User Comments - paulinurus

Posted on: Introducing Shen Yajin (Helen)

Hi 娅瑾, 

A warm welcome to Cpod too! I must say you have a very nice voice and your English accent is good too. Did you major in English at the University? 

Posted on: Buying a House

RJ,

The Chinese movie 向左走，向右走 (Turn Left, Turn Right) would give you a glimpse of landlord tenant relations there. It's a very funny, entertaining, and intelligent romantic movie, with Mandarin dialogue that's relatively easy to understand.  

Posted on: Buying a House

Welcome back Changye! For a while I thought you left ... what a lost it'll be for poddies.

Posted on: Tea Tasting

*admin edit. Unnecessary continuation of a flame war. Paulinurus and Miantiao, please stop this now! I let your dialogue continue up till this point, now it is simply a distraction to those who wish to communicate on the subject of tea. Matt. ChinesePod Product Manager.

Posted on: Tea Tasting

@miantiao

pop

bad assumptions

bad advice

from an angst old man

hanging around here

all year long

spaced out

git a good one yorself

Posted on: Tea Tasting

Regarding "tasty," I know that many learners of Chinese think 不错 should be understood literally as "Not bad." But this is simply not accurate-- the words on their own do mean that, but the phrase describes something better than “not bad." For that matter, 味道 can describe both a scent and a taste. We don't really know which the person is talking about here- they might also be saying "It smells great!" This depends on context.

But the more important issue is, why should we assume that the Chinese will use adjectives that correspond to English words such as "tannic" and "brisk" when describing their tea? I've had hundreds of cups of tea with dozens of Chinese, and the overwhelming majority simply nod and say "不错." This has nothing to do with harshness or acidity. It's a simple statement-- this (food/drink) tastes good, i.e. it's tasty.

Pete,

However you want to split hairs man ! The Cpod database will be one heck of a mess with so many versions and nuances of translations even for a relatively simple phrase such as  味道不错 which simply translates as "nice flavour" which you've translated as "tasty". All the Ellementary poddies moving to Intermediate for years to come will have to deal with your hair splitting translations and slangs. As it is now, I don't bother any more with the feature of hiding the English translations to test myself since the answers only make learning Chinese even more difficult and frustrating.

Posted on: Tea Tasting

Hey! I see Ken's name as host in this podcast while in all the past Intermediates, John was mentioned. In the spirit of vowed transparency, are there new developments poddies should know of?

Posted on: Tea Tasting

Hi Pete

I'm going to have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you on that one.

Go ahead Pete, I enjoy hearing all your rebuttals! You're a bright guy in your own way, I might learn a thing or two.

"昆虫 is the formal,"correct" word that means "insect."　虫子 is the generic word for the little creepy crawly things ranging from slugs to worms to beetles, etc. It corresponds much more closely to "bug."

Then why don't you translate 虫子 as "bug" in the Vocab? I'm using your translation, not mine.

Bug is not an exclusively American word. And I defy you to find anyone outside of a Victorian-era tea party who would scream

"Wa, an insect! There is an insect in my tea!"

Well, I've lived in UK with my sis for a few years as well as some other countries where English is spoken, and its not at all Victorian to say "insect" instead of bug. If you have a chance, I highly recommend you try out a few countries in Europe and elsewhere where English is 2nd if not the first language. It'll give you a few more options than just opting for American slangs in your translations. What's that? They are not slangs? They're real, natural, 顶级t contextual expressions which will help us avoid literal chinglish?

Did you learn your English from "The Importance of Being Earnest?" ;-)

Nope, just liberal Canadian education, no high brow literature, just end every sentence with an 'eh', and lots of gushing down Canadian brew after each study period.  

 "Wa, an insect! There is an insect in my tea!"

I chose "wa" because it sounds so perfect for a woman (learning Chinese) to utter it when she is horrfied to find insects in the tea. "Whoa" is so manly and macho ... so un-natural for a woman to utter it, unless of course she's a cowgal used to saying "whoas" to her horse.

Yes, we could translate 泡妞 is to chase girls.　It is a little lighter in tone than the English, so I translated it in the vocab as "to cruise for chicks." The emphasis is more on looking cool and flirting than on the sleazier aspects of this activity.

Ha,ha,ha... you're a riot Pete, so much fun in your translations, better than stand-up comedy! I like the way you pull rabbits out of the hat when asked to explain your slangs. Have you looked up the origin of the word "cruising" for chicks? See except below.

嗯，味道不错

Oh, tasty!

Forgive my improper English education, but I've never heard of anyone describing tea as "tasty", just like wine is never described as "tasty". Aromatic, flowery, harsh, woody, plain, tannic, brisk are some of words I've heard but never "tasty" as in "the food is tasty". Do they describe tea as tasty in China or is this a Klingon term? 

 Regional usage variants

As with all argot, regional variants abound. In the United States, the term "cruising" continues to predominantly denote exclusively homosexual behaviour. In Australia and the United Kingdom, however, it is also widely used by heterosexuals to describe their own behaviour, as witnessed in the common male heterosexual derivative phrase "cruising for chicks".

Posted on: Tea Tasting

If "bug" is American colloquialism, then "insect" is an international English word, which is also the proper meaning of 虫子.

哇，虫子！茶里有虫子！

Wa! An insect! There is an insect in my tea!

Posted on: Xinjiang Delicacies

The lamb kebabs coated with spices on a stick and bbq reminds me of "satay" in Malaysia. Interesting, informative, and well done video, although I doubt  I ever will 旅游 Xinjiang.