User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: How Did You Learn Chinese?
April 11, 2011 at 10:07 AMI am just saying that they have taken the radical in 爱 (love) and turned it into a heart. It's cute, nothing more to it I think.
The who ad script goes:
自由自在只要我爱 (free and easy as long as I love). Cheesy, and not true at all. :)
The radical in 瓤 is 瓜 guā - the radical in 爱 is 爪 zhuǎ。 I have a feeling you know that..
See - I need to post photos - would have avoided all these words...
Posted on: How Did You Learn Chinese?
April 11, 2011 at 9:18 AMHi pauley
'i used to try and write characters but at 55 it was a difficult task'
Hey, cut it out, 55 ain't old!
Agreed, it is a difficult task, but I'm not sure that the level of difficulty is related to age. It may use a part of the brain that for some people doesn't get enough exercise .. but for me it is an extremely satisfying activity.
'I go out and just use what i have got...'
I like your attitude!
Posted on: How Did You Learn Chinese?
April 11, 2011 at 9:07 AMHi Baba - 哪里哪里。。
I actually had some difficulty loading photos to ChinesePod from Flickr and after several failures gave it away a few months ago. I can't believe I said that, I am persistent by nature. :) One day I will revisit that and see if it works for me.
I like recording non-standard characters too; I took a photo just about an hour ago from an ad - it includes 我爱, but the third stroke in the radical 爪zhuǎ is turned into a heart. Sigh...
Posted on: How Did You Learn Chinese?
April 11, 2011 at 2:51 AMNice show guys, thanks.
An invaluable resource is the electronic dictionary with handwriting input - mine is designed for Chinese speakers learning English but it works perfectly the other way. I have several dictionaries on it including 现代汉语词典 which I use a lot, an encyclopaedia, slang dictionary and idiom dictionary. I totally identify with the comment about being on the bus trying to write the sign before the bus moves on! But knowing the character so often doesn't help me with meanings, particularly ads.
I also have Pleco on my iPod touch (and the display is super nice) but I don't yet find Pleco totally as functional as my e-dictionary. More practice required.
When I go out I always have the dictionary and a camera/iPod - if there is something I don't get I take a photo and decode it later.
I used to write things down I didn't understand - I still do that to a certain extent with my camera. But for me the only way to really learn something is by constant repitition, and that takes time. When I've heard and used something 20, 30 maybe 100 times it gradually gets hard-wired and eventually I don't have to think about it.
Phone conversations when I'm not sure of context remains my biggest headache - it is a hundred times easier to talk to someone face to face.
Oh, and the language on taobao etc. - you have it there as chat. Definitley not in textbooks.
Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi
April 9, 2011 at 6:50 AMHi Chris
Equality of opportunity is a sound concept for the well-off .. :)
Actually the poor/lowest classes need a whole lot more than equality of opportunity for a society to have any claim to fairness. If you don't have basic infrastructure, equal opportunity means little. Surprisingly even the US (land of opportunity) rates poorly on mobility of income levels.
Posted on: Checking out at a Hotel
April 9, 2011 at 6:27 AMHi Chris
This was in 安图 An1tú in the Korean area of 吉林 Jílín - I found myself overnight there in 2007. It is where you find 长白山 and it is a centre for the forestry industry. I guess that is why we have 林的吉林.. Also important source for Chinese medicines. A county capital, I don't know the pop.
Posted on: Awkward Silence
April 2, 2011 at 5:57 PM'so you're not going to try to explain the joke ?'
....
Posted on: Preferences and Druthers
April 2, 2011 at 5:42 PMHi hiewonliang
Great to see you (so to speak - it's that avatar that makes me think we are talking straight to you) again!
I think you are certainly on to something, but I am puzzled by your example - the two sentences seem to me close in meaning, and neither suggest either an explicit preference or an inference. If the choice was either a this morning or a this afternoon meeting, an example of the 1st case would be 'I would prefer a 10 o'clock meeting' and an example of the 2nd would be 'I have to play golf this afternoon'.
Posted on: Rainbow
April 2, 2011 at 5:20 PMHi crandles
That flyer looks very official but it makes me feel better that the author's name is Ms Fake. On the other hand her comment that Americans usually eat mandarins out of a tin is disconcerting ... :) [OMG I have never seen that.]
Actually I am taking your post seriously, thanks very much. It is still intriguing (linguistically?) that in Chinese there are so many different terms for what we in Australia call an orange. And all those orange/red fruits that in Australia we describe as either mandarin or tangerine depending on shape, ease of peeling and taste, are all given the same name. Similarly for the most part Chinese fruit sellers can't see that lemons are yellow, large and off-round, while limes are small, dark green and round. And have different tastes. And cumquats are called 'red' oranges when they are neither red (orange) nor oranges.
Posted on: How Did You Learn Chinese?
April 11, 2011 at 10:14 AMBTW - what is that first character you wrote? Contrasting with 爱 ? At first glance I thought it was 受 now I see it is something else..