User Comments - christine30550

Posted on: 无性婚姻

Hi Wilsonwan,

谢谢你! 我在中国总共呆了5年，其中2.5年是专门学习中文的。但是，我还是觉得写中文（象现在那样）很吃苦的! 学习中文是"无底洞"的 （that's probably not correct here, I mean it's a neverending story). 还好有CPod! :-).

Posted on: 无性婚姻

很有趣，我不知道了有这种网站， 通过 Media课就能学到很多新鲜的东西。我开始光看标题时，我还以为可能 寻找 “无性婚姻” 的人是因为宗教的原因而提倡无性生活的。在西方有一些基督教的人(Christian fundamentalists)会提倡无性生活(特别在结婚之前,但结婚之后除了追求繁殖的目的之外也不要有性生活了。这种人在我看来是很可怕的 （我觉得这种行为多虚伪)。

但这篇文章里的“无性婚姻”的背景就不一样了，它是面对 （怎么说 to address?) 很实际的问题，我觉得组建这种网络联系平台是值得赞成的。 我觉得中国人真实际 （我的意思是: 想得very practical). 我好奇，在欧洲也会有相似的网页呢?

Posted on: Funny Business, Part Two

Hi Changye,

Thanks for explaining the 该.

Let me supplement jjfoerch's nice explanation. The 该该你管的事儿 has the same function as one in 该你了 (It's your turn). This 该 means "由～来做", but not "应该 (must, have to)". 

In the expression 活该 (which I understand as "your own fault!", or: it was meant to happen to you), then, I suppose it is this 该  that comes into play? How did this expression 活该 come about, anyway?

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 7: Choosing a Name for the Baby

Following John's comment on the clothes with gold and rhinestones: Can I use 俗 for "kitsch(y)", e.g. to describe a building with fake, pseudo-greek columns and statues, or for a tacky interior (gold and glitter all over the place)?

Chinese names are interesting, they carry so much more meaning. I have a Chinese friend whose name is 刘超英, and the 超英, he explained to me, stood for 超过英国: to surpass England (in steel production). Obviously he was born in the 1960s. Similarly, his sister is named 超美.

The same friend named his son 刘希愚. 愚 means stupid, foolish, and he explained to me before why he chose this name, but now I don't remember anymore. I do remember, though, that another Chinese person's comment on this name was that my friend must be a 有文化的人 for choosing that name。Can't quite figure out why, though...

Another Chinese friend originally wanted to name his son 天一 but then decided to change the 一 (yi1) to 乙 (yi3), because the first seemed somewhat presumptuous (it may have sounded too much like a name for an emperor? And also, 乙 means the second, or "B" as opposed to "A").

I am sometimes intrigued by the English names Chinese people give themselves. Why is it that "Apple" and "Echo" are so popular among girls? I am really curious about this...

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 7: Choosing a Name for the Baby

Hi Pete,

"Mean" can also mean "stingy, tight-fisted." I'd be curious to know if the meanings were at all related.

In German, too, the word mean (gemein) has both the meaning of "unkind, tight-fisted" and "common, normal" (often used in Botany for naming plants), and it appears in the word "general" (allgemein), so I suppose the two meanings are related, though I don't know anything about their etymology.

Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别

Thank you, Pete (and the team behind PWP) for introducing us to the world of Chinese poetry! Being guided through these poems step by step certainly makes them much easier to read and understand. A pity this is the last PwP! I will try to keep up and continue reading some Chinese poetry on my own :-)

Posted on: Buying a House

There's another expression for the "shiny stick" single person: 穷光蛋 (I guess that would be a poor lonely egg..., funny how eggs are used to express all kinds of things in Chinese).

And here's a sentence one of my teachers gave us:

他，光棍一个，一人吃饱全家不饿。

(He, just a 光棍, if he's eaten then the whole household has eaten, i.e., he=the whole household).

Posted on: 小太监进宫

我觉得演员（speakers）的声音很有意思，演得很好，特别是那个楚公公。

Posted on: Personal Ad

I remember reading a book by Jan Wong, and she touched on the topic of gays/lesbians in China. I believe the book was "Jan Wong's China" (but not entirely sure anymore). It's been a long time since I read it, but I remember she interviewed some couples who lived a "normal" life in disguise, e.g. guys were married and had their partner ("a friend") visit and share the bed with the husband (while the wife would sleep on the couch), with nobody suspecting, like Pete mentioned above. Or a lesbian couple living together with everybody assuming they were old spinsters.

Posted on: 谋杀案

@Xuchen,

电视连续剧中经常看到有些律师会喊 "objection!" 大概是因为这些连续剧一般是美国类型的。据我了解，Anglosaxon law中才有着这种系统 (procedural law... 汉语应该怎么讲?）。"cross examination" 也是 Anglosaxon law 的东西。 Procedural law 像 "material law" 一样，每个国家都有自己的特点。比如在瑞士也没有提到 objection 的选择 (I mean "possibility")。

我在中国也没有参加过法院里的 trial.