User Comments - channa
channa
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 啊 & 呀 (a & ya)
April 29, 2008 at 1:46 PMClay, your Chinese has never sounded so fluent as it did when you were listing off the jiu3 酒 you drank over the weekend...
Posted on: Going to the Pharmacy
April 20, 2008 at 6:54 AMHenning-- our protagonist is probably waiting until she gets outside the pharmacy... then she can blow a big snot rocket on the sidewalk. At first I hated the perfumed tissues. Then I discovered that they can double as face masks when using some of the more primative plumbing here.
Posted on: Going to the Pharmacy
April 20, 2008 at 6:45 AMWhen I got sick over the winter my boss gave me some Chinese cold medicine. It worked well so I ended up asking her for the box, which I then took with me to the pharmacy and presented to the pharmacist, in order to make sure I was able to buy the same brand and formula. My favorite 流 (liu2) word: 流浪汉 (liu2 lang4 han4) a vagabond, a hobo
Posted on: Fruit Salad
April 19, 2008 at 1:33 AMThe pin yin on this pdf does not match the characters or the English.
Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Day
April 6, 2008 at 2:01 PMUntil listening to this lesson I hadn't realized that it was possible to form questions in Chinese without an additional question word, as in "你不扫墓？" (ni3 bu4 sao3 mu4?) Thanks for the useful vocab and cultural insight. I'll just add that this was the first year that Tomb Sweeping Day was observed as a government holiday-- many Chinese people got Friday off from work.
Posted on: April Fool's
April 1, 2008 at 1:13 PMI started classes this morning by telling my freshman oral English students to put away their books, take out a pen and a piece of paper and stop talking because they were about to have a surprise midterm exam. The Chinese students at this university (one of the best in China) take tests VERY seriously and several of them looked so mortified that I almost felt bad. "Okay, first question," I said, and started the Powerpoint I'd made to accompany the lecture. The first slide, of course, said "April Fools!" The students looked confused, then massively relieved.
Posted on: The Pickup Artist
March 22, 2008 at 4:47 AMI was a little surprised by how much I liked this lesson. The fact that 无聊 can be used on its own is excellent news.
Posted on: Cheering
March 21, 2008 at 2:39 AMI read that the Chinese government was training large numbers of workers how to cheer with state-approved Olympic slogans. So maybe this dialogue isn't so ludicrous afterall. If you go to McDonalds, you can get a bracelet that says 中国赢--为中国加油 (zhong1 guo2 ying2 --- wei4 zhong1 guo2 jia1 you2). Sometimes I wear mine and when I see other Chinese people wearing them, I say to them "中国加油!" I was surprised to discover that most people respond to this with a very sincere "thank you."
Posted on: Knitting a Scarf
March 20, 2008 at 12:49 PMI thought learning Chinese was the new hip hobby. Ideas for new 'hobbies' lessons: chess, yoga, mountain biking, hiking/camping, shopping for Chinese tea. And maybe some lessons on first aid to go with all the sports lessons. I also really enjoyed the ele lesson on the dice game and would appreciate more cpod lessons on other Chinese games. I also second the recommendations for lessons on cooking and 珍珠奶茶。
Posted on: Yoga
April 30, 2008 at 6:18 AMThanks for the yoga lesson! Yoga is a great way to get exercise in China without leaving your apartment on days when you just can't deal with staring and pollution. agentchuck, my Chinese copy of BKS Iyengar's classic "Light on Yoga" translates downward dog as 下犬式 (xia4 quan3 shi4). Adho Mukha Svanasana is simply written out with the alphabet though.