User Comments - henning
henning
Posted on: Going to the Gym
December 4, 2008 at 9:58 AMEileene,
cf. the Upper Intermediate lesson on Calisthenics.
| yǎngwòqǐzuò | sit-up |
Posted on: The Magic Word 让 (Ràng)
November 30, 2008 at 5:04 PMbazza!
Good to see you back! I already feared you had given up on Chinese. Where have you been?
Posted on: The Magic Word 让 (Ràng)
November 30, 2008 at 3:46 PMThanks for all answers so far!
Discussed this with my wife. According to her 令, 让, and 使 are semantically at least in parts interchangeable, with 令 being slightly more formal, more "elegant" (?) and preferred in written form. She said 使 and 让 have an equaly (low) degree of formality.
But I bet there are more differences than that because in several occasions I was understood only after switching a 令 for a 让 or a 使 (or the other way round). Or maybe it was just my pronounciation?
Posted on: The Magic Word 让 (Ràng)
November 30, 2008 at 11:31 AMtotalrecall,
if the context isn't clear I would try to rephrase it without 让.
Something like
我回中国一事，得到了公司的认可
Posted on: The Magic Word 让 (Ràng)
November 30, 2008 at 7:20 AMOne aspect of 让 I have repeatedly asked myself:
What exactly is the difference in usage between 让, 使, and 令?
Posted on: The Surname Code
November 27, 2008 at 9:51 AMHi furong,
I don't think it will help you very much, but the the lower right part does indeed exist as an individual character (although it is obviously extremely rare).
Posted on: The Surname Code
November 27, 2008 at 5:25 AMImportant, well executed, and creatively crafted lesson!
didlshanghai,
thanks - highly interesting and valuable!
I once met a young woman with the surname 房，but she was actually pronounced fang2. At least this is how she called herself.
Posted on: Do you have a cold?
November 26, 2008 at 6:54 PMmarytang,
my wife and in-laws usually use:
一百岁 (yībǎisuì)
[I wish you to become] 100 years old
and if you sneeze again
一千岁 (yīqiānsuì)
[I wish you to become] 1000 years old
Sometimes I also heard variations of:
打一个喷嚏是有人在想你，两个是有人在骂你
(dǎ yī ge pēntì shì yǒurén zài xiǎng nǐ, liǎng ge shì yǒurén zài mà nǐ)
sneeze once: sb thinks just of you / misses you, sneeze twice: sb talks bad about you right now
...as known from the Adv. lesson 民间迷信.
Posted on: Welcome to ChinesePod
November 24, 2008 at 8:52 AMOK, let's become more precise. This is how I calculated:
Most diligent people I have seen here (studying from abroad, part time) took about 2 years to move up to the Chinesepod Intermediate level. Yes, you can carry on a conversation with those skills, although you will run into several limitations both while listening and speaking.
For advancing into the CPod Upper Intermediate and Advanced lessons you need about the same time frame. After that you can comfortably work with those lessons although they are still not easy (they aren't for me at least).
It takes further 2 years until you will be able to read the news or follow a kids TV show. There are still some additional steps until reaching full command of the language...
But with full immersion it should definately go quicker!
Additionally to CPod you should get material on learning how to read and write characters - it may not seem that relevant in the very beginning, but later you will realize how important the writing system really is for learning this language.
Posted on: Using 除了。。。以外 (Chúle... Yǐwài)
December 7, 2008 at 5:50 AMexcalibur,
指甲还是钉子?