User Comments - light487

Posted on: I want coffee!

Hrmm I thought Coffee Shop was "kafei dian"?

Posted on: Borrowing Money

Sometimes I get to the end of the fortnight (I get paid fortnightly) and I need to borrow money for lunch or something small but I never want to ask to borrow it because I feel embaressed that I can't manage my money better. It doesn't help that I am single with a mortgage but still..

Posted on: I want coffee!

Yeh Starbucks sucks, at least in Australia, there's another coffee shop franchise in China as well called "Coffee Bean". Not sure on the quality of the coffee though. They ended up closing heaps of Starbucks stores in Australia because of the lack of business.. their expensive coffee didn't do them any favours.

While I don't like it myself, Gloria Jeans is the most popular coffee franchise in Australia.

Posted on: I want coffee!

Ewwww.. nescafe`.. I'm a 4 cup a day Coffee drinker.. but if I have to have instant, it has to be Moccona brand! :)

每天我喝四杯咖啡
měitiān wǒ hē sìbēi kāfēi
Every day I drink 4 cups of coffee

Is this correct?

Posted on: Borrowing Money

I feel bad to have to ask again after you went to effort of asking jiaojie for me and everything but I was referring to the "asker" feeling awkward for asking. It's good to know the other way around too of course :)

Posted on: Borrowing Money

Is there a lower lesson on the use of 了 就 or may be a QingWen? This is a concept I have been trying to add to my Chinese language skillset for a little while. You say in the podcast that there really isn't a Chinese word for "after" in this cause-effect context "After something happens, this will happen". It seems that this is a bit of a western concept though obviously cause-effect is the natural order of things whether you think it or not.

You have one thing, add another and you have two things.. can't really change that. The difference though is that if you have one thing, add another then you MIGHT have two things but if the second thing or the first thing breaks in two then you will have three.. or if you lose the first thing while adding the  second then you end with only one.. because you can't know the future even if it's usual for you to end up with two things, you can't be sure.

Also, another question I have is, and Jenny may be able to answer this one more easily: Is the same embaressment/loss of face associated with borrowing money in China as it is in Australia (or other western countries)? Or is it simply seen as one of the many purposes of 关系?

Posted on: Food Regions of China

Oh "Ma Po Doufu"! My Taiwanese friends showed me how to make this a couple of months ago! I love it and I frequently cook it myself in big batches to eat over the course of the week.. but I can never get the doufu to stay as rigid as that.. the doufu generally melts within minutes of putting it in the pot.

Posted on: Using 除了。。。以外 (Chúle... Yǐwài)

Pete said "...as opposed to someone like my girlfriend whose English is excellent.".

Uh oh.. There goes all the fan-mail! I thought stars were supposed to keep quiet about their relationship status so that all the girls (or guys) would think they had a chance? :p haha..

Posted on: Food Regions of China

我的很喜欢的川菜！

Posted on: Using 除了。。。以外 (Chúle... Yǐwài)

@pinkjeans @pete

Yes.. I have been meaning to ask a similar question: Do you have to conciously switch between languages? I find that when speaking to others in mandarin, unless it's a very common phrase like 你好, that they need to "switch" their brains on to mandarin-mode. And how hard is this to get used to? I am extremely fascinated by the way some people can speak multiple languages..but can they "effortlessly" switch between languages without thinking?