User Comments - light487

Posted on: Understanding 了解 (Liǎojiě) and 理解 (Lǐjiě)

Some dictionary entries:
解    jiě    to divide / to break up / to split / to separate / to dissolve / to solve / to melt / to remove / to untie / to loosen / to open / to emancipate / to explain / to understand / to know / a solution / a dissection

了解    liǎo jiě    to understand / to realize / to find out

理解    lǐ jiě    to comprehend / understanding / comprehension / to understand

费解    fèi jiě    hard to understand / unintelligible / incomprehensible

懂    dǒng    to understand / to know
看懂    kàn dǒng    to read / to be able to read / to understand / to see and understand

知    zhī    to know / to be aware
知道    zhīdao    know / be aware of

领会   lǐng huì    understand / comprehend / grasp

There's plenty more on this subject, all with their own subtle meaning of understanding/knowing. Here's a fun 成语 and a 谚语:

一窍不通  yī qiào bù tōng    I don't understand a word; all Greek to me

听话听声，锣鼓听音  tīng huà tīng shēng , luó gǔ tīng yīn    lit. to hear the sound and the voice, and hear the unspoken drum; fig. to understand the unspoken implications / to hear between the lines

Posted on: Surviving Winter and Singles Scene for Expat Girls

Yup.. definitely the social pressures (peer pressure etc) forced on both men and women would play a big part in the decision making process. If you are "expected" by society to be a tall, masculine, "rice"-winner and the western women is tall, well-toned, and rich.. what chance does she have?

He would be a joke in the eyes of society... but this is just the perception that the man has, doesn't mean it is actually a real thing of any true weighting.

Posted on: Surviving Winter and Singles Scene for Expat Girls

Thanks LaJiao, I liked that video. :) She speaks Chinese quite well too.. hopefully I will get to that level one day.

Posted on: Surviving Winter and Singles Scene for Expat Girls

@calkins
Where's my bucket! :)

Posted on: Surviving Winter and Singles Scene for Expat Girls

The last part of the show is quite interesting. I would definitely not have thought single expat women in China would have as much trouble finding "dates" as highlighted here. As we know from western psychology men are very visual, women are very emotional when it comes to relationships. Is this the same from the Chinese cultural perspective? I wonder if this has anything to do with this phenomenon.

I know for myself that I find women attractive not only because of how they look but also how they portray themselves publicly. That's still a visual thing of course but it's not just a matter of photogenic beauty. I wonder if it is this also that puts the stereotypical (I used this term because obviously not everyone falls into the same boat) Chinese man off because the portrayal, mannerisms, attitudes of the western girls they have come into contact with are not what they are looking for. Past experience plays a big part in the decision making process for both genders.

Posted on: What's your (animal) sign?

So I am an Earth Dragon afterall.. fancy that how I always felt I was earthy: stubborn, fixed, unmoveable in my attitudes etc.. though I am still very open-minded of course.. :)

Posted on: I want coffee!

Yeh.. so it's like saying:

"I ate. Fish" as two separate words/concepts.. or at least a disjointed sentence where there is something missing in between, right?

Posted on: What's your (animal) sign?

I am of course a Fire Dragon (born 1976) :) I've always thought that was pretty cool once I found out for the first time. I haven't had a chance to listen to this podcast (as I am still at work) but I am eager to listen to it... :)

I've always been kind of Earthy in my personality traits however..

Posted on: I want coffee!

dunderklumpen - I think that without the 一条 you aren't defining it as a singular object/article/unit of consumption. Without the 一条 it is just "fish" but if you include it, then it becomes a unit of fish that was eaten. It's like the difference between 我喝了咖啡 and 我喝了一杯咖啡。 One is saying I drank coffee and the other is saying I drank "a cup" of coffee. In the first instance you aren't defining how much you drank, in the second you are.. that's the easiest way for me to put into words the logic behind it, as I understand it.

Posted on: I want coffee!

重 = chóng (2nd tone) and has the meaning: to double, to repeat, repitition. Can also be 重 zhòng (4th tone) and has the meaning heavy, serious.

浓 = nóng on the other hand means concentrated / dense. So in my mind, I would be using nong instead of zhong/chong but then I have been surprised before by the use of words that don't translate well.

So I guess you could say you don't want the coffee to be too "heavy/serious".. that does make sense in a way if you think about it. Just that "concentrated/dense" makes more sense to my western mind.. :)