User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company

@Lujiaojie, Changye

Thanks, I'm still a bit confused (my fault of course).  My dictionary - 牛津精选英语汉语词典,第三版 - has an entry on 舍 shě that is almost exactly the opposite of what you have expressed above: 

Your explanation for 舍得 shěde (willing to do or bear with sth) 

My dictionary's entry for 舍得 shěde (willing to give away sth)  

In English, 'willing to bear with' expresses an opposite idea - but I am assuming that here it carries the meaning 'willing to do'.  I may be tying myself in knots working this one out! ’Tied myself in knots!‘  中文怎么说？  

Changye - as I'm sure you will be criticising my dictionary, I have just had a look at my 现代汉语词典 and it explains the terms as:

舍不得 - 很爱惜 (loves to keep things) 

舍得 - 不吝惜 bú lìnxī  (not stingy, so 不舍得 is stingy - stingy about throwing things away.)    

This suggests that the 牛津精选英语汉语词典,第三版 is actually close to the mark after all. My problem is in putting the expression together as a whole :-   

不舍得 (stingy about throwing things away) 扔东西 (throw things away). Are 舍 and  扔东西  just expressing the same ideas? And the 不..得 gives it a negative sense?   

Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company

@kttang

Thanks for the explanation - I had misinterpreted Jennie's 不舍得扔东西'/bù shě dé rēng dōng xi. I was confused by the 'double negative' and thought it meant someone who is not afraid of throwing things away.  Maybe the 'English' helped confuse me - I thought a 'pack-rat' would be someone who is obsessively packing and shifting stuff, loving the process.  Why would a 'pack-rat' be someone who hangs on to things?  Doesn't make any sense to me, but then this is not the first time that I have had a problem with allegedly my own language.  

I still wonder if this Chinese expression would be readily understood by ordinary people here in China - anyone care to comment?   

Posted on: Dinner with Friends

@Cornelia

I'm probably the last person to offer translations but I am in practice for the upcoming Correction Corner on XiaoPhil's new thread.  :-) 

I think that 就 here indicates that you are going to eat no more than two? Maybe context provides the future tense?  (I am no grammarian.)    

Your sentence 'I have just eaten two' might be：

我才吃了两个。 I've only just eaten two. 

我已经吃了两个。I've already eaten two. 

Slightly different connotations, depending on what you wanted to emphasise.  

Maybe Changye will come to the rescue?   

Posted on: Dinner with Friends

A dictionary I have says that rice is 'imbued with an almost spiritual significance to the Chinese people'.  That may be so, but you often have to ask twice and even three times to get it delivered to your table at a restaurant.  It is not really high on everybody's priority.  When I have eaten at Chinese people's homes, rice is definitely in the background - it is actually expected that you will turn down an offer of rice.  The idea is that the other dishes should fully satisfy you.  This dates from a time when other food was scarce; rice was a necessary part of the diet to keep your stomach full.  

Sometimes rice is brought out at the end to (sensibly) accompany the drinking of alcohol.  

Posted on: Asking the Bus Destination

@barbs

I know what you mean about validation.  I have never used or heard the word used myself (China feels safe most of the time), but recently on a walk up a steep mountain path a Chinese acquaintance said it as a kind of joke while standing near the edge.  So I have never heard the genuine article either.  

The Chinese I have encountered have such an exaggerated sense of danger, and they take so many precautions that I can't imagine that it is yelled out very often at all.  

The other one I practice in jest (for when I am ever threatened) is to scream 警察来! 警察来! 警察来! jǐngchálǎi [Pointing at nowhere in particular.]  Only because I have seen that dramatised on TV and film on more than one occasion!   

Posted on: Asking the Bus Destination

Orangina

wow - that nose is attracting some attention! 

I don't think you have to be either too profane or too complicated - just 走开！zǒukāi (go away!).  Or scream 救命 jiùmìng (help!)  Just about anything negative you say as a foreigner will get a reaction - because it is out of the ordinary. Tone of voice should do the trick.  Make sure it is simple so that there is no chance of them not understanding what you say.    

Posted on: With Regards to 对 and 对于

In Australian English the two words mean the same thing (I think), Eg. 

'Regarding (concerning) your application for membership, we have completed our investigations and decided that you do not meet our high standards.'  

'We have received complaints concerning (regarding) your noisy use of the communal pool in the early hours of the morning and ask you to desist.' 

Is there a difference in where they can be placed in a sentence? 

Both words have other meanings as well.  

Posted on: Dinner with Friends

Change

呕吐处和唾壶不一样，对吧？  (A place to vomit and a place to spit are different things, no?)  

But I love the sound of ǒutù - in English we call this onomatopoeia.. this is the best example I can think of in Chinese.  

Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company

@silktown

楼 is commonly used in restaurant names; it is one word for building.  You are right that restaurant names can contain exaggerated or flowery language.  I used to go to a restaurant in the middle of the city of Sydney with a name that translates loosely as 'little thatched cottage on the side of a hill.'  

Posted on: Dinner with Friends

@Changye

He he!  Nice typo!  

吃饭喽。。

怎么多菜！ 

。。

嗯，真好吃。 

呵呵，来尝尝这个 。。 

。。

吃饱了。

真的吃饱了 。。

就来尝尝这个 

嗯， 吃饱了。。

。。

嗯，嗯，。。

嗯， 呕吐处在哪里？(where can I vomit?)  

There is a restaurant here where I live that has a  clearly sign-posted, conveniently located, specially designed  呕吐处 ǒutùchǔ （place to vomit).