User Comments - bababardwan
bababardwan
Posted on: The Various Guises of "Until"
February 1, 2011 at 2:00 PM也许：
你可以在一时取悦所有人，也可以在长时间取悦一些人，但不可能在长时间取悦所有的人
。。但我就猜
Posted on: New Employee in the Office
February 1, 2011 at 1:39 PM0:23s ?探讨..to investigate..to probe. Is that the word John says at 23s mark? It would make sense as he was saying the content of the dialogue is not difficult but there are a few words that he thinks would be better to look into/examine [investigate] a bit.
Posted on: New Employee in the Office
February 1, 2011 at 10:46 AMexpanding on that last thought a bit further, I would suspect that's what someone bilingual like Jenny would do if you gave her an English sentence and asked her now to say it in Chinese. I'm guessing having heard the English, rather than directly literally translating it and thinking in English as she did so, she would switch to how native Chinese would say it. If I'm right in my assumption here, than I think that could be a very good exercise. But maybe we should ask Jenny. See if she can tell us. Actually she's probably on CNY break. But when she or one of the other teachers gets back lets hope we get an answer. It may be so second nature to them that they're not overly conscious of what they're doing, but I'm sure it incorporates natural Chinese in the end.
Posted on: New Employee in the Office
February 1, 2011 at 10:38 AMbtw, don't ask me how it's done, and I'm not saying I'd be good at it. but I think you can take an English sentence...as a suggestion about what to say in Chinese and then instead of directly translating it, flick a switch, think in Chinese and try and come out with some natural Chinese. Not saying it's easy, but I think you can still think in Chinese.
Posted on: New Employee in the Office
February 1, 2011 at 9:45 AMyes, I thought reason 1 would be the first thing to be raised. I agree that you've gotta try and think in Chinese. The problem remains though in such a format..how to suggest saying something in Chinese.
2. You may be right here too to varying degrees. I think sometimes there can be more than one way to translate. All the same, I think it's a worthwhile exercise.
I just think both directions are important.
Posted on: New Employee in the Office
February 1, 2011 at 9:14 AMI would half agree.
"If the Chinese stuff came first, that would emmulate a real life situation"
..helpful for that real life situation where you are the listener. Having to think how to speak in Chinese though is the other half of the real life situations, which I tend to think is possibly the harder part. Mixing it up half and half would be more realistic.
Posted on: What's in a name?
February 1, 2011 at 6:14 AMJohnB,
oh, 岳撼...shaking high mountain, reminds me of 地震 which uses the 震of your 震撼 example...all indicating your presence is earth shattering.
"have been told that such a character doesn't exist"
hehe, must feel almost like being told you don't exist...a far cry from the earthshattering impression you were meant to be making！ [ I have character therefore I am....I think I have a character therefore I am...oh well, 至少，我思考所以我是】
Posted on: Switching Seats on a Plane
January 31, 2011 at 9:50 AMyeah, I was going to say the popcorn is the first thing that pops out, but after that it's like a kids game of spot 10 differences between this pic and a plane scene.
Posted on: What's in a name?
February 1, 2011 at 2:05 PM。。你是从经验说话的吗？有任何的例子？听起来幽默。。