User Comments - jennyzhu

Posted on: Funny Business 4 -- Farewell, Xiao Zhao

@sido,

Yes, 生不带来死不带去 is an idiomatic expression frequently used as a reminder that money, material possession, status and etc. are not the most important things in life because, well like the phrase suggests, we are all born without those things and we can't take them with us when we die. They are ephemeral. 

In the sentence 我多嘴一句, 一句 refers to what one is going to say. 一句 as in 一句话 literally means one sentence. 多嘴 means to speak when one shouldn't.  So ‘if I may be' is an idiomatic translation of the entire phrase.

Posted on: Funny Business 4 -- Farewell, Xiao Zhao

Poddies,

You might be experiencing slow connection to our site if you live in China or some parts of Asia. It is the effects of Typhoon Morakot which damaged 6 undersea fiber-optic cables. The word is that repair work is well under way but full recovery might take 2 to 3 weeks.   

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Posted on: Excited About Traveling

@Lliwei and Beijingbloke,

The photo is not my work. I used Google image search. But Hainan is nothing short of beautiful. 

@chas33735,

Thanks for your support! We will keep it up.

@bodawei,

Wow, thanks for writing it in Chinese, pinyin and English. Note that we don't normally use 了 with an adjective (in some cases you can, e.g. 太xxx了。） It should be 我很高兴 instead of 我高兴了。And you don't 了 in the sentence 在云南一般夏天下雨了。

Posted on: Excited About Traveling

My parents took me to Hainan 15 years ago. We took a family picture next to the 'End of the World' stone.

Here is the stone

Posted on: SKRITTER!!!

I am in collective anticipation with you guys! Even though I don't use Skritter to learn writing, there is something about writing with a mouse that I so enjoy.

Posted on: Earlier and Later than Expected: 才and 就

@xiaophil,

 "你怎么这么早才来？" is wrong. The elements 早 and 才 contradict each other. Like you said, an easy way to master the pattern is to collocate 早 with 就 and 晚 with 才. Brilliant observation!

Posted on: Earlier and Later than Expected: 才and 就

@liwei,

The sentences are correct. Great work!

Posted on: What's Your Job?

@richnirish,

一下 softens the tone and makes it seem like a friendly suggestion. It can also indicate that the action is swift depending on the context. In the example of 你去问一下大家吧, 一下 helps make the sentence a suggestion. It also sounds even more friendly than 你去问大家吧。

Posted on: What's Your Job?

@Cornelia,

Great to see you in the comments again! 你好吗？

Posted on: Washing Dishes

In the north, people say 刷碗/shua1 wan3 instead of 洗碗. 刷 means to brush. I guess it might have something to do with the tool traditionally used to wash dishes, which was a brush.