User Comments - calicartel

Posted on: Getting a Driver's License

About when it is right to drop the 吗 in questions, isn't it true that orignally Chinese didn't make use of punctuation marks? So the 吗 is in fact a written and spoken punctuation mark. The use of ? in written Chinese should encourage writers to drop the 吗.

Here are my lookups, as usual from MDBGk. Note the alternative writings for sha1che1 = brakes. 煞车 has 35200 occurences in Google images, 刹车 has about 10x as many (415000). I find it a bit of a pity to associate something as life-saving as brakes with a character containing 杀.

坚持    jian1chi2    persistence / to persist / to uphold / to insist on
发脾气    fa1pi2qi4    to get angry
命令    ming4ling4    order / command / CL: 道, 個｜个
情愿    qing2yuan4    willingness / would rather (agree to X than Y)
国际化    guo2ji4hua4    to internationalize / internationalization
境外    jing4wai4    outside (a country's) borders
驾驶执照    jia4shi3zhi2zhao4    driver's license
(执照    zhi2zhao4    a license / a permit)
证明    zheng4ming2    proof / testimony / to prove / to confirm the truth of
原本    yuan2ben3    originally / original
具有    ju4you3    to have / to possess
办事    ban4shi4    to handle (affairs) / to work
手续    shou3xu4    formalities / CL: 道, 個｜个
交通    jiao1tong1    transport / traffic /communication
龄    ling2        age
驾驶    jia4shi3    to pilot (ship, airplane etc) / to drive
工龄    gong1ling2    length of service / seniority
计划经济    ji4hua4jing1ji4    planned economy
效率    xiao4lü4    efficiency
改变    gai3bian4    to change / to alter / to transform
主意    zhu3yi5    plan / idea / decision / CL: 個｜个
煞车    sha1che1    to brake (when driving) also 刹车 sha1che1
油门    you2men2    accelerator (pedal) / gas pedal / throttle
杀手    sha1shou3    killer   

Posted on: SBTG: Confucius

Here are lookups from MDBG. By the way, regarding Jenny's saying (elucidated above by davidmherron), MDBG says : "不亦乐乎    bu4yi4le4hu1  =  extremely / awfully". There seems to be something missing in MDBG's definition.

焉    yan1        where / how
必定    bi4ding4    be bound to / be sure to      
深度    shen1du4    depth
理论    li3lun4        theory
辩论    bian4lun4    debate / argue over
行动    xing2dong4    operation / action / to move / mobile
故意    gu4yi4        deliberately / on purpose [06:11]
文雅    wen2ya3        elegant / refined
繁体字    fan2ti3zi4    traditional Chinese character
尾巴    wei3ba5        tail
虚荣    xu1rong2    vanity
谦虚    qian1xu1    modest
(虚    xu1        devoid of content / void / false / empty / vain)
抽象    chou1xiang4    abstract
结合    jie2he2        to combine / to link / to integrate [12:01]
优美    you1mei3    graceful / fine / elegant
不亦乐乎    bu4yi4le4hu1    extremely / awfully
远方    yuan3fang1    far away / a distant location
观察    guan1cha2    to observe / to watch / to survey / to examine / observation
(警察    jing3cha2    police / policeman)
精彩    jing1cai3    brilliant / splendid

Posted on: Finance Segment on TV

Asheh,

Indeed the Shanhai index is at 3,321.56 right now, so losing 2000 of that is impossible. However I was never clear myself what "points" (percentage points?) meant in finance. In science you have a unit and whatever you lose or gain is expressed in terms of that unit, period. That's too much to ask from the World of Finance.

Reverting to the text, the way I've understood it up to now is that "失守" is a verb and "2000点" a direct object. The index is losing what? Answer: 2000 points (whatever these stand for). I would be glad to change my mind if I'm wrong though.

