User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: Lost in the Desert
January 7, 2009 at 3:31 AMHi itw0509,
caryeun is right, it is 师傅. It's always great when the poddie community comes to the rescue.
Incidentally, I think Jiaojie chose a great picture for today's lesson.
Posted on: Outrageous Power Bill
January 7, 2009 at 3:28 AMHi fangaili and pinkjeans
Oh, I see. You can certainly make a strong case for your version, as a Baidu search for 天啊 actually gives more than 7 million returns, whereas 天哪 has only 5 million. But my dictionaries give 天哪 as the standard version.
Posted on: Personal Trainer
January 7, 2009 at 2:19 AMHi nial
Gymnastics is 体操 ti3cao1. This is what you see in competitions like the Olympics. Please note, though, that this word can also mean "calisthenics". *groan*
Aerobics， the kind of exercising you would do at a gym, is 跳操.
Posted on: Outrageous Power Bill
January 7, 2009 at 2:13 AMHi pinkjeans,
Translating these interjections is always a bit of a challenge. While there traditionally was a concept of something like "Providence, (老天）” I generally shy away from translations like "Good Lord" or "Oh, God" because:
1) it sounds a little artificial in Chinese due to the historic lack of the Judeo-Christian "God."
2) some more traditional Western readers don't like to see the name of the Lord taken in vain.
Based on how people use the phrases, they are in fact very similar to "Good lord." The decision not to translate them that way is due more to cultural than linguistic reasoning.
Thanks for an interesting question (as always!)
Posted on: Don't push that button
January 7, 2009 at 2:03 AMHi dunderklumpen
Good question. You're right, and I have corrected the sentence.
If you wanted to say "This was bought by you," you would say "这是被你买的."
给 can indeed be used in passive constructions, but it is a little beyond the scope of this discussion.
Posted on: Borrowing Money
January 6, 2009 at 7:04 AMHi curtc
We definitely keep monitoring the lessons-- we still make corrections and adjustments to lessons released in 2006! Our poddies demand excellence and we aim to provide it.
However, I just listened again to the dialogue on my headset and I think both speakers are clearly understandable. Of course one guy's voice has some phone sound effects, but I had no trouble understanding him.
Posted on: Karaoke
January 6, 2009 at 6:10 AMHi ivor88
Teresa Teng is definitely an acquired taste. I never got into her, but she's still popular among mainland people in their fifties.
I suspect a lot of her popularity is nostalgia instead of real appreciation for her syrupy singing. She was one of the first artists to make it big after a long period of utter cultural desolation (unless you are the sort that enjoys moralistic skits about the glories of socialism.)
If I've said it once, I've said it a million times-- Wang Fei 王菲 has the voice of an angel and a smile to match. Plus you could impress your Hong Kong friends by learning a few of her many Cantonese songs, some of which also have Mandarin verions.
Posted on: Outrageous Power Bill
January 6, 2009 at 5:32 AMHi all
Just to clarify, feel free to keep writing totally in Chinese on the forums for higher level lessons.
These guidelines are for the newbie and elementary lesson forums. We all remember the intense difficulty of reading characters when you're first getting started.
Posted on: Which friend?
January 6, 2009 at 1:51 AMHi tomekz
Glad you enjoyed this lesson!
The 友 you3 in 朋友 is indeed a third tone, but should be read as a neutral tone. So it may sound a