User Comments - jill348
jill348
Posted on: Aren't you.... （不是.... 吗）
May 27, 2008 at 6:08 PMRegarding not being understood by the Chinese, what I noticed was if the Chinese person spoke English, they almost always said "What?" when I tried to speak Chinese, and I would have to repeat myself at least one more time, and finally they would understand me. But with the Chinese who did NOT speak English, they would appear to understand me easily, and would respond in a conversational manner. I think they are used to listening in English, and it actually takes a moment to switch back to listening in Chinese.
This is not to claim that my Chinese is good... what few phrases I learned, I could speak very well. The phrase I learned and used everywhere I went was "I can speak a little Mandarin, but I don't speak it very well." (and yes, I think it was one of Aric's introductions to an earlier lesson where he said the result was an explosion of Chinese responses that were waaaaaay over my head!)
Posted on: Buying a Bouquet of Flowers
March 31, 2008 at 4:28 AMMy first attempt to join in... I've been listening to a lot of podcasts (GREAT SITE, btw!) and over in the Qing Wen lesson on ways to answer in the affirmative, we learned that "hao3 ba1" indicated a very UN-enthusaistic agreement (in that lesson, it was the reaction to being told to stay and work overtime). In this lesson, it is presented as coming to agreement after the salesperson points out the white flowers are also quite nice, which seems to hold a more grateful, satisfied feeling (happy to be buying more beautiful flowers). Can anyone provide more insight into the use of hao ba as a response, please?
Posted on: I'm Married
June 1, 2008 at 3:51 PMNewbie here. Let me give this a shot:
我结婚了。 （wo3 jie2 hun1 le -- I cheated. This is copied straight from the lesson.)
这个月是22年。 (Zhe4 ge4 yue3 shi4 22 nian2)
我先生很喜欢 Chinese Pod. 我也喜欢! (wo3 xian1sheng hen3 xi3huan Chinese Pod. Wo3 yeh3 xi3huan!)
我要送他一份独一无二的礼物 (wo3 yao4 song4 ta1 yi1 fen4 du2yi1wu2er4 de li3wu4.)