User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Yellow Mountain

当然很喜欢！ :)

租了比买了摩托车好，听说警察可以抓(?)一个摩托车。

Posted on: Yellow Mountain

I took a Chinese guy (nice guy, we get on well) out for dinner recently and when he looked at the menu he said 都不值得买 or something to that effect (nothing here is worth buying.) 

I have a few culture questions: 

1. Would he say that if we were in an expensive Chinese restaurant? (The restaurant was Indian, and true the dishes are rather expensive.)  

2. If he was shouting me at a Chinese restaurant and I said that would he be offended?  (Assume for the sake of argument that the comment was true.) 

3. Does the fact that I earn a lot more money than him impact on the social niceties?  

Posted on: Yellow Mountain

没错。 在2007年我去黄山旅游，很漂亮。 因为人太多了，所以我需要在地板上睡觉了。 一个晚上我没有活动所以我买了足疗， 太贵了。从黄山市到杭州坐大巴只四个小时左右，那时有一个新的高速马路。

Posted on: Picking Up a Friend at the Airport

mafan ni has connotations of 'please...'

xinku le has connotations of 'thank you...'

Posted on: Boston

This happened to me on day one of the Dashboard - and I have never touched that little icon since! I'm scared of it. :) I think you can get it back if you find it in the list of lessons, bookmark it again, and then do what ever you want with it. No?

Posted on: Whatever...

John, thanks for the advice, and the corrections.

Posted on: Whatever...

John, sorry, my question was impossible to answer. I was commenting that I use 安排 to substitute for a number of other verbs; when I don't know a verb I need I might use 安排, eg. 可以安排一个教师？(can I arrange [to book] a classroom?) when I could probably use 预订 (to book).

After any service provided (eg. sending a parcel at the post office), wondering if the paperwork is finished, I usually ask 安排好了吗？

Re. setting up the Internet, with the Internet still not working I went back and said 还没安排好了。

I just overuse 安排. I use it at the post office, bank and buying more credit on my phone, stored value card etc. I use it when someone is filling out a form. When signing a contract. When paying bills. When buying something at a department store where receipts are written in quadruplicate. When I bought an oven and everything about the oven had to be explained, warranty cards filled in, instructions given. Whenever there is a lot of red tape. Not sure if it is all over I say ' 安排好了吗？' (Can I go now?)

I tend to use use 安排 when the it involves paperwork and 准备 when it involves people - like asking someone if they are ready etc. 你准备好了吗？ Although I guess that they are interchangeable - you can 安排 people and 准备 paperwork, right?

I guess the answer is to learn more appropriate verbs. My question should have been 'are any of these uses of 安排 incorrect?' I get a bit tired of it and would like to use something else to express myself.

Posted on: Whatever...

Hi herbertinchina

Discussion about planning outings, dinners, events etc. between participants you can use 安排, or 准备 zhun3bei4 (to prepare) as in 安排好了吗？, or 准备好了吗？ As the dialogue suggests you can say: 想干什么？ Similarly: 想出去玩儿？ 想去哪里玩儿？ 想去哪里啊？ All mean '(you) want to do something?'/'where do you want to go?'/'what do you want to do? Could also say 有什么计划？ (what's your plan?)

My take on your sample sentences:

1. What are you planning out? 你有什么计划？

2. He didn't plan out dinner. .. 他粑晚饭没有准备了。

3. Your planning is very poor. 你的计划是非常贫穷的。

Posted on: Whatever...

John - I use 安排 (ānpái) for a wide range of things (booking a room for a lesson; buying a train ticket; arranging a trip; paying the gas bill - in reference to what the person behind the counter is doing; asking for the Internet to be connected; in fact just about anything that anyone else does for me in a service sense) it's my catch all. It is definitely used for something like hooking up the Internet, right? (That is where I learnt it from a native speaker.) Can you narrow it down for me?

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

This year a Philosophy major chose one of my (Economics) courses, which I thought was really cool (I thought I would have a real 'thinker' in the class) until I worked out that she chose the course because it was taught in English. Her reason for doing the course: 'my English is poor'.  I tell the students that if they are just interested in learning English they could spend their time more productively.  'My' Philosophy student left the class - possibly because she couldn't understand what I was saying.