User Comments - calicartel

Posted on: 中国崛起

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Posted on: 学术抄袭

pearltowerpete   said :"But the translations will make these lessons accessible to people who could otherwise not enjoy them." How true indeed. I've mainly done intermediate lessons so far, only a few upper intermediate, and I surprise myself liking and studying this advanced one. The translation of "反映" as "reaction" was unfortunate though. Hasn't there been a confusion with "反应"? The MDBG dictionary says, for "反映" :"used erroneously for 反应, response or reaction." So the word is either misspelled or mistranslated.

Posted on: Beauty Pageant Registration

In the dialogue, 女生 means "female student", not just "girl"

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest

I laughed myself hoarse over the "Open Letter to the Kansas Schoolboard" linked to by pearltowerpete above. Reverting to our lesson, here's some (unvetted) vocab from the J&J dialogue:

怀胎 huai2 tai1 pregnant
似的 si4 de5 seems as if / rather like / also pr. (shi4 de5) or (shi5 de5)
主题 zhu3 ti2 theme / subject
空闲 kong4 xian2 idle / free time / leisure
比喻 bi3 yu4 metaphor / analogy / figure of speech / figuratively
过度 guo4 du4 excessive / over- / excess / going too far /
家长 jia1 zhang3 parent or guardian of a child
多义词 duo1 yi4 ci2 word having several meanings / ambivalent word
出事 chu1 shi4 have an accident / meet with a mishap
逃 tao2 to escape / to run away / to flee
用人 yong4 ren2 servant
等级 deng3 ji2 degree / rate / hierarchy
满足 man3 zu2 to satisfy / to meet (the needs of)
忙碌 mang2 lu4 busy / bustling
明星 ming2 xing1 star / celebrity
对待 dui4 dai4 to treat / treatment
自私 zi4 si1 selfish / selfishness
意外 yi4 wai4 unexpected / accident / mishap
费用 fei4 yong4 cost / expenditure / expense
延续 yan2 xu4 continue / last longer
封建 feng1 jian4 feudal
嫁人 jia4 ren2 to get married (of woman)
观察 guan1 cha2 to observe / to examine / observation
矛盾 mao2 dun4 contradictory / contradiction

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest

About religious interpretations, weren't Portuguese jesuits the first Europeans to get into Chinese characters? In that case they would've started the tradition of putting a Bible gloss over Chinese characters. When all is said and done it shouldn't matter much which story one tells oneself if it helps remembering a character. All the same, I don't feel comfortable with cluttering my mind with just-so-stories.

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 1: Officially Pregnant

Those radiation suits don't protect against really harmful radiation but they may serve a purpose, namely advertise the fact that here is a pregnant women. As regard massages, I have no doubt they can pose a threat in Asia. Think only about of that type of massage - is it called shiatsu? - where the masseuse (masseur?) walks on the weary business traveller's back to jog his vertebrae into place. Anyway, here's some unguaranteed vocab from the J&J dialogue that may be useful to those like myself who are graduating from lower intermediate:

• 自我    zi4 wo3    self-
  检测    jian3 ce4    to detect
  尽量    jin4 liang4    as much as possible / to the greatest extent
  验血    yan4 xue4    blood test
  保养    bao3 yang3    to take good care of one's health /
  月经    yue4 jing1    menstruation / a woman's period
  千万    qian1 wan4    one must by all
  搬    ban1    to move / to shift
  激烈    ji1 lie4    intense / acute / fierce
  搭配    da1 pei4    to pair up / to match
  分开    fen1 kai1    to separate / to part
  科幻    ke1 huan4    science fiction
  特殊    te4 shu1    special / particular / unusual
  孕妇    yun4 fu4    pregnant woman
  传真机    chuan2 zhen1 ji1    fax machine
  夸张    kua1 zhang1    to exaggerate / exaggerated
  袋子    dai4 zi5    bag
  烧    shao1    to burn / to cook / to stew
  围裙    wei2 qun2    apron
  材料    cai2 liao4    material
  保险    bao3 xian3    insurance / to insure / safe
  化学成分    hua4 xue2 cheng2 fen4    chemical composition
  头皮    tou2 pi2    scalp
  电子    dian4 zi3    electronic / electron
  一代    yi1 dai4    generation
  独生女    du2 sheng1 nü3   an only daughter
  独生子女    du2 sheng1 zi3 nü3 the one-child (policy)
  

Posted on: Calligraphy

Calligraphy is a must-do topic for any learner of Chinese worthy of the name. In terms of vocab the main text was anecdotal compared to the massive 3-way dialogue, so here's a list of words I looked up, on top of what Mike in Ewshot already provided. No guarantee all are accurate.

现代 xian4 dai4 modern times / modern age / modern era
背后 bei4 hou4 behind / at the back / in the rear / behind sb's back
字母 zi4 mu3 letter (of the alphabet)
书写 shu1 xie3 to write
气质 qi4 zhi4 temperament
规范 gui1 fan4 norm / standard / specification / regulation / rule
宝 bao3 a jewel or gem / a treasure / precious
文房四宝 wen2 fang2 si4 bao3 Four Treasures of the Study, namely: brush 筆｜笔, ink 墨, paper 紙｜纸 and inkstone 硯｜
转磨 zhuan4 mo4 rotary grindstone
宣纸 xuan1 zhi3 fine writing paper
通明 tong1 ming2 brightly lit
薄 bó thin
造纸 zao4 zhi3 paper-making
技术 ji4 shu4 technology / technique / skill
软 ruan3 soft / flexible
序 xu4 order / sequence
笔顺 bi3 shun4 stroke order (when writing Chinese character)
结尾 jie2 wei3 ending
灵气 ling2 qi4 spiritual influence (of mountains etc) / cleverness / ingeniousness
提到 ti2 dao4 to mention / to raise (a subject) / to refer to
描述 miao2 shu4 to describe
困难 kun4 nan5 (financial etc) difficulty / problem / issue
乐趣 le4 qu4 delight / pleasure / joy
享受 xiang3 shou4 to enjoy (rights, benefits etc)
欣赏 xin1 shang3 to appreciate / to enjoy / to admire
同样 tong2 yang4 same / equal / equivalent
重新 chong2 xin1 again / once more / re

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 7: A Firing Afoot?

I was wondering about the two words for "performance" in this lesson. Am I right in assuming the following:

• 业绩 = productivity, performance figures
• 表现 = performance not necessarily supported by figures

Posted on: Ticket Scalper

Very useful lesson. A few terms I looked up:

• 演出 yan3 chu1 to act (in a play) / to perform
• 体育比赛 ti3 yu4 bi3 sai4 sporting competition
• 前面 qian2 mian4 ahead / in front / preceding
• 可怜 ke3 lian2 pitiful / pathetic
• 红 hong2 bonus / popular
• 门票 men2 piao4 ticket (for theater, cinema etc)
• 骗人 pian4 ren2 to cheat sb / a scam

Posted on: Terrorized at the Airport

A white powder would be more likely to raise suspicions of drug smuggling in my opinion, but it's a good lesson all the same. I've found Chinese security and passport controls to be very reasonable, not at all oriented towards hassling passengers or getting them into jail.