User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Checking Baggage

jonsnow,

I recommend you go to an episode of Qing Wen called the "my minefield" which goes into this in detail.My understanding of this was that dropping the de in wo pengyou signifies a close relationship.But best to go to that episode.

Posted on: Checking Baggage

missworldtraveler,

yeah,but don't mix up the tones for pepper/passport.You don't want the customs guys thinking you're reaching for a can of pepper spray...

How does one say bon voyage in Chinese?

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 3: A Call for Innovation

I love having series like this.It certainly increases the interest even further.

I was interested in chu1kou3.Luckily I've started taking more note of the characters,as the more vocab I'm exposed to ,the more I'm noticing homonyms within words,and am finding the characters the best way of checking whether they're the same or not.I noticed chu1 from chu1ze1che1 for taxi,and kou3 from mouth.Don't know specifically what chu1 refers to but as chu1kou3 means export,both seem to have a transport implication.This made kou3 for mouth interesting as it made me think of Shanghai and ships exporting things out of the mouth of the river.I wonder if this is getting close to its original derivation.

John,I liked your explanation of liao3jie3.Now I understand liao3jie [pardon the pun] and when to use it instead of zhi1dao4 .

I was also interested in ppt.They both speak and write the English letters in this case,hey.

Ni3 bie2 je4yi4 has made me realise that the more I study Chinese,the more I get an insight into where Chinese people are coming from when they use certain phrases in English.

Posted on: Chinglish in Reverse and University Culture

Having the related links was great.Very interesting articles,especially the first one.

Posted on: Do you have a menu?

mikegreiner,

Good question.I had wondered the same thing.For what it's worth,I found the following information in Wikipedia:

The symbol is sometimes ^[2] thought to originate from the Latin quaestiō (that is, qvaestio), meaning "question", which was abbreviated during the Middle Ages to Qo. The uppercase Q was written above the lowercase o, and this mark was transformed into the modern symbol.

Another hypothesis about the origin of the question mark proposes that it originated in the 9th century, when it appeared as an exclamation point with a curved bar (like a tilde written slantwise) in order to reflect the intonation of the speaker.^{[citation needed]} Lynne Truss attributes an early form to Alcuin of York.^[3] Truss describes the punctus interrogativus of the late 700s as "a lightning flash, striking from right to left." The name "question mark" was coined in the late 1800s.^[4]

Yet another view is that the question mark simply inverts the semicolon, which marked interrogative clauses in Ancient Greek (while enlarging the upper portion).

The origin of the question mark has also been associated with early musical notation like neumes.[1

The question mark is also used in modern writing in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, though it is not always required in Japanese. Usually it is written as fullwidth form (？; Unicode: U+FF1F) in Chinese and Japanese.

The full article can be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark

Posted on: Checking Baggage

thanks light487,

When I first listened to the dialogue I thought I heard the word for company in there,but when it came to the translation I wasn't sure if it was the same one or not.Thanks for hang2kong1 as I hadn't come across that before.Sounded a little like Hong Kong,but from the equestrian lesson I knew that was different.I too was intrigued by ng.Interesting there is a specific character for it [but then again I suppose we do spell hmm too ] and interesting spelling.I wonder if they have characters for all such semi-meaningless utterances.

Posted on: Checking Baggage

Another great highly relevent lesson.I particularly enjoyed getting the breakdown of the word tuo1yun4 for 2 reasons.It gives an insight into Chinese thinking which is fascinating,and secondly ,if either part of the word appears elsewhere in another word then I will have a clue as to the new words meaning.I realise it wouldn't be feasible to break down every word in the podcast audios,but would it be possible to do this somewhere on the website ? For example,hang2kong1 gong1si1 has 4 syllables ;what does each signify ?

The use of nin was interesting.I wonder in what other situations it is used.Why is it not more frequently used if it implies respect? Are there times when it would be rude not to use nin?

In flight entertainment was great on China Airlines when I last flew as it had a crash course on Mandarin which I found useful [hey ,a few words are better than none].However,I would definitely take CPod with me next time;much better.

Yes,going through customs/security etc is now very mafan.

ps I always remember hu4zhao4 by thinking that it sounds a bit like "who Joe",as in the passport shows who this foreign Joe is.Just my way of remembering.

Posted on: Making Negative Comparisons

Frances,

Just tried your link at work and it works! Magic.Now I just need to knuckle down and learn my characters as it can't be copied and pasted into a translation tool,but it's great for stuff at my level.Thanks heaps again.

Posted on: The Expat Show and a Jingle Contest

kimiik,

Merci beaucoup pour votre lien et aussi éclairement.

Posted on: Making Negative Comparisons

Frances

Thanks from me too.Brilliant.Can't wait to try it at work.

Cheers