User Comments - light487

Posted on: Not Cooked Enough

Soo.. you eat them raw?? Is that hygenic? I mean ok.. I've been to China so hygenic is not perhaps the best word to use.. but the number one thing I was warned against eating, by my vaccination doctor, is uncooked or poorly cooked seafood. I would have expected this dish to be used in a hot pot, so you can cook them at your table.. but to eat them raw.. hrmm.. no.

I like this example of the 不能 (bùnéng) + verb / 能 (néng) + verb pattern here. I always get confused between all the different ability and permission words. Another one is 不会 (bùhuì) / 会 (huì) where the speaker can advise of an "ability" or a learned action, then of course you have 不可以 (bùkěyǐ) / 可以 (kěyǐ) which is more of a permission based ability to do something. I think there are more but the point is, there are a bunch of them with subtle differences in the meanings..

In English you can just use the word "can" and for the negative, you just add on the "not" word. No need for all the extra words.. although I must admit that even then there are different inflections in the voice used with the word "can" to signify different meaning. I guess with the permission one, English speakers should be using the "may" and "may not" construction but it's not essential and many people don't use it.

Here are some QingWen's on the subject for anyone interested:

Qing Wen - 会 (Huì) and 能 (Néng) Face-off

Qing Wen - Negating Verbs: When to Use 没有 (méiyǒu), When to Use 不 (bù)

Qing Wen - You Can and Will Use 会 (huì)!

Posted on: Fruit Basket of Cause-Effect

Liliana: Maybe we will see some fun video of your antics in Chinese soon? :) haha

Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy

Jenny/RJ: Ahh.. brought back in April.. that explains why it was a hot topic at the discussion group I attended then because I was in Beijing in April this year. :)

Posted on: Fruit Basket of Cause-Effect

I remember when I was in the studio doing my interviews and I had the same feeling as I walked out the door on both occasions, "...but I didn't say anything smart." :) haha!

I think the sound quality issue is to do with the usual background music being a little softer than normal, making the silences appear more silent and a little bit of electronic buzz :)

Posted on: Fruit Basket of Cause-Effect

It's good to see Liliana on the show. She is a funny (read: cheeky) character :) I like how this QingWen incorporated her real struggles with the language while she lives in Shanghai as a native Spanish speaker. I often wonder how different it would be to learn Chinese from another language starting point..

Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy

Isn't there some kind of initiative in place, at least in Beijing, where you can only drive your car on certain days based on the licence plate on the car? This is supposed to reduce the amount of cars being driven at any time. I was at a small conference/discussion-group in Beijing about environmental issues when I was in China earlier this year. It was an interesting experience to hear what locals thought about the environmental issues in their country, as compared to what we hear and see on TV.

Not surprisingly, the main cause of pollution was touted to be "cars".. but not industry. When I was travelling around the country I noticed that there was a lot (heaps in fact) of industry pollution occurring. For example, on my 2 hour bus ride from Chengdu to Leshan we went past a number of what appeared to be refineries or smelting factories and they were billowing out dark, thick smoke that covered the surrounding areas. When I asked about this, it was discounted as a primary source of pollution and that cars were the primary concern. I think that this viewpoint is concerning in itself.

Posted on: Away on Business

I've heard that Shanghainese is a constantly and quickly evolving dialect where if you went away for 5 to 10 years, you probably wouldn't be able to understand it any more.. is this an exageration?

I noticed in the dialog that "hui" sounds a lot like "wei".. it wasn't until the 2nd pronunciation during the translation that I heard the distinctive "h" sound. I think this is the greatest problem for learners of a language that does not sound similar to their own language.

My favourite Chinese dialect to listen to is Beijing er-hua.. I love that piratey sound but I can't understand a word they are speaking most of the time.. so I actually prefer Shanghai people speaking Mandarin because even Beijingers have a tendency to have a little 'er sound to their words even when speaking standard Mandarin. :)

Posted on: Pinyin The Final R Sound

Yeh.. I use na'r and dian'r regardless of where I am because it's just a habit that I have formed. One question I still have is to do with where the 'er is added and where it is not added. You can't just add it to every word, right? So are there some simple rules to follow to help understand which words would typically have the 'er added and which words wouldn't?

我儿买儿两儿本儿书儿.. errr.. yeh.. I don't think so.. so.. any help with that?

One last thing: John (or anyone else), do you still think in Pinyin? Or do you think in Hanzi? So when you listen to or formulate sentences in your head as you are speaking, do you see pinyin characters in your mind? Also, when you read Chinese Hanzi, are you just now so familiar with the pronunciations of the Hanzi that Pinyin no longer enters into the equation anymore?

Posted on: Express Train or High-speed Train?

When I was in Beijing, I had to buy my own ticket for the train to Shanghai.. I found the tiny little ticket selling place along some street near my hotel and unfortunately no one in there spoke a single word of English.. I completely winged it and end up with a soft-seat on an overnight train. It wasn't a bad experience.. but I think it could have been better if I was more prepared for the ticket buying encounter.

One interesting thing I noticed while travelling on the train though was that they lock the doors between the "lower class" carriages and the "higher class" carriages.. I guess to stop people from trying to use the higher price ticket areas if they haven't paid for it. Fortunately for me, it was a bit out of place for a foreigner to be travelling in the soft-seat area and they let me go forward to the dining car where I ate a great meal before returning to my seat. I didn't get much sleep that night but it was definitely worth the experience overall.

Posted on: Two Tough Ladies

Hrmm.. the only bad word that springs to mind for this lesson is 婊子.. erm.. yeh.. I'll let you figure that one out.. it's pretty rude though.

My questions are: How often do you see something like this?? I never encountered a "true" arguement anywhere in my trip to China. Also, what would other people's reaction be to this? Laughter? Embaressment?