User Comments - calicartel

Posted on: Voucher Promotion at the Mall

Thanks JasonSch! this makes this expression much easy to remember.

Posted on: Addressing Family Members

The case is mentioned in the podcast of a mother who has 9 sisters on the Chinese side. What about the one-family-one-child policy hey?

Posted on: Voucher Promotion at the Mall

Could someone from CP comment on 月光族 (4th expansion sentence counting from the last)? Apparently it means "somebody who spends every penny of what they earn".

Posted on: 谋杀案三

I second that. I propose a case regarding a road accident. In this way we can learn some road/traffic vocab.

Posted on: 谋杀案三

Thanks Connie.

For those of us struggling with the podcast vocab, here are my MDBG look-ups which I combined with the clarifications from the Connie/Ouxiansheng exchange above:

悬疑    xuan2​yi2​    suspense
起诉    qi3​su4​        to sue / to bring a lawsuit against    
寡妇    gua3​fu5​        widow
谋杀    mou2​sha1​    murder / premeditated murder
有待    you3​dai4​    not yet (done) / pending    
调查    diao4​cha2​    investigation / inquiry / to investigate
召开    zhao4​kai1​    to convene (a conference or meeting) / to convoke / to call together
辩论    bian4​lun4​    debate / argument
案件    an4​jian4​    law case / legal case
实际    shi2​ji4​    actual / reality / practice
(委员会    wei3​yuan2​hui4​    committee)
代办    dai4​ban4​    to act for sb else / to act on sb's behalf
拜托    bai4​tuo1​    request sb to do sth / please!
往来    wang3​lai2​    dealings / contacts
正常    zheng4​chang2​    regular / normal / ordinary
手段    shou3​duan4​    method / means (of doing sth)
恋人    lian4​ren2​    lover / sweetheart
偏向    pian1​xiang4​    partial towards sth / to prefer / to incline [06:24]
企业    qi3​ye4​    company / firm / enterprise
来往    lai2​wang3​    to come and go / to have dealings with [07:17]
大宗    da4​zong1​    large amount / staple
交易    jiao1​yi4​    (business) transaction / business deal
关注    guan1​zhu4​    a concern / to pay attention to / to follow sth closely
并且    bing4​qie3​    and / besides / moreover / furthermore
发言    fa1​yan2​    statement / utterance [08:17]
传播    chuan2​bo1​    to disseminate / to propagate / to spread
传出    chuan2​chu1​    to transmit outwards / to disseminate
采取    cai3​qu3​    to adopt or carry out (measures, policies, course of action)
贬低    bian3​di1​    to belittle / to disparage /
偏离    pian1​li2​    to deviate / to diverge / to wander
轨道    gui3​dao4​    orbit / railway or tram line / fig. conventional way of thinking
忠诚    zhong1​cheng2​    devoted / fidelity / loyal / loyalty
辙    zhe2​    rut / track
车轮    che1​lun2​    a wheel
痕迹    hen2​ji4​    vestige / mark / trace
促使    cu4​shi3​    to induce / to promote / to urge / to impel / to bring about / to provoke / to drive (sb to do sth
念头    nian4​tou5​    thought / idea / intention [10:20]
模糊    mo2​hu5​    vague / indistinct / fuzzy [13:22]
围绕    wei2​rao4​    to revolve around / to center on (an issue)
报复    bao4​fu4​    make reprisals / retaliate / revenge / retaliation
曾经    ceng2​jing1​    once / already / former / (past tense marker used before verb or clause)
地下    di4​xia4​    underground / subterranean / covert
暴力    bao4​li4​    violence / (use) force / violent
偷偷    tou1​tou1​    stealthily / secretly / covertly / furtively
白道    bai2​dao4​    lunar orbit / legitimate / righteous
真道    zhen1​dao4​    the true way    
款式    kuan3​shi4​    pattern / style / design [15:42]
线索    xian4​suo3​    trail / clues / thread (of a story)
重大    zhong4​da4​    great / important / major / significant    
突破    tu1​po4​    breakthrough     
推测    tui1​ce4​    speculation / to conjecture / to surmise / to speculate
关子    guan1​zi5​    climax (in a story) [16:29]

Posted on: Finding a Street Number

bababardwan said

"... the transliteration for Kentucky is 肯塔基"

I see, I hadn't thought of that. So it still makes  sense in terms of the US origin of the brand.

Posted on: Hot Pot Chitchat

Could someone confirm that hot-pot (火锅) is what Indonesians call "shabu-shabu"? I also notice that 王老吉 is sold in coke-like cans, not in a type of container I would normally associate with "tea". Are you sure eating spicy is associated with "上火"? Intuitively I would've thought 上火 food is constipating (potatoes, meat etc.), as opposed to unconstipating things like raw vegetables, fruit and spicy things. Spicy food often causes diarrhea and tea is a well-known antidote against diarrhea. Maybe you can think of 上火 stuff as food that is hard on the liver in general, if you want to make sense of it in terms of Western medical wisdom.

Posted on: 谋杀案三

I have a query about 相信 in the line 相信任何人的反应都如出一辙. This last part of the sentence is translated as "anyone's reaction would be just the same". Where does the 相信 fit in this translation? Do we have to understand "anyone thus convinced (相信任何人) would react just the same"  or "we believe anyone's reaction would be just the same". In other words who is doing the action of "being convinced" here?

Posted on: Finding a Street Number

You find KFC = 肯德基 in one of the expansion sentences. You would expect 鸡 instead of 基 here. Is this because 肯德鸡 would've looked slightly ridiculous, 鸡 being unacceptable in a brand name in Chinese? For a perfume brand I would understand, it is less obvious for such a mundane product as chicken wings & legs.

Posted on: Thank You Note

Reverting to the subject of Chinese styles of writing, does anyone know whether "exotic" Chinese fonts can be downloaded into MS Words? All the "Asian fonts" I now have in MS Words look pretty identical.