User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Hanging Up the Phone

mikeinewshot,

88? Is that because ba ba sounds a little akin to bye-bye?

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest

Changye,

Good call on the 羊水 and it's Greek derivation.Interesting stuff like this will always be easier to remember.I found some further info relating to possible explanations for the Greek word amnos [for lamb] or amnios to refer to amniotic sac.One explanation goes that the Greek word amnion was the bowl in which the blood of sacrificial sheep was collected.While the derivation is uncertain,another connection between the two may relate to the fact that shepherding people were intimately connected with newborn lambs.Another explanation goes that amnos was the Greek word for lamb,so amnion meant little lamb like thing,that is lambskin.The ancient Greeks named the amniotic sac lambskin because it is a soft leathery membrane

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest

xian zai wo de shui huai le

hehe...I'm sure that's wrong

Posted on: Hanging Up the Phone

Pete,

lol.Listening again,I ended up being pretty sure that was the case,but thanks for confirming.My hearing is not quite as sharp as it used to be so at first I thought it was me struggling a bit.I love your analogy which conjures up the picture.I wouldn't want to make any part of the emperors comments unworthy of accurate note though hehe.

Love the "dance" in this lesson.Important etiquette to understand,so a great lesson.

Posted on: Hanging Up the Phone

I like the realism such as in this lesson it clearly sounds like the guy is on the other end of the phone.A minor suggestion though.For the first part of the conversation I had a fair bit of trouble hearing the guy on the end without turning my volume right up which then made the females voice very loud.Some audio level balancing.It got better in the 2nd half of the call though where you could still tell the guy was on the other end of the phone but he was louder.Unless of course this was a deliberate device as what he was saying wasn't really important and we weren't meant to catch it.

It's great that you translate even the grunts which could otherwise lead to misinterpretation in their own right.

Posted on: Have you eaten?

urbandweller,

不用谢，我的朋友。I hope I'm at least close to the truth and have helped,but I wouldn't be confident that I've hit the nail on the head,and thus it'd be great if CPod or someone more advanced could help out here.Good question.

不用谢。。。bu4yong4xie4...no need for thanks [or you're welcome]

我的...wo3 de ..my

朋友...peng2you...friend/mate

Posted on: Have you eaten?

urbandweller,

I understood guo4 to indicate that you had done something in the past.Like in have you been to France [which would be:你去过法国 吗? ni3..you;qu4guo4..been;Fa3guo2..France;ma..question particle].Whereas I understood le to mean that you've just completed an action.Like in I've eaten.But I'm with you in that I don't quite understand why guo and le are used in the same sentence.Perhaps it is asking if you have completed [the le bit] eating at any time in the last couple of hours [the guo bit] or so.I think it may be like asking if you've had the experience of [guo] having eaten [le] your meal [appropriate for this time fo day] yet.I've heard the phrase though 你吃饭了吗which doesn't need to use the guo.Maybe this is because in the latter it is specifying fan4 as food,whereas without this the guo kind of indicates ...have you eaten anything..more of a general question.Hopefully this will partially help but I realise it's the blind leading the blind on this one.I'd be interested in CPods answer on this one too now that you've raised such a good question.Cheers mate :)

Posted on: Plants Need Watering

糟糕，我忘了 last night to add the pinyin and english translations;对不起

糟糕...zao1gao1....dang it

我...wo3....I

忘了...wang4 le...forgot

对不起..dui4 bu4 qi3....sorry

我的花都死了因为我忘浇水，但是我的树:

我的...wo3 de ...my

花...hua1...flowers

都...dou1...all

死了...si3le...die

因为...yin1wei4...because

我..wo3..I

忘...wang4...forget

浇水..jiao1shui3...to water

但是...dan4shi4...but

我的...wo3 de...my

树...shu4...trees

ps As I'm a new ellie,the above should be taken with a large grain of salt,particularly the grammar/sentence structure.

Posted on: Plants Need Watering

Another one of the great strenghts of CPod is how they can turn such a dry subject as watering the plants into something entertaining,fun and educational.

I wonder if daisies would be pushed up in a flower bed where the flowers have just 死了 ？

Yeah matt,我的花都死了因为我忘浇水，但是我的树 won't stop growing despite no watering at all and need regular pruning.

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

I thought the same as RJ;that it took guts to go out on a limb and do that video,and even more so after the reception CPod's last video attempt got.And even though it's a one off,it was such a great addition to kickstarting a new show.Well done.

Thanks Barto for pointing out the parallelism [which I hadn't noticed on a conscious level,but I think one sometimes appreciates these things on a subconscious level...kind of like picking up the tune in music without analysing it] and for your contributions in general.