Posted on: Budget Meeting

If a good soul with a good ear reads this, could they put my mind at rest about about the phrase at [04:48], when Jenny says "我们说 shan cheng ru zhang shang ????" I typed sundry combinations in MDBG but got nothing convincing. I suspect it must be something about conquering new markets.

By the way "平面" at [09:42] is not in MDBG but if I run it in the Chinese Wikipedia and then switch to the English I get an article about geometrical planes. Is "plane" meant here? Or mirror?

Posted on: Budget Meeting

It's the 8th line from the top.

About distinguishing things like "zhang" from "jiang", I don't fare much better. It's hit and miss in my brain (and trial and error in MDBG).

Posted on: Budget Meeting

Mike,

The word you're not sure about at [11:58] should be: 家长    jia1 zhang3 =  parent or guardian of a child (ie the company should act like a parent in providing for employees' meals).

Right before that, in case anyone wondered, mention is made of "妇女节    fu4 nü3 jie2  =  International Women's Day (March 8)"

On a quite different note: could someone shed light on "这块" in "比如广告这块"? is "块" some kind of measure word for ads in this case?

Posted on: Job Interview

raygo said

"Well, I'm sorry to disagree ... but I don't feel that the dialogue or expansion sentences are too fast...You're hearing authentic, natural Chinese."

I'm in two minds about this regarding the expansion sentences because I've felt I can best come to terms with the expansions of previous levels. I mean I'm now upper intermediate, so I get the most out of the intermediate expansions because the upper intermediates are often too fast (or too densely-packed with new vocab). Remember that these are sentences without context. Natural speed is OK in a dialogue but in sentences taken out of context? A good analogue is when you address a stranger in the street. Would you rattle out what you have to say at "normal" speed? I bet you wouldn't. You would start with a preamble like "excuse me sir" and insert things like "if you could tell me", "I was wondering" etc. In other words you would be slowing it down because the stranger has no idea who you are, what you want and what the problem is. The stranger's mind need to adapt. When listening to the expansion sentences you are that stranger taken unawares by a totally new meaning. This being said, keeping the expansion sentences close to natural speech is good practice, provided the reader reads it out in a eloquent way and provided the sound quality is 100% (it sometimes isn't on my loudspeakers, at least compared to the podcasts). Preferably different voices should be used to avoid boredom.

As regards the dialogue (2nd tab from the left), I think it would make sense to really slow it down. After all, this dialogue section should be there as a second tier for those experiencing difficulties with the full-speed podcast.

P.S. I didn't mean to quote in bold above. Fonts in this editor are a pain in the *ss.

Posted on: Job Interview

期望 (qīwàng) vs. 希望 (xīwàng)

Interesting case. Probably alternate spellings due to the closeness of two phonemes (qī and xī) and the way these are pronounced in different parts of China. Don't take my word for it though.

Posted on: SBTG: Health Class

Thanks changye!

Here are some more look-ups from MDBG to add to Mike's above. One big question mark at [07:38].

生物学 sheng1 wu4 xue2 biology

人员 ren2 yuan2 staff / crew / personnel  [05:26]

根 gen1 classifier for long slender objects [07:26]

青 qing1 green or blue / greenish black [07:37]

翻黑 fan1  hei1   = turning to black [07:38] ???

名词 ming2 ci2 noun

成绩 cheng2 ji4 achievement / performance records / grades [09:19]

猪 zhu1 pig [12:09]

胎 tai1 fetus

佛罗里达 fu2 luo2 li3 da2 Florida [12:29]

Posted on: SBTG: Health Class

I'm uncomfortable with"构成" in the following sentence: 血液是在心脏和血管构成的管道中流动的, translated as "The heart and the blood vessels are the pipes that the blood flows through." It seems that 构成 corresponds to "are" = "to make up". In other words: "The heart and the blood vessels make up the piping that the blood flows through". Am I correct here?

Note that the pop-up translates "构成" as "to be composed of". However MDBG says "构成 =   to constitute / to form / to compose", which is not the same thing (in fact it's the opposite).