User Comments - dangrayson
dangrayson
Posted on: Ordering Songs at Karaoke
July 16, 2009, 02:53 AMGee, sometimes I think I'm the only one who remembers King Crimson, so it's nice to hear that so many of you do, too. It's one of the reasons to keep the turntable operational.
Posted on: Baby Photos
July 04, 2009, 01:29 PMHere's a picture of my grandson, who is half Chinese and lives in the US. This picture is from May, when he was 6 1/2 months old.
Posted on: Delivery Problems
June 27, 2009, 05:36 PMshenyajin: Thank you! I will remember your remark as basically saying that the 怎么 in 你怎么这么说 can be pronounced as one syllable instead of two, with the second vowel omitted.
Posted on: Delivery Problems
June 25, 2009, 06:52 PMshenyajin, in 你怎么这么说, as does cinese, I hear no 怎么, even if I use audacity to slow the tempo by 30%. It sounds like "zu3". Maybe it's 诅 (curse), but I don't know if that makes sense; if so, it could be a reading error.
The pitch of 你 seems too high, and the pitch of 说 seems too low, by the way.
Posted on: Delivery Problems
June 25, 2009, 06:36 PMWhat syllable is actually said instead of the third and fourth syllables of 二十分钟 in the dialogue? It sounds like nu4, but that doesn't make any sense.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
June 14, 2009, 01:38 AMPete, I very much like that explanation, thank you. Perhaps an English sentence with an intensifying appositive that sort of approximates the one in 你这个人就知道混日子 would be "You, yes you, you just know how to waste time."
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
June 12, 2009, 08:36 PMMy daughter-in-law (a native Chinese speaker) says that 你的这个人... is valid, but means something else, for example, that the person is your employee. She also says that in 你这个人... the phrases 你 and 这个人 refer to the same person, so changye's suggestion of "you guys" as something similar is on the mark. In English, we call that an "appositive" and use commas to set it out. So a literal translation of the sentence would be "You, this person, just know how to waste time." Or with parentheses it would look like "You (this person) just know how to waste time." As Pete says, it doesn't seem to add much meaning, but having the parenthetical throw-aways in the official translation might help us learn and accept the validity of the discard. I don't know how to choose between the softening and intensifying options that Pete offers us, but given the anger of LaoWang's wife, she probably intended to intensify her remark. And, raygo, I'm still looking for a grammar book that offers a grammar rule this is a special case of, but it may take years.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
June 11, 2009, 02:11 PMraygo: Don't apologize, I may have to give up analyzing that thing, too!
PS: Isn't quantum physics done in the language of mathematics?
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
June 11, 2009, 02:53 AMI agree with paulinurus about literal translations, not just because that's the way I learn as an adult, but because the language must obey comprehensible rules of grammar that, if learned, will give insight into future encounters. I think raygo gave up too soon on analyzing 你这个人..., but I haven't quite figured it out yet, either! Perhaps a native Chinese speaker will answer my previous question about whether 你的这个人... means the same thing.
Posted on: Ordering Songs at Karaoke
July 18, 2009, 08:23 PMSure, Raygo, we have CDs, but also an assortment old vinyl records.