dancing).
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 嘛 （ma)
April 15, 2008 at 2:40 AMAiyah, guolanusa, it's probably all in your dictionary... just don't ask me to explain 好奇 (hao4qi2), there's just no way, I just learned that as a word on its own...
Posted on: 钻石
April 16, 2008 at 6:28 AMchangye, 谢谢！ Thank you so much for giving me the vocabulary I was searching so painfully for -- 翻新改制 and 重新加工首饰. And thank you for your 警告 too. I guess the economical way to obtain the initial diamond supply is... from a 首饰加工店 (as long as you don't ask yourself where the diamond is from... eg. whether it "fell off" somebody's ring or bracelet. My late grandmother told me that in 1920s and 1930s Singapore, ladies would buy their diamonds from Iraqi Jewish diamond merchants (who obtained THEIR supplies from Jewish diamond merchants in Antwerp). Traditionally, the stones would then be set into jewellery in these ladies' own kitchens (!) by Indian goldsmiths, who would work calmly in full view of the entire household. The reason for this was of course: 避免钻石及其他的宝石“减肥”！！！ I only have one piece of jewellery that was made in this way, it was my grandmother's wedding present from her own father.