User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Paying a Bill

@gloria

在这里，我们可以在银行用直接借记， 可不可以说直接借记？  如果你有钱过期的不了。 明白吗？ 

Posted on: Playing the Stock Market

@Zhen,Tvan

Thanks for your help.  And before I go on can I say that I agree with you - it probably is the 'above-mentioned' kind of meaning.  I may nitpicking but the meaning originally identified by Calicartel (that, this, the above-mentioned) doesn't fit this as a stand alone sentence.  Tvan, I guess it can fit if you imagine that the city has been previously named or discussed, but it hasn't - it is just a sentence in Expansion.  

It doesn't help that it is a pretty crazy sounding sentence. 

This character 该 has another role in emphasizing something (hence my question.)  But I got that out of the dictionary - you know you are in desperate trouble in Chinese if you are relying on a dictionary!  

Posted on: Skiing, Not Ice Skating

@Jenny

ah, 明白了。 Yes, it is about positive and negative implications - it is only living here in China that I have recognised the expression being used with negative connotations (in the sense that I might possibly suffer from the adjective 差不多.) Thanks for your example.  

You might recognise the Australian expression 'she'll be right' - carries a similar idea?   

Posted on: Applying for a Loan

@delawaredavid

可耻的 kěchǐde (shameful) 

Last year a Chinese parent in Sydney tried to 红包 one of his child's primary school teachers and found himself in Court, losing more than a lot of face.  Many Australians found the behaviour extraordinarily naive - to think that a single teacher could influence the child's marks in a public exam.  

Posted on: Wrapping a Gift

我想要我的被子代表一辈子，很舒服。 

Posted on: A Charming Café in Shanghai

Calm down quasifrog - I don't notice any 'crying about this Chinese cigarette culture'. Certainly not at such a volume as to induce laughter.  While you were bent double you may have missed the point of the posts?  That is, that the once ubiquitous habit of passing out ciggies is in decline.  Pretty much dead in many lines of work in my experience.  Plenty of people still smoke; that is not at issue.  No crying.  

My province (2008) produced 829,000 tons of tobacco leaves, and 340 billion cigarettes (to the closest billion).  That is 260 cigarettes per person per year if every man, woman and child smoked (and there were no exports.)  I hope that the export trade is healthy.   

Posted on: Playing the Stock Market

The sentence

"Last year the inflation in the housing market was not terribly apparent." 

manages to be a poor translation as well as interesting.  

Changye - does the 该 mean 'this' as in this city, emphasising which city is being talked about?  Or does it emphasise the 'city' as in ' the city (as compared to the suburbs)'?  

A better translation would be: 

Last year, inflation in the city's housing market was not terribly apparent.

The sentence is interesting because it doesn't make much sense. Does the speaker mean that inflation was fairly low?  Inflation is always 'apparent', even if it goes negative, because it is measured assiduously by economic agencies like the Bureau of Statistics.  Does the speaker mean that the residents were not aware of any substantial growth in prices in the housing market?   

We don't say 'the inflation'; we say 'inflation'.   

Posted on: Skiing, Not Ice Skating

I'll try my question again .. expressed another way. 

In fact I'll give an example in English.  You are looking at buying a T-shirt marked $110.  You offer the shopkeeper $100 and they respond along the lines that 'the difference is not big.' 差不多.  Do they mean (a) you're right, there is little difference, I'll give it to you for $100, or (b) you're right, there is little difference, pay the full price of $110 [you tight *******].   

Do native speakers believe there are these two possible interpretations of 差不多?  This slight but sometimes important ambiguity?  

If so, how would you respond to seek clarification?  

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hangzhou

@kdogg36

西湖藕粉 xīhú ǒufěn 

藕粉 is mixed with hot water to make a cheap snack particularly enjoyed by Hangzhou locals and visitors. (You can also buy the raw ingredient in the supermarkets around China and make it at home but I have never quite got the knack.)   It goes to a semi-liquid consistency, has a delicate aroma and is quite sweet.  Best enjoyed on a visit to 西湖 (West Lake); you will find it at any of dozens of little food outlets around the edge of the lake.    

Posted on: 次，遍，趟: Measuring Times

@go-manly

Hey mate, what is your secret to getting such close attention to your questions?  It's like you picked up the Red Phone.  Bang bang bang. Bang.  

They obviously don't realise what baggage you carry around with that name 'go_manly'?   :-)