User Comments - go_manly

Posted on: Help at the ATM

插入 means 'insert'. Judging by the sample sentences on Nciku, it seems to be mainly used when placing something inside a receptacle that it was designed to fit tightly into. For example, a plug into a socket. It also seems to carry the meaning of 'penetrate'.

放进 seems to be more general. I'm guessing you could use it, for example, for putting coins into a jar - we don't think of that as 'inserting' (unless, I guess, if there is a slot for the coins).

Not sure about 放入 - judging by the dearth of sentences on Nciku, I'm guessing it may not be used that much.

Posted on: Going to the Gas Station

Your on-site podcast sounds like the chipmunks. The downloadable versions are fine.

Posted on: Which Time Zone?

I'm afraid not.

These tone changes are never shown in written Pinyin.

Posted on: Cpod's Upcoming Anniversary

What makes you think CPod 'turned off' the site. Their server went down 2 days ago for a number of hours - I don't think choice played a part.

Anyway, how do you know the site doesn't go down while you sleep?

Posted on: I want coffee!

Yep, probably closer to the true pronunciation.

Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 1: A Fated Meeting

5:56

No idea about the first part. I think 就要 should be 只要. Before that, I think 男孩子 should be just 男孩, or perhaps 男孩儿.

I won't have time to look at this in detail in the next week or so. Hopefully someone else will join in.

Posted on: The Attitude Pattern (yǒu shénme... 有什么...)

Shénme isn't always a question word meaning 'what'.

Sometimes it means 'something', 'anything' or 'any'.

In these cases, ma can be added to form a yes/no question.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

How do you define 'immersion'? Do you consider the couple of minutes of new dialog provided each day by CPod to be immersion?

I agree that the best way to learn the language is to go to China and immerse oneself in the language.

But for those of us not in China, I don't think Chinese Pod qualifies as immersion.

I think you are doing what many people like to do - that is generalise to the whole population based on what works for you. I for one could never learn to speak a language just by listening. I need some form of instruction. I know I am in the minority on this site, but from talking to others I believe I am in the majority in the general population. I do need this immersion (if thats what it is), but I need the basic understanding first.

Having said that, I accept that people who learn like you are likely to become fluent a lot quicker. Its the best method IF one learns that way.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Found this online:

Li and Thompson have a good discussion of this in Mandarin Chinese: A functional Reference Grammar on pp. 73-78. They say that only a small minority of verb-object compounds do not allow any sort of separation, and they usually have highly idiomatic meaning.

...

Li and Thompson divide separable compounds along a continuum of separability that can be classified into four general types (My headings and most of the examples are from pages 75-76):

(1) Separation by an aspect marker:

他还没理过发 (tā hái méi lǐ guo fǎ) he still hasn't ever had a haircut

(2) Separation by a measure phrase:

她给我行了一个礼 (tā gěi wǒ xíng le yīge lǐ) she gave me a salute.

(3) Separation by other modifiers of the object constituent:

你别生他的气 (nǐ bié shēng tāde qì) Don't be angry with him.

(4) Placing the object constituent of the compound in a positon preceding the verb constituent:

她连舞都不跳 (tā lián wǔ dōu bù tiào) she won't even dance
这一觉睡得真好 (zhèi yī jiào shuì de hěn hǎo) I had a real good sleep.

Li and Thompson say that most compounds can undergo separations of type 1, 2, and 3, but type 4 is not "widely applicable."

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Considering the number of people here who have confessed to a Eureka moment, there must be something in this way of looking at it.

I think looking at it in this way suggests there is actually some structure to something that previously looked random to many of us.