User Comments - jbradfor
jbradfor
Posted on: City Stats
September 7, 2007 at 8:33 PMnicolas says: I don't get it. Why is it less obvious for a non Chinese than to a Chinese person to give his native place ? Perhaps John should have said "American" rather than "non Chinese". And I would agree. For the most part (there are a couple areas of the country that are not this way), since Europeans started to colonize the US, we've been too mobile to have a "home area". A place where our ancestors lived for many many generations. An "ancestral home". In China, in contrast, for a long time people were a lot less mobile, and ones ancestors did live in one place for many generations. So the concept makes more sense. Now, of course, China is a lot more mobile so the concept is losing meaning too.
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 17: It's Over (Again)
August 25, 2007 at 12:23 AMThis episode has the wrong title. It should be called "It's Over!", and the *previous* "It's Over" should be renamed "Closure". And the order of those two should be swapped. So with those changes we have: "Break-up": big fight, they break up. "It's Over": the guy does the obligatory attempt to get back together, and fails. "Closure": they meet later, he finally admits it's over. This is a more natural progression. Plus, as a bonus, it sets the stage for our final episode: "DUI" - Dialing Under the Influence, in which he calls her while totally drunk at 3 AM and makes a total ass of himself. Now *that's* an arc.
Posted on: Pretty Ugly
August 22, 2007 at 1:37 PMAmber, in your example for Jeff, why is there a "那么" in the first example but not the second?
Posted on: What meat is this?
July 30, 2007 at 6:51 PMThis lesson translates "dog meat" as 狗肉 (lit. "dog meat"). However, I've been told it's usually called 香肉 (lit "fragrant meat"). Was I misinformed?
Posted on: She's Easy
June 30, 2007 at 11:16 PMListening to this made me think of my favorite definition of a woman being "easy": "someone who gets it more than you do." I've always liked that definition because in a mere eight words it deconstructs the insult (of being easy) by showing both how relative it is and also adding a twinge of envy that someone is having more fun than you are. Bazza, thanks for that link above, those are really colorful! I even knew a couple, to my surprise.
Posted on: Introducing the Fix
June 22, 2007 at 4:42 PMOh yeah, if any one cares Ken's asking for feedback over here: http://chinesepod.com/connections/viewpost/kencarroll/connect/The+Fix+-+feedback+here%2C+please
Posted on: Introducing the Fix
June 22, 2007 at 3:09 PMRegarding the intro for "The Fix", there's always the entire "The Fixx" catalog if you want to get really cheesy :-) "Lost in Battle Overseas" anyone? :-)
Posted on: Returning an Item
June 7, 2007 at 4:22 AMIs it really possible to return items in China? I was always under the impression that one the money left your hands, it was always a one-way street.
Posted on: Going on a Diet
June 7, 2007 at 4:15 AMI'm just thinking that if those two women in the picture for today's lesson knew they would appear in a "diet" lesson with "to lose weight" right next to them they'd be rather upset....
Posted on: Buddhism and Taoism
September 9, 2007 at 2:32 AMIn this lessons, "載體" is used more metaphorically. Can it also be used as a physical vehicle, e.g. 氣車是一種載體 ？