User Comments - hiewhongliang
hiewhongliang
Posted on: Second-hand Bicycle
November 24, 2010 at 12:28 AMI have a friend who goes nuts because his daughter keeps buying really EXPENSIVE second-hand clothes. I think it is called "Vintage" fashion. Hmm... the power of branding!
Posted on: Farewell Dinner
November 24, 2010 at 12:19 AM从散伙饭到煽火战, where else but cpod! :-)
Posted on: Surfing the Web Chinese Style
November 24, 2010 at 12:05 AMSorry jgwilson, I went off a bit of a tangent on my interest in Semantic Web. I was referring to shared vocabs for software. Don't want to bore everyone here with techno-babble. If interested see ref:
http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/
Posted on: Nothing more than 而已 (eryi) and 罢了 (bale)
November 23, 2010 at 10:59 AMNow there's a expression impossible to translate... 团抱?!?
Posted on: What does she look like?
November 23, 2010 at 5:46 AM"... the same pronunciation can even mean completely different things"
Just like in English when someone says, "Chinese is easy". Here "easy" is pronounced "easy" but actually means "hard"! :-S
Posted on: Surfing the Web Chinese Style
November 23, 2010 at 5:02 AMHi man-fong. 幸会.
Yes, agree re Chinesepod's way of teaching Chinese. There's something about Chinese and Western cultural mix that they "get" that other Chinese teaching sites don't - very hard to define, much less achieve. I found this site a couple of months ago, and last week signed on to a teacher-assisted package. Well worth it, I've found. I'm not too worried about my written Mandarin, but in speech it's an adventure for my teacher with the English-Canto-Mandarin dribble that comes out of my mouth! :-) Well, one step at a time...
Yes, my canto pronunciation of 丘 is as 优 (Jyutping: jau1). I'm not sure how the romanization became "Hiew", but there are too many with this spelling around the world for this to be a Malaysian thing. I suspect it is from our Guongzhou local dialect. My grandfather came from Taishan which of course has a dialect different from "standard" Cantonese. I can't speak Taishanese 台山话, so can't verify.
What about your Chinese name?
Posted on: Nothing more than 而已 (eryi) and 罢了 (bale)
November 21, 2010 at 3:43 AMCan't agree more with bababardwan.
Besides individual personalities, the chemistry between team members and match-ups are magical in some of these recordings... not just QW but the other lesson levels as well. And I've only heard a small fraction of recordings to date!
Does the team do chemistry stuff... weekend retreat at military camps, perhaps! :-)
Posted on: Nothing more than 而已 (eryi) and 罢了 (bale)
November 21, 2010 at 3:22 AMMy initial reading of 说了她几句 is "said a few things TO her", so I believe you're right...
HOWEVER, THIS IS CHINESE and nothing is context-free. It is POSSIBLE although less natural that the sentence is not as it initially appear. For example I'll make up some sentences to precede it:
1）她今天又没做功课。我只是说了她几句而已, 她就哭了。
She didn't do her homework again today. I only said a few things to her and she cried.
2）汉语老师叫我批评同学的造句。我只是说了她几句而已, 她就哭了。
The Chinese language teacher told me to critique my fellow students' sentences. I only gave a few of hers and she cried.
3）晚餐时候我向大家描述她的情况。我只是说了她几句而已, 她就哭了。
Over dinner I was describing to everyone her situation. I only said a few words about her and she cried.
(1) is the meaning as used in the Qing Wen lesson. For (2) and (3), formally there are characters missing. The full version of (2) should really be 说了她"的"几句，and (3) 说了"关于"她几句. But in my experience in Chinese spoken and written forms, such compacting happens regularly and without a bat of an eye, making context essential. If someone were to say use sentences (2) and (3) to me in conversation, I wouldn't register that the sentence were out of place.
... then again, it may just be my low standard for sentences that neglecting key characters are acceptable! 可能愿意接受这些句子的，只有像我这么低水准的人而已！:-)
Posted on: The Monkey King
November 21, 2010 at 2:00 AMWhat an interesting observation, dug123. 谢谢 Jiaojie 您的解释。
In Hong Kong gangster/old－Shanghai/brotherhood TV and movies that I grew up with, 讲义气 (Cantonese 講義氣 gong2 ji6 hei3) is used A LOT. I now wonder how the expression evolved into this, rather than say 重义气, or 注义气.
My personal belief: it is because there is a strong element of open proclamation and public commitment when using 讲, rather than just leaving it to an individual to think or do it him/herself.
比如说，“讲文明”不但只需要“想”文明或”做“文明公民，也需要各人对文明创建公共承诺，不但是想得到, 做得起，并需要讲出来。曰：君子一言，驷马难追。在我们注重承诺和信任的华裔社会中，一言可动千兵。《信》这一个字就是从"人"和"言"两个字创出来的。
ie. In Chinese society with heavy emphasis on promises and people's word, getting someone to "say" something can be much stronger than solely just thinking or doing it.
That's my “theory” anyway as why the expression is thus! :-) Would love to hear better informed opinions.
Posted on: Second-hand Bicycle
November 24, 2010 at 12:41 AMBy coincidence I was talking to my teacher in my lesson on Monday about bikes. From my Malaysian Chinese vocab I am used to calling bicycles 脚车/Jiao3che1 or 脚踏车/jiao3ta4che1 , literally "leg mobiles". She pointed out to me the more accepted use of 自行车 in the mainland China. Anyone else with experience with the "leg mobile" usage? Wondering how widespread/limited it is.