User Comments - paulinurus

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

Hey Raygo, I just read your notes.. thanks again for sharing your translation. Was quite impressed you caught Jenny's phrase 他们蛮严重的... If not already a Klingon, you may be one in disguise. 

Posted on: Funny Rice

What a coincidence this week's lesson is about rice! Before the lesson came out, I was chatting with my friend who is taking a natural chinese medicine course. She said the instructor (Chinese person from China) mentioned "raw pearl barley" and said it in Mandarin which sounded like 'shang ee mee'. Referring to the dictionary, I told her I think he said  生薏米 sheng1 yi4 mi3. Hope I gave her the right words.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

zhenlijiang,

"I wouldn't like to be so impatient with fellow students who have expressed difficulties where others don't see any that we miss identifying areas that can actually stand to be improved."

Thank you for expressing this thought. Yes, the people who have already evolved into klingons can easily read and understand the hanyu text and can appreciate and enjoy Pete's English translations to bring out the flavor and drama of the story lines using phrases such "busting my hump" and "then, that's it" Meanwhile, us who have just moved from Elementary level into Intermediate are frustrated by some of his translations and even shortchanged in our learning Chinese.

It is clear to me from the exchanges that Pete is more interested in providing "subtitles" to bring out the emotions and drama of the dialogue (story) than in choosing translations that will better help people to learn more Chinese. However, with his offer of annotations and further notes, hopefully both camps, the needs of the klingons and ordinaries can be met.

As for the other areas of study (Vocab, Expansion, Audio Review, Exercises,), yes there are problems of quality control, coordination, and consistency. However, I don't mind the Expansion sentences steering away from the Dialogue theme because the sentences provide more breath of vocabulary usage.

As of now, the missing vocabulary in the Audio Review has not been fixed, even though a staff member posted here that it has. I wonder whose role is it at Cpod to fix the Audio Review.   

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

So Pete, let's say despite his Chinese name, Lao Wang is an American 老外 lǎowài who hires you as a translator to help him communicate comprehensively about the money/job situation with his native Chinese wife.

He says  "我已经谈得差不多了" and you turn to the wife and say "He already basically got it done." wouldn't this translation enraged her more?

So much so, she says "好啊，那我们不过了" and you turn to him and say "Fine. Then that's it!". Bewildered, Lao Wang looks at you and asks  "what's it?"

I hope that your role here at Cpod is more as a teacher than a translator. Feeling and tone translations are great for making stories interesting, but I'm here to learn Chinese and not as a spectator in a play. And as far as learning goes, the basic premise of learning is by association. That's why music teachers say "good boy does fine" when teaching people how to read notes. But I guess Pete will remain Pete, so yes I do look forward for the pop-up annotations or notes.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

Calkins,

You advised Bob to look in the dictionary for the meaning of the word "defect", did you?

Defect doesn't infer "things were pretty bad at Chinesepod for Amber" as you believe it does.  

Collins English Dictionary for Advanced Learners:

"If you defect, you leave your group to join an opposing group."

As for purpose, that's a typical red herring to try and censor someone's post which is not to your liking. What's your purpose for opposing Bob's post? Maybe he just wanted to chat about Amber, just like many others have done countless times in the past. What's wrong with that and why should he be limited to the nature of posts? Why are you asking for someone's purpose in a post? In any case, he provided me and perhaps others here with useful information that we were not aware off before.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

And as for whether someone has used his brain before using the word "defect", I think in Amber's case, there was processing of the brain. I thought it strange too that she would suddenly go straight to New York instead of returning to her Vancouver home town and not have already something lined up as the next step , unlike Lao Wang's 混日子. Now that she's surfaced doing what she's doing, defect is quite an appropriate word.   

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

Hi Pete,

The teacher in the first Mandarin class I took taught us 美国 America, explaining that in the olden days perhaps Chinese regard America as the beautiful country to visit/live in. Not only did I easily remember henceforth the Chinese word for America, but I also learnt two other words, beautiful and country. Killed 3 birds with one stone.

