User Comments - f-zim

Posted on: There Is No Try

Thanks for another interesting lesson. This answers all the questions I had (http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/5240?page=8)

You guys are wonderful!

Posted on: Festivals, Holidays, Vacations, and Leave

I think the term ‘spring festival’ seems relatively established, so why not use it.

I have wondered more than once why certain terms are translated this way or the other. For example, Chinese usually render 民族 as ‘nationality’, while I think that nationality means 國籍, and 民族 should be ‘ethnic group’ or sth similar. Or they would call 師范大學 a ‘normal university’, as if all other universities were abnormal. I would have translated it as ‘teachers' college’.

But since English has long ceased to be exclusively the language of the English, there is more than one varity of it, with new words and phrases cropping up every day – although not every monolingual anglophone may approve of this development.

Posted on: Festivals, Holidays, Vacations, and Leave

A holiday is a period of time when you are not at work or school (as in ‘summer holidays’), or it can also be a period of time spent travelling or resting away from home (as in ‘skiing holiday’). So I don't think that “spring holiday” would be an appropriate translation.

Posted on: 太空旅游

對話有一句話是“我穿了紙尿褲的”。

單詞沒有問題，意思很容易明白，不過我沒有見過這種句型。我了解所謂的“是…的”結構，但是這個句子好像有點反常。我不知道“了”和“的”可以用在一起。

誰可以給我解釋一下？

Posted on: Getting into the habit with 习惯 (xíguàn)

It's an abbreviation for “Felix Zimmermann”…

Thanks again for that lesson!

Posted on: Outdoor Survivors (Part 1)

真有意思，我不知道用中文說“瑞士軍刀”。

我們瑞士人說“瑞士口袋刀”，因為可以把這種刀放在口袋裡頭，一般不會想到軍隊。

Posted on: Getting into the habit with 习惯 (xíguàn)

I couldn't believe it when I saw this lesson this morning – you answered my xíguàn question! You guys are brilliant.

But I realise I should chose another username soon… ☺

Posted on: Feelings

Actually you can use duì like a preposition in a lot of contexts. Its general meaning is “to, towards”. You may have heard the sentence “wǒ duì … gǎn xìngqu — I am interested in …”

Or you can say “wǒ duì tā shuō … — I said to him …”, “duì wǒ lái shuō — As for me, …”

Posted on: Feelings

Very nice lesson, as always! Especially useful because these words are semantically very similar.

我想向Chinesepod請教幾個問題… In the phrase gǎnjué zěnmeyàng? I always assumed that gǎnjué is a noun – “how is the/your feeling?”. Now you say that gǎnjué is the verb? Does that mean it's wrong to say nǐde gǎnjué zěnmeyàng? Why can I attach a zěnmeyàng directly after a verb (without 得)?

I have never heard the phrase Nǐ zěnme gǎnjué?, but how would you comment this – is it just wrong?