User Comments - bababardwan

bababardwan

Posted on: How was your flight?

July 6, 2010 at 10:25 PM

I think you're right. Now here's a very simple plain English word that in my experience you just don't hear as often any more [at least in these parts]. I guess it's a longer word and people tend to be lazy and use trip to encompass the whole time away or use something more specific like flight. Somehow in my mind journey being a long word tends to conjure up a long drawn out affair [perhaps involving different modes of transport, a bit of an ordeal perhaps] and now that transport is more advanced and quicker it doesn't seem to give the best vibe. But yeah, I think it is the equivalent and is a perfectly valid word [ I guess I'm just commenting on language trends].

Posted on: Organic Food

July 6, 2010 at 10:10 PM

masterkrang,

I agree ,and as I said above I certainly thought the construction was very apt for intermediate where it was well explained.

Posted on: Organic Food

July 6, 2010 at 1:29 PM

thanks Jason. Yeah , I thought of the construction but I dismissed that because as you say it's usually indicated [but obviously you're right and certainly the construction ....shi.... is fitting for intermediate]. I do love this construction, I must say. I've come across it before ,but it's still neat. Had to laugh at Jenny's example too. :)

Posted on: Organic Food

July 6, 2010 at 12:35 PM

Occasionally a word will turn up in the vocab tab that really surprises me. This lesson is a case in point. 是genuinely seems like a newbie word to me.Now of course it's no big deal ,but the reason I raise this is because it makes me curious. I can't help but wonder what CPod are thinking here. Is there some point I'm missing? My best guess is that perhaps it's for folk who have some background in learning Chinese but it's been quite a while since they've practiced it at all [maybe several years ] and need a lot of brushing up but don't want to start at newbie level all over again. They can cope with intermediate because it all comes back quickly. Is this the thinking, or is there some other reason?

Another guess. The vocab tab has several other shi words and I guess there are folk who can speak the language but can't read it and it's to show that this shi is a different shi character to the rest of the vocab. I s'pose this last guess is perhaps more likely,but I'd really love to know.