User Comments - hiewhongliang

Posted on: Surfing the Web Chinese Style

Not sure if it really is a proper 成语。When I was little, my teacher told me it was. Online sites says it is. But doesn't mean it really is. Would welcome comments from anyone more expert.

Just like the word "Internet", 互联网, 网络, 網路, 等等，who defines what's what?

Posted on: Surfing the Web Chinese Style

Hi bodawei.

Explanation:

“说一是一；说二是二” is a 成语 meaning "to mean what one says"

“所意思：一说而死儿” is my made-up hack of the 成语, where the pinyin is close but not quite, and the meaning changed to "that means: a word said and a son dies"

My attempt to show that sometimes when an idiot (like me most times) misunderstands the original line so badly, double/triple checking is futile. My last sentence says, "it's all a mess, and repeating makes it worse"!

Anyway, please don't try to learn chinese from my hacks. Our cpod 老师们 are likely cringing! :S

Yes, I'm new and only signed up a couple weeks ago. I am a native Cantonese from Malaysia, now residing in Australia. Can't really say my putonghua is that good (in spite of my father's attempts over many years), hence why I'm here. As for the Chinese 丘 surname, all info at www.qius.org... with a 丘 clan theme song that won't stop playing while you're on the site! Believe it or not...

Posted on: Surfing the Web Chinese Style

Thanks for pointing this out, jgwilson. Bewildering to navigate between 中国 and 台灣's use of Internet terms:

http://ihome.ust.hk/~lbsun/terms.html

There's an Ontology project here somewhere, otherwise the Semantic Web isn't going to get very far...

Posted on: Surfing the Web Chinese Style

My wife (a psychologist) says that repeating is an act of active listening - for a person to show he/she is paying attention... perhaps in chinese conversation then, repeating is 礼貌 in overdrive?

My wife says I should repeat more often. I say: if I do it too often, people will know when I'm NOT listening, which unfortunately happens too often for comfort! :)

我爹教：“说一是一；说二是二”。

我学到：“所意思：一说而死儿”。

一塌糊涂，重复更糟糕！

Posted on: Losing and Forgetting

I have this theory: for every sound a human is capable of making, there is a language in the world (however obscure) where that sound is a profanity. One day when all things human and Klingon and Hobbit are on google, I will do a search to test my theory... :-)

Thanks for making the lesson fun anyway Jen, as you do with the banter in all the other lessons.

Posted on: 春捂秋冻

不管是寒冷的上海或是酷热的澳洲，大家躲在舒服的家里收听chinesepod不是更好吗？:-)

Posted on: Losing and Forgetting

IMHO from the perspective of a native Cantonese speaker, I would suggest not going with the single-syllabic HomerSimpson-est use of 丢! especially in mainland south ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diu_(Cantonese)

Maybe what Bart would love to say, but not sure Marge would approve!