User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Teaching English in China

I think there is an error in the Matching Exercise - 'to depend on' is given as 看; should be　靠?

Posted on: An Email Introduction

Hi Natalie, you seem to be new here so Hullo! Welcome to ChinesePod. There is a convention (call it a rule) that in Newbie and Elementary threads when commenting you supply the 拼音 pīnyīn (pinyin) and 声调 shēngdiào (tones), like that. Also an English translation would be helpful as in your case you have included a lexical chunk 对我来说 that may not be known to beginners. Hope to see you around again. 　

Posted on: Getting the Correct Change

thanks a lot lujiaojie - that's great.

老肉, 肉太老 is an interesting one. MDBG (and my electronic dictionary) has a definition of 'tough' but in the West I don't think we equate old meat with tough, just old animals as in mutton versus lamb. 'Overgrown' is a definition that seems to work better than 'tough', as in vegetables that have gone to seed.

Both also have the meaning of 'former', 对吧?

你看起来一点儿也不老 - I don't think I am going to hear this. Perfect strangers call me or refer to me as 爷爷, without my permission!

Posted on: Reinstalling Windows

hardware costs seem to be dropping of late, I'm not sure what is driving it. eeePC can be had here now for less than 3,000RMB (close to what they cost in Australia, arbitrage at work), a year ago I checked and they were selling for twice that. Question: if you buy a laptop with OS installed how can you determine that it is 'legal'? Serious question.

Posted on: You've been everywhere!

Hey Simon (I've never been called Boda before - kinda like it - it has a bodhi tree ring to it) - I am in the south (Yunnan) though not as far south as you. I think uncertainty about the tones might be universal. And yet Chinese people are deeply conscious of how their names are pronounced (eg. potential for embarrassment.) Maybe they don't think about this formally in terms of 声调．

I just looked at Foshan on the map - so close to that great city Guangzhou - must be constantly tempted by the bright lights.

PS. Great video work - loved it. You could hit the big time making movies here. 100 odd stations to sell your work to? And there is a market for foreigners mastering the language; many channels seem to be seeking out foreigners who can come in to a talk show, sing a song etc. Had any invites yet?

Posted on: Getting the Correct Change

谢谢。可是在中国里有各种各样绿豆，我看过三四种绿豆。　所以如果中国人说：绿豆，外国人不知道哪种豆。baba 问‘绿豆是'mung'豆的意思？’我还不知道。'mung bean'是很小的。　　　

Posted on: You've been everywhere!

xiao_liang

I have never used a pinyinizer (I didn't know that word existed until you used it yesterday) - it is amazing how intelligent these programs must be. If I am unsure I still look up each in a paper dictionary (my electronic one if I'm desperate because it is harder to see the 声调). Now I can see how this can potentially save me hours of work - last year I went through checking maybe 200 student names individually in a paper dictionary for 声调. Of course I could have asked them - this year I have started by asking students for their names, 汉字，拼音 and 声调. About 1 in 20 students say 我不知道 (in reference to 声调)，or ask their friends for help with 声调 for their own names.

by the way - I loved your contribution to the 5th birthday celebrations - I had never pictured you with soft toys!! now I just see soft toys.

Posted on: Transportation Card

Thanks mate, I didn't actually look at the English translation so I was missing the point of your question. Fortunately Jason has cleared everything up in any case.

Posted on: You've been everywhere!

I just caught up with this lesson and have to say that this is high frequency language even though most Chinese people are not well-travelled.  They still like to talk about where they have not been.  Many say that they have not had the opportunity and there is some truth in this.  But I had a taxi driver once in my city who says that every year he stops work for a while and takes a trip to somewhere different in China - by now a well-travelled man.  You could also say that mainstream Chinese are not very adventurous in their travels - if they do travel it is to a big-name destination and they usually travel in a group.  One reason why books like Soul Mountain and Red Dust are curiously edgy.  

Posted on: Getting the Correct Change

that I don't know. 'green' bean (as used in ice cream for example) may include a number of different beans but I'm only guessing.