User Comments - johnrash
johnrash
Posted on: Funny Business 4 -- Farewell, Xiao Zhao
September 08, 2009, 03:12 AM老王... I don't know how to say anti-hero in Chinese, but I hope to see this series progress in that direction (think Tony Soprano). We want him to do the right thing, but maybe the right thing for him is to support his family and himself by doing the bidding of the 黑社会。This series just went from good to great.
Posted on: How Long Has This Been Going On?
June 29, 2009, 04:21 AMConcerning objects we may have purchased second hand, or perhaps want to know the age of production. Can we say "Na1 ge dian4 nao3 shen2me shi2hou4 zuo4 de?" （那个电脑什么时候做的？） or is that only reserved for things we have made ourselves (such as a sandwich, a painting, or a cake).
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi
June 29, 2009, 04:13 AMShenyajing. 谢谢您帮助我了解"地“有什么用法。I thought just by dupliacating the verb, such as "慢慢” the -ly was kind of an implied meaning.. or perhaps using 点慢 etc. Perhaps I've never tried to make a direct translation of an adverb before, as I assumed the verb was also the adverb in Chinese and didn't need a modification.
敢于“的”和“得”您也说得对。有时候我还不太清楚应该用什么"de"。比如 “他的车” 和 “中文说得很好” 什么的。。。
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Tai Chi
June 28, 2009, 01:56 PM这个对话真不错。可是还有些句子不太了解怎么做：
“把胳膊慢慢地举起来，再慢慢地放下来。。“
为什么用”地“？ 我不太明白为什么不说 ”把胳膊慢慢举起来，再慢慢放下来“。
这些句子里面都用”地“，可以帮解释吗？
谢谢.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
May 25, 2009, 07:41 PMWhy are the Lesson Review files recently broken? Not only are the vocab words not in the lyrics metadata but this file also had audio problems.
Posted on: Two Poems about Music -- 弹琴 and 听筝
April 11, 2009, 05:30 PMWhy does Poems With Pete split itself in my feed when updating in iTunes? The Dialogue file and "Poems with Pete" lesson file mix between the files from the current day's Chinesepod lesson. It makes me want to remove Poems from Pete from my feed due to the interuption it causes in my lesson listening workflow.
Also, why isn't there a PDF of the poem or at least the text added in the Lyrics section of the MP3 file?
Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights
March 19, 2009, 11:48 AMI missed the original photos and intro. Now I'm disappointed I didn't get a chance to see them. Any links still active to see what all the hoopla is about?
I can't believe people were SO offended because they were asked to deal with looking at a small piece of reality. When asked to deal with something difficult, you really just want to close your eyes? You are the same people that want to push homeless people off the streets and forget about the hard realities of our world. Eat your prepackaged foods and forget about their origin. And buy endlessly without considering what labor conditions contributed to the manufacturing of the products you bought to look sexy or hip....
Real life isn't sugar coated and Walt Disney songs. Although some people work really hard to ignore the aspects of reality that are not pleasing to think about.
China, like the rest of the world, is not just about new shopping experiences and high-rise hotels.
DEAR CHINESEPOD:
Thanks for trying to make an effort to put some real meat on our tables, and fodder for rich discussion. It's a shame people are so afraid of ruining their days with a small dose of reality.
Posted on: Editing a Photo
March 17, 2009, 12:20 PMThis lesson has become more and more important for me, as I was preparing a presentation of the Chinese version of Adobe's Lightroom application to show in 南京 last week.
I also learned a few specialized photo / software terms that might make for a good follow-up for this lesson:
噪点 - zao4dian3: digital noise in photographic image
图库 －tu2ku4: photo library (archive)
幻灯片放映 － huan4deng1pian1fang4ying4: slideshow
Posted on: Illegal taxis
February 08, 2009, 11:27 AMI took 黑车 in leiu of the bus from downtown 西安 to the airport. It seems the driver offered me a rate that would have saved me around 10RMB, which in American terms is not much. In the mindset I often have in China, however, it seemed to be quite a bargin. Nevermind I was put into a car with two other local Chinese travellers whom I had never met, and had to wait for the driver to round up the third. The plus side is I made quick friends with the other people in the car, one of whom was taking the exact same flight as myself. Even a year later I still keep in touch with one of my fellow 黑车 passengers.
My moral is, just like anything in life you can't always fear the intentions of other people. I had far more experiences being ripped off by Official taxis in Shanghai than taking 黑车 in other cities. Just be smart and try to read the people offering you the ride. If you feel uncomfortable don't do it, but if you don't mind an adventure it might be worth it (even if you pay a little more than you should).
Posted on: Translation Tools
August 22, 2011, 01:07 AMIs Google actually bettern than Baidu for searching Chinese usage and examples not practical for Google Translate or the other dictionaries you mentioned? I've always been under the impression that Baidu would bring back more examples of usage from Mainland China while Google could be giving me more examples of people anywhere around the world, thus not necessarily the usage or the grammer I would need in PRC.
Mostly curious why Google was suggested and not Baidu...