User Comments - paulinurus

Posted on: Broken, Busted, and Smashed

我特别喜欢这个句子：“如果不听我的话，把你的脖子给拧断了。I especially like this sentence: "If you don't listen to me, I'll wring your neck."

Include an additional modifier (小极瘦的 skinny) to the sentence, and we get even tougher talk:

"If you don't listen to me, I'll wring your scrawny little neck."  如果不听我的话，把你的小极瘦的脖子给拧断了。

我觉得 tough talking women 很性感的。请问，"tough talking women" 用中文怎么说？  

Posted on: Gone Fishing

这个课尤其好，一定给你们五星的等级。那些语法的例子真有用的，为做了特别努力，多谢！

Posted on: Hong Kong Visa Run

@reigau "These days I'm just like: Tibet? Part of China! Okiedoke! Taiwan? POC! No problemo! Any other place you want to include?" Yeah, Quebec belongs to France 哈哈! 你文字的方式相当滑稽的，很好笑！

ps: smug 有意思的词 = 沾沾自喜的 moist, moist, private, joyful thing.

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 4: Fetal Attraction

@reigau 新出生的儿子哇！太好了，祝贺你！听说在中国要找宝宝的名字是最困难的事，many thousands of people have exactly the same first,middle,last names (how the heck do authorities deal with this... photo id cards, I guess) so, finding a passable unique name for your son could be a "hump busting" task。Is combining anglo-saxon with Chinese name passable in China? 你说呢？

Posted on: Letting go with 放

hi all,

here's what I read in my textbook/dictionary about  放心 fang4xin1

放心 fang4xin1 (verb) to set one's mind at ease.

你 办事，我 放心。

ni3 ban4shi4, wo3 fang4xin1

literally: you handle matter, my mind at ease.

Sentence: With you in charge, my mind is at ease.

你 放心 吧，一切 都 安 排 好了。

ni3 fang4xin1 ba, yi2qie4 dou1 an1pai2 hao3le.

literally: you be at ease, everything all   arranged  good

Sentence: Be at ease, everything has been arranged.

不 放心 bu4 fang4xin1 = mind not at ease.

孩子  还没  回来，我 不放心。

hai2zi hai2 mei2 hui2lai, wo3 bu4 fang4xin1

literally: child still not return, I not mind at ease.

Sentence: My mind won't rest because the child has not returned yet.

Posted on: Will you Marry Me?

She also said:

"Since the   traditional conception on  Chinese  family education,  most  Chinese  think the  most  disrespect 

thing  to their  parents is a man  don't get  married.  And  if  a  man don't  get  married most of his parents's  friends  will  say  his parents  did some villainous thing  when they  were young,  so  after  a  Chinese  boy  become  a  adult  person,  his  parents  ask when  him will get  married  everyday.  It's  very  popular  that many  men  rent   girls  when  he want  to  visit  his parents  in China,  especially  every New  Year."

Could be another interesting topic for a future lesson?

Posted on: Will you Marry Me?

Great lesson! I'm glad I found it while browsing the  past lessons this Sunday. Now I can watch and understand a few more words when watching a romantic Chinese movie.

My friend in China whom I am currently helping to learn write English recently informed me that more and more young women in China are holding back marriage. As an excuse not to marry, they would say “我嫁给了工作”。Maybe an idea for a future lesson on rejecting a marriage proposal?

She also told me (she's married and now pregnant) that it is very difficult to find a name for a child. Apparently there are thousands of names in China that are exactly the same, sometimes causing problems to the authorities. "Finding a name"...maybe another idea for a future lesson.?    

Posted on: Letting go with 放

I agree with pretzellogic that when QW uses words, sentences should accompany the words so that we know how the words can be used in context. A word by itself is worthless without knowing how it can be used in a chinese sentence. Just look up the MDBG dictionary and you'll see over 180 words with 放 fang4, but so what?  Sorry to say this is another lame QW in my opinion.  

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 9: Wang Plans Revenge

Hi RJ,

I have a couple of good buddies ('mates') living in Melbourne and was fortunate to have them show me around when I did a business trip stop over there. Australia has a mixture of beautiful and interesting "wide open spaces" as Dixie Chicks would call them... farmlands, vinelands, and of course the rumbling sparkling ocean.  Steaks and sea food couldn't be any fresher selling in the open markets to bring home and just put them on the barbie. Unfortunately I didn't have time to see Sydney but if in Melbourne, I would recommend to anyone to drive the Great Ocean Road to visit the twelve disciples, sip vineyard wines, see the stars of the night flies, shop at the downtown Victoria market, pick huge abalones off the rocks at low tide, and of course eat up Australia's thrill for the grill barbies.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 9: Wang Plans Revenge

I liked this lesson a lot. The dialogue between John and Jenny was clear and succinct, including explaining the grammar 了used as a suffix in a sentence.  

However, I am very annoyed by Pete's response to bodawei's comment of using " busted my hump" as the English translation for卖命.

bodawei said:

Aaah.. for those using these translations to learn English, beware.  The translator uses colourful American expressions that can be either meaningless to other English speakers or even slightly embarrassing. 

Todays case is 'busting my hump' - in Australia we might say 'busted a gut'.  It means I worked very, very hard. A host of metaphors come to mind.  But 'hump' in Australian english is a verb.  Say no more.

pete's response:

Hi bodawei and people trying to learn English here

Very good point. Just as you're better off reading Tolstoy in Russian, you're better off checking out EnglishPod if you want to learn English. Their dialogues are originally written in English, and are full of cultural details. Americans rarely talk about eating dog meat, but they do talk about speeding tickets and beer, both of which have been covered on EPod.

So, if we don't understand the expression "busting my hump", an American expression, we should go to learn English at English pod?  A conceited, arrogant, pretentious, insulting, and deceitful response, in my opinion.

One would have thought that since Chinesepod is teaching Chinese to English and non English speaking people from all over the world, a staff person will be more thoughtful and be less cute when translating 卖命into an English expression.

Further, Pete said:

P.P.S. "To hump" is a verb in American English, too. It means "to carry (something heavy)."  ;-)

Yes, and "To hump" is also another verb in American English having the meaning to have  sex with someone.