User Comments - jimijames

Posted on: Which Time Zone?

Great Lesson,

A quick note. In the "Supplementary Vocabulary" does 东京 dōngjīng means Tokyo

北京 is Beijing.

Very Very Useful Newbie lesson. I still discover so many words and phrases to keep up with inside the Supplementary Vocab!

Keep up the great work!

Cheers

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

@ bodewai

I once worked with a lady in China her name was Rebecca. She is not Chinese, but the Chinese staff had named her  绿贝壳 lǜbèiké which literally means green shell, the type of shell you find on the beach. And this sounds like the name Rebecca. This also help described her personality. At times she appeared a tough lady and hard to work with because she had very high standards for the employees to follow and live up to.

So the local employees had a lot of fun calling her 绿贝壳. It sounded like they were trying to say Rebecca but they also meant Green Shell which help them deal with her hardness work ethic.

I hope this one helps you understand a little more.

Cheers

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

@bodawei

I believe the ability for a Chinese speaker to use only chinese characters which follows the sound of your English name in itself could be viewed as an impressive skill. Some sort of linguist "magical" ability to convert every body's english name into Chinese sounds.

Secondly I would consider the fun a chinese speaker may experience to find appropriate or close to appropriate chinese characters that can match the sound of your English name.

Thirdly, the choice of the characters used may have other meanings or the chinese characters are not used so often, so the Chinese speaker may have a thrill from using those not so popularly used Chinese Characters to transliterate a person's English name.

I hope you can understand my ramblings.

Cheers

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

@bodawei

Part of the cultural aspect that you may not have thought about when Chinese transliterate someone's non-chinese name into chinese characters and it sounds almost like their original name, is that on average most non-chinese names especially english names (including surnames/family names) are much longer than modern average Chinese Names which usually consists of three characters. The First Character being the Chinese Family name eg  李　lǐ and the other two characters make up their first name eg. 小龙 xiǎolóng

Side by side for length of chinese name comparison only,

李小龙 lǐxiǎolóng  (Bruce Lee)

布拉德-皮特 bùlādé-pítè (Brad Pitt)

In counting, the amount of english syllables in the name Brad Pitt is the same as the English Name Bruce Lee. But see the difference in length of Brad Pitt's Chinese Name?

Hence the smile that may appear on the face of the person saying Brad Pitt's name in Chinese.

Cheers

Posted on: Where's the bathroom?

@cheesypoof

This short dialogue may help you out to understand the 看到 for the meaning of "have seen" or "saw" something

A. 你看到了我的网页吗？nǐ kàndàole wǒde wǎngyè ma?

Have you seen my website page?

B.我看到的。wǒkàndàole

I have seen it / I saw it.

The 的 can be used to make certain in your chinese speech that you are sure that you have seen something.

So the A is asking the question to B  about something that may have taken place. The possiblity of the B having already seen A's website page.

Cheers

PS please let me know if I have confused you at all.  All the best!

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

Dear All,

miantiao's avatar is a famous painting by Sydney Nolan of Ned Kelly, a famous villianous Australian bushranger that some say lived and died in infamy. For most post-modernists, Ned Kelly is seen as hero.

Sydney Nolan - 悉尼 诺兰 xīní nuòlán

Ned Kelly - 内得 凯利 nèidé kǎilì

Australian Bushranger - 澳大利亚的 丛林居民 àodàlìyàde cónglínjūmín

@jennyzhu

Maybe you could do an Upper Intermediate lesson about miantiao's avatar.

Cheers.

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

@changye

Thanks for this info.

By the way I did look up on nciku.com and 大拐 dàguǎi and 小拐 xiǎoguǎi are possibly two separate names of places in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region

Cheers.

Posted on: Turn Right, Turn Left

@jennyzhu, @shenyajina

From the Supplementary Vocabulary,

In Beijing I never hear 小拐 xiǎoguǎi and 大拐 dàguǎi

respectively used for Right Turn and Left Turn

Are these expressions 小拐 and 大拐 used more in Shanghai, or in other parts of China?

Cheers

Posted on: Chinese Idol 2

@changye

Thank you for this insight.

Cheers

Posted on: Chinese Idol 2

@changye

Yes I agree with you, the hammers in the piano do strike the strings, but I would guess why 弹 instead of 打 is used because the music of the piano comes from its strings. And also the piano the is not "拉ed" like the accordion.

真是一种矛盾的情况.

Cheers