User Comments - mikeinewshot

Posted on: Billiards

For anyone who would like help understanding the discussion, here are some words I have picked out – I hope they are correct. Lookups mainly courtesy of http://www.xuezhongwen.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddictbasic.

重温 chong2 wen1 to learn sth over again / to review / to brush up
出现 chū xiàn to appear / to arise / to emerge
意外 yi4 wai4 unexpected
惊喜 jing1 xi3 be pleasantly surprised
贬义 bian3 yi4 derogatory sense
武侠 wu3 xia2 martial arts chivalry (Chinese literary, theatrical and cinema genre) / knight-errant
功夫 gong1 fu5 skill / art / kung fu / labour / effort
发球 fa1 qiu2 to serve (the ball in pingpong, tennis etc) / to drive off (golf etc)
粒子 li4 zi5 grain (of rice) / granule
音译 yin1 yi4 transliteration / transcription (linguistics) / to transcribe phonetic symbols
移动 yi2 dong4 to move / movement / migration / mobile / portable
滚动 gun3 dong4 roll / tumble
位置 wei4 zhi5 position / place / seat
彩色 cai3 se4 color / multi-colored
袋子 dai4 zi5 bag - pocket
对阵 dui4 zhen4 poised for battle / to square up for a fight
球门 qiu2 men2 goalmouth (in soccer)
进洞 jìn dòng hole (golf)
丢脸 diu1 lian3 loss of face / humiliation
讽刺 fěng cì to satirize / to mock / irony / satire / sarcasm
嘲笑 cháo xiào jeer / mockery / scoff / sneer / make fun of / laugh at (derogatory)
重新 chóng xīn again / once more / re-
天赋 tiān fù gift / innate skill

Posted on: The Final Show

Amber

What can I add?  Just to agree with all the good wishes and accolades.

Sad that you didn't in the end take up my (somewhat tricky) suggestion for a Dear Amber topic :-(   (开玩笑）

Amazed to hear that you don't have a job yet.  I bet that your talent, great personality (and looks) have made that a thing of the past already.

Posted on: Pedestrian Peril

For anyone who would like help understanding the discussion, here are some words I have picked out – I hope they are correct. Lookups mainly courtesy of http://www.xuezhongwen.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddictbasic.

惊险 jing1 xian3 thrilling / a thriller
危险 wei1 xian3 danger / dangerous
差一点 chà yī diǎn same as 差點｜差点 / not quite / not good enough / almost / barely / a bit different / just about to / nearly starting / on the verge of
抱怨 bao4 yuan4 complain / grumble
撞击 zhuàng jī to strike / to hit / to ram
影响 yǐng xiǎng an influence / an effect / to influence / to affect (usually adversely) / to disturb
正确 zhèng què correct / proper
正常 zhèng cháng regular / normal / ordinary
搭配 dā pèi to pair up / to match / to arrange in pairs / to add sth into a group
任性 rèn xìng willful / headstrong / uninhibited
进行 jìn xíng to advance / to conduct / underway / in progress / to do / to carry out / to carry on / to execute
固定 gù dìng fixed / set / regular
存在 cún zài to exist / to be
活着 huó zhe alive
发生 fā shēng to happen / to occur / to take place / to break out
引起 yǐn qǐ to give rise to / to lead to / to cause / to arouse
打破 dǎ pò to break / to smash
单用 dān yòng use separately
细心 xì xīn careful / attentive
象声词 xiàng shēng cí onomatopoeia
吉利 jí lì auspicious / lucky / propitious
迷信 mí xìn superstition
中立 zhōng lì neutral
表达 biǎo dá to voice (an opinion) / to express / to convey
调查 diào chá investigation / inquiry / to investigate / to survey / survey / (opinion) poll
真相 zhēn xiàng the truth about sth / the actual facts
形象 xíng xiàng image / form / figure
混乱 hùn luàn confusion / chaos
秩序 zhì xù order (orderly) / order (sequence) / social order / the state (of society)
组织 zǔ zhī to organize / organization / organized system / nerve / tissue

Posted on: Don't push that button

For some reason I am unable to edit my previous comment. I wanted to remove the bit about navigation, as I can now see how to do it with the pane on the bottom right

Posted on: Don't push that button

John Thank you for the link to the Pronunciation guide and more specifically to the 'yuan' explanation. The reason I did not find it before is that when I go to the pronunciation tab, I can see no way of navigating to other pages, so I did not realise they existed. Likewise, how do you navigate from the yuan page to anywhere else? It could be my stupidity however! (So you seem to say that yuan is really pronouned more like English yuen not yuan - my hearing seems to put it somewhere on the spectrum of yuan to yuen)

Posted on: All the Things You Can Hit: 打 (dǎ)

I was interested to hear that Chinesepod staff have to 'punch the clock' when coming to work.  In England we would say 'to clock in'.

As far as I know, and in my experience, in England office workers do not have to clock in.  Is this common in China?

Posted on: Don't push that button

pinkjeans

This (ie pronunciation yuan or yuan) has puzzled me for years!  I think the same applies to all the tones, so also for 远 for example.

I asked a chinese lady from Beijing and she said yuan was better but she is 'older'.

Does quan also have these variants?

Posted on: Karaoke

rjberki - thanks.  Perhaps they just fixed it(?) because I have now tried again and it is now 12:07 minutes long!

Posted on: Karaoke

Has anyone listened to the lesson yet?!

Both using the pop-out and downloading the lesson, the lesson cuts out at 8:14 minutes in the middle of the discussion, strangely just after John and Jenny were talking about cutting the song!

Posted on: Being Vague: 大概 (dàgài), 左右 (zuǒyòu), 上下 (shàngxià)

One of the slightly weird things about Chinesepod now is how the dialogues and lesson presentation are edited by the webmasters (is that the right term).

When I wrote my comment above, the lesson title had 差不多 in it, but now that has been removed and 上下 has been put in.

Previously, I have had comments removed too - not offensive ones, but those pointing out a mistake - when the mistake was corrected, my comment was removed.

This gives a feeling of re-writing the past, which I find slightly disturbing.  I would prefer that instead a comment was added by the editors to explain what had been done (as used to be the case).