User Comments - heruilin
heruilin
Posted on: Extreme Chinese - 不得了 (bùdéliǎo)
January 16, 2008 at 1:15 AMbazza, I would venture to guess that one could not "不得了“-ize 真 as the latter is an adverb and former a complement by virtue of the use of the additional structural 得 in its usage ... the problem being that complements are only attached to verb and adjectival predicates. I hope those much more knowledgeable than me will pipe in here. 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: Bad Service Restaurant
January 15, 2008 at 4:02 PMI really enjoyed the exuberant performance of the actor who voiced the outraged unfortunate victim of this most heinous culinary crime. It also had me smiling at the recollection of one my own experiences in one of Boston's Chinatown restaurants. As a side dish, my s.o. and I ordered 豆苗. We were both enjoying it when I noticed some sauteed 小蟲子 in it. My s.o., who is a native Chinese, was outraged and confronted our 服務員. The ensuing argument was way too fast and furious for me to understand, so when subsequently I asked her what he had said, she translated that the 服務員 had said not too worry and that this type of 蟲子 would not harm you and might actually be 對身體很健康. At hearing this, I immediately lost my indignation and became absolutely hysterical with laughter .... in a short while she started laughing with me. Needless to say we we didn't stay to finish the 豆苗 or the rest of meal for that matter. Since then every time we pass this particular restaurant we joke about going back and ordering some more 蟲子豆苗。 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: Too Picky
January 15, 2008 at 2:10 AMauntie68, First, thanks so much for taking the time to address my question. My only issue with your explanation is since "很挑剔“ follows the verb "買衣服“， it is acting as verb complement and I would think a "得” is needed, i.e., 他的女朋友買衣服得很挑剔。 If we put in front of the verb forming an adverbial adjunct, then the other de ， "地” is necessary, i.e., 他的女朋友很挑剔地買衣服。 It seems no matter which way the sentence is syntactically analyzed, one of the three de's (的，得，地) is missing. On the other hand, its quite possible that legitimate high frequency daily conversation may not necessarily follow text book grammar. 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: Too Picky
January 14, 2008 at 3:54 PMHey,hey ... this lesson is too close to home as not only have I been called 挑剔 but also the related 嬌氣 （jiao1qi4)。 In the expansion section the sentence 他的女朋友買衣服很挑剔。 (Ta1 de nu3 peng2 you mai2 yi1fu hen3 tiao2 ti.) (His girlfriend is very picky about the clothes she buys.） confuses me grammatically as the predicate "很挑剔" (very picky) seems to be assigning an attribute to a subject that comprises a complete sentence of its own. This represents a new sentence pattern I'm not familiar with yet. Is the sentence above equivalent to 他的女朋友買衣服的時候很挑剔。 where by adding the when clause "的時候“ （de shi2 hou4) I have made the subject explicit it is now references a specific set of events? If so, why can the "的時候" (when） be omitted? Also, with my limited knowledge of the language and the translation given in the expansion section, I would have thought:that an additional "的” would be necessary between “買” and "衣服“ to make "衣服” an explicit head word of the subject： 他的女朋友買的衣服很挑剔。 再見 何睿林
Posted on: Bumming a Smoke
January 14, 2008 at 2:40 AMDo some of the restaurants in China have at least non-smoking sections to offer a little respite from the smoke? 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: To Finish Something Off: Verb 好 (hǎo)
January 14, 2008 at 12:13 AMGreat lesson ... here's my use of 好as a grammatical complement. 這個中文播客的請問課程我聽好了。 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: The Double 了 (le) phenomenon
January 12, 2008 at 2:04 AMAnother superb lesson! Here are a few of Connie's examples I was able to capture: 我活了幾十年了。 I have lived for several decades. 一個女朋友說 “每次都是我買單我已經買了十次了。”。 A girl friend said "I have already paid the restaurant bill ten times." . 忍者的故事我已經聽了很多遍了。 I have already heard Ninja stories many times. 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: The Non-Chinese Speaking Tourist and Toilets
January 11, 2008 at 8:59 PMFor those more accustomed to Western style toilets, here is a link to a handy uni-sexual west-to-east toilet converter to practice your squatting technique. http://lillipad.co.nz/ Amber, please post the funky "gwen" sounding character(s?) that Elliot used to promptly disperse the pan handlers. 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: After You
January 11, 2008 at 12:35 PMOops ... 我寫錯了... continuing: had 禮貌 as the correct choice. However another choice was 先. This leads me to conclude that 他不先。 Is not the correct way to say "He is not first". How would one say this properly？ 再見， 何睿林
Posted on: Getting Your Hair Done
January 16, 2008 at 4:03 AMAlthough the subject matter here wasn't particularly applicable to me (我自己做頭髮做了幾年了，因為很快變成一個禿子）, the grammar/usage points were quite enlightening. Great job Jenny and John! 再見， 何睿林