As for Chengyu, few months ago I borrowed a book "A Thousand Idioms'  from the library and the ones that I can easily recall are the ones where the individual characters paint a picture of the final meaning, for example猫哭老鼠 cat weeps for dead mouse = shed crocodile tears. If I just memorize mao1 ku1 lao3 shu3 without bothering with the individual characters, not only would I find it difficult to remember this chengyu, but would also have missed out learning four other words.

So your advice that learners should not bother with individual characters that make up the word just don't hold water for me. Maybe my brain is not a Klingon brain like yours and not cute or smart enough to remember a whole bunch of chinese characters as one word without bothering with the individual characters. 

So, by translating 那我们不过了 as "Fine, that's it," may be fine for you, but it is not for me. So how do I use this phrase? Choose the right scenario precisely like Lao Wang before I can utter it? What's wrong with translating  那我们不过了 let's not live together?

" My advice to learners is, don't get obsessed with literal translations. They are fun to bring up at cocktail parties. But they will not help you learn the language faster or use it more effectively. They only mean that you are not thinking in Chinese."

Is this a clinically proven advice or just your opinion? In China or in America do they teach in the teacher's training colleges that when learning Chinese students should not bother with the individual characters ‘origins' that make up a word?

But obviously, it is the student's responsibility to find teachers who register with them and it's good to know that yet another source of learning Chinese has sprung up.  

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

However, I have two issues with the dialogue: (1) Strange Chinese phrases relative to common English usage, and (2) Pete's translation.

Usage:

去、去、去，不要跟我说项目 translated as "Go on, go on. Don't tell me about projects."

Strange to say ‘Go on, go on. Don't tell me about projects.' Is this the Chinese cultural or idiomatic way of saying the English equivalent of "‘Come on, don't tell me about projects" And if so, why does Chinese use去，去，去instead of  来,来，来?。Too bad, this strange Chinese expression is not clarified in the show podcast.

Translation:

我已经谈得差不多了translated as "I've already basically got it done."

Vocab says谈 means ‘discuss', so why translate as ‘done'?

Usage/Translation:

你去骗三岁小孩子吧。你有那个本事？translated as "Go try and trick a three-year old child! Can you do that? "

Quite a strange translation that says "Go try and trick a three-year old child! Can you do that?' Of course, one can easily trick a 3 year old!. So, it doesn't seem to make sense to ask can you trick a 3-year old child. Maybe the translation is inaccurate, or maybe the translation is a sarcastic remark similar to: Go and trick a three-year old child! You have the skill to do so!

Expansion sentence says 本事 means skill, so would not 你有那个本事 translate into "you have that skill" instead of "can you do that?"

Translation:

你这个人就知道混日子 translated as "You just know how to coast along." When we say someone is coasting along in the office, we generally imply he is getting paid while doing as little as possible i.e. taking advantage of the situation. Is Lao Wang coasting (taking advantage of the situation) when the family is running out of cash, or is he just unable to get the business going?  

Dictionary says 你这个人就知道混日子 means "You're a person who just drift aimlessly" .

Translation:

好啊，那我们不过了！translated as "Fine. Then that's it!"

That's what? What is 不过了?

I think John explained the Chinese expression有个屁用啊 well. I think anytime there is a Chinese expression which is cultural or idiomatic, it will serve poddies well if there is some discussion or clarification. For example... why is  去、去、去 used?

I think too, translations at the Intermediate level  should be more closely aligned to the actual Chinese words being used. Learning Chinese is hard enough and puzzling translations will only make the endeavor more  difficult.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

Just finished listening to the Expansion sentences.... one of the best Expansion imo. The reading speed was just right to catch how the words should be pronounced, unlike the speed reading in certain past lessons. I thought the sentences themselves were very practical for day to day use, and constructed in a manner that makes it understandable and easy for learners to remember. Good work much appreciated!

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

hi bababardwan,

it's ok now.. must be some servers somewhere not working fine for a time. Thanks