User Comments - go_manly
go_manly
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 13: A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son
October 11, 2009 at 2:18 AMAnother question from this lesson:
还不是各走各的路。(Hái bú shì gè zŏu gè de lù.)
Its translated as 'we both went our separate ways'. Despite knowing every word in this sentence, I just can't parse it to get that meaning. Is there another stock phrase at play here? Is that the 是的 construction? If so, what does 各走各 mean?
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 13: A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son
October 11, 2009 at 1:42 AMThanks, I guess I'll just have to remember it. I just find that phrases which make sense logically stick with fewer repetitions. I'll have to try to find it used elsewhere.
Posted on: Musical Instruments
October 11, 2009 at 1:35 AMSorry Tal, I only just found your post.
After seeing the concert I can say:
布拉姆斯的交响乐乐团演奏得非常好,布鲁克的小提琴协奏曲小提琴手拉得很差.
Bùlāmǔsī de jiāoxiǎngyuè yuètuán yǎnzòu de fēicháng hǎo, kěshì Bùlǔkè de xiǎotíqín xiézòuqǔ xiǎotíqíshǒu lāde hěn chà.
The orchestra played the Brahms' symphony very well, but the violinist played Bruch's Violin Concerto very poorly.
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 13: A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son
October 11, 2009 at 1:02 AMI am a little confused about the expression 多得是 (duō de shì). The confusion results from the normal grammatical use of 得, which doesn't seem to apply here. Also, doesn't 是 require an object, whether stated or implied? I know its probably a stock phrase, but there must be some logic behind it.
Interestingly, my dictionary Pinyinises 多得 as duōděi, and translates it as "to be so many as to be". But then I still don't understand the purpose of 是.
Posted on: A Business Dinner with a Supplier
October 10, 2009 at 2:00 PMSorry John,
I've been online all day, yet somehow I missed your post. Thanks for the detailed explanation, and yes I was aware of the mouseover definitions.
I guess I am just frustrated that there is no obvious logical order to progress through the Intermediate lessons. I started with the first one alphabetically, and it was very difficult. However the second lesson is much easier (and almost all the new vocabulary is presented in the Key Vocabulary list). It would be really good to get these lessons ranked in order of difficulty. All I can think to do is to order the lessons in PDF size - can I assume that the smaller PDFs present less new work?
I have to say, I still believe all new vocabulary should be included in your vocabulary list - we can't take the mouseover away with us to study. And also (and I know I will hit a raw nerve here) I still believe that in the MP3s, all new material should be explained first in English, before extending with Chinese later. And no matter what people say against this statement, the popularity of Tal's transcripts suggests that there is an issue here.
Anyway, I know many people enjoy your lessons just the way they are. But I don't think more thorough vocabulary lists would be detrimental to anyone's study methods. I hope you might consider this in the future.
Posted on: A Business Dinner with a Supplier
October 10, 2009 at 6:41 AMIts been 2 days, and still no response.
Anyway, I've now looked through the Expansion sentences, and found 41 more words not covered at Newbie/Elementary level. None of these words can be found in the Supplementary Vocabulary. Conversely, none of the Supplementary Vocab can be found in the Expansion Sentences. This leads me to 2 additional questions:
1. What is the point of the Supplementary Vocab, when we don't see it put to use?
2. How do we commit these 41 new words to memory, when we don't see a definition for them, and we only see them used once?
I thought that vocabulary expansion involved either:
(I). placing the new words for the lesson amongst already familiar vocabulary, or
(II) by placing as yet unseen vocabulary inside already familiar structures.
NOT by placing a string of previously unseen words side-by-side.
Anyway, THIS is what I believe the PDF for this lesson should look like.
Posted on: A Business Dinner with a Supplier
October 8, 2009 at 11:49 AMSorry, I meant to say 'I decided to have another look at Intermediate lessons'.
Posted on: A Business Dinner with a Supplier
October 8, 2009 at 10:49 AMOK, here is where I have another whinge about the Intermediate lessons.
After finishing my dictionary of Newbie and Elementary vocab, I decided to have another look at Elementary lessons, and I picked the first one alphabetically. To my horror, I found that the dialog has a large string of words which are not covered in any Newbie/Elementary lesson AND are not mentioned in the key vocabulary of this lesson.
These words are:
bùtíng (不停) incessant [I could work this one out myself]
chīlì (吃力) entail strenuous effort
dìdao (地道) authentic / genuine
dùn (顿) measure word for meals
duōkuī (多亏) thanks to / luckily
duōxiè (多谢) many thanks [easy enough to work out]
gōngjù (工具) tool / instrument
hézuò (合作) to cooperate / collaborate
jiăngjiū (讲究) to pay particular attention to
jìng (敬) to toast / to salute
kuā (夸) to boast / to exaggerate / to praise
nénggòu (能够) be capable of / can / is able
shìchăng (市场) market / market place
shùnlì (顺利) smoothly / without a hitch
tánqĭ (谈起) to discuss
yàngpĭn (样品) sample / specimen
yìkŏu (一口) readily / flatly (deny, admit etc.)
zhāodài (招待) to receive (guests) / to entertain
zhèng (正) just (right) / main / upright / straight
zhìzào (制造) to manufacture / to make
zhōngyú (终于) finally / in the end / eventually
zŏng gōngsī (总公司) head office
*jīnglĭ (经理) manager, director
*jiŭyăng dàmíng (大名)
*qíshí (其实) actually / in fact
*wàiguóren (外国人) foreigner
*yŭyán (语言) language
*zhuàn (赚) to earn
The asterisked words occured in Elementary Expansion sentences, but not in the dialogs (although 赚 occured only as part of 赚钱).
I couldn't make anything of 正 even given the meaning. Is this a grammar word which needs covering?
This raises a couple of questions, which I would like someone from Cpod to answer:
1. Is it your expectation that a student who has thoroughly studied all Newbie/Elementary lessons should be able to enter the Intermediate level at any lesson? If not, how does one determine the best order of attack?
2. Do you expect that students at the Intermediate level should be using other resources in order to understand the vocabulary covered in your lessons?
Posted on: To Tip or Not to Tip
October 8, 2009 at 1:24 AMI hope nobody minds me posting these links again for the benefit of the Intermediate-only poddies.
My updated Character Dictionary now has vocabulary from all the Expansion sentences. Download here.
If you would prefer vocab from the dialogs only, the original dictionary is here. (note: the lessons in this one are 3 months out of date)
These dictionaries are based on Newbie & Elementary Lessons Only.
For a stroke-order PFD containing about 900 characters, download here.
Posted on: Musical Instruments
October 11, 2009 at 2:28 AMTal
I went to Nciku too. Looks like you got the real Johannes Brahms, while I got the generic Brahms. Do they often change the characters like that for a famous person?