User Comments - channa
channa
Posted on: Time for Class
February 23, 2008 at 8:00 AMa question about 你们好 ni3men hao3-- someone told me that if you say this, you sound like a leader or a boss. Perfectly appropriate for a teacher in a class, but do Chinese people really use this to greet a group of friends or peers?
Posted on: Registering with the Police Station
February 22, 2008 at 4:30 AM辛苦你了xin1ku3 ni3 le is often said to teachers as well. My boss came in and said this to me while I was teaching a class the week before the Spring Festival-- and then told me (jokingly) that the response should be 人民服务 ren2min2 fu2wu4-- serve the people! Does 辛苦你了always need to end with the 了particle? Can you just say 辛苦你? Is there any difference in meaning?
Posted on: To Love or Be Loved
February 17, 2008 at 12:26 PMHenning, John gives 'masochist' as an alternate definition for zi4 nue4 kuang2 at the end of the lesson. "Sucker for punishment" is definitely the more light-hearted way of putting it. It never would have occured to me to put this questions to my Chinese students-- to my western mind "to love or be loved?" is a false dichotomy and not really a discussion topic. But it sounds like it will get them talking...
Posted on: Valentine's Day
February 14, 2008 at 2:46 AMwould like to hear more about the three (!!)Valentine's Days that the Chinese celebrate. A Dear Amber topic?
Posted on: Valentine's Day
February 14, 2008 at 2:04 AMdogeatsrats--I only know how to go on the defensive with this one, as in: women zhi shi peng2you-- we are just friends women shi pu2tong1 peng2you -- we are "normal" friends I have no idea how you would declare your 'platonic love' for someone, but I would probably just call them my 'hao3 peng2you'-- which leaves me wide open to all kinds of misinterpretations, I realize. Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Qing ren jie kuai le!
Posted on: Study Abroad
February 13, 2008 at 12:25 PMTo clarify: I meant you don't have to drop the 'DE' in the case of 'XIN1 DIE'... 'XIN1 DE DIE2'... dou ke yi.
Posted on: Study Abroad
February 13, 2008 at 12:20 PMfudapeng-- I know the lesson you're talking about and I believe the explanation was that the 'DE' is frequently dropped in spoken Chinese when joining one-character adjectives (like 'XIN1') AND one-character nouns (like 'DIE2'). Here we have xin de dong xi (a 2-character noun... no characters on my computer though, sorry). You don't HAVE to drop the 'DE' (it's not a rule) but it makes it easier to say. With spoken Chinese (and language in general), the rules are always flexible. From what my students tell me about high school in China, I too would jump at the chance to zuo jiao huan sheng in lovely Vancouver.
Posted on: Iron Your Clothes
February 11, 2008 at 5:16 AMxie xie casie & changye
Posted on: Iron Your Clothes
February 11, 2008 at 4:09 AMI appreciated the sarcasm in this dialogue :) I'm a little confused about the use of ti2 xing3. The English translation is 'to remind' but the sense I got from the dialogue was that the guy didn't really know what an ironing board was. 'To remind' is pretty neutral in English, but this word seems to have extra meanings of looking out for, looking after... is that right? Can anyone help me with some more examples?
Posted on: #38
February 23, 2008 at 10:29 AMThe very next day after listening to this movie madness some of my students asked me how to say 蓝精灵 in English. Then they all started singing the theme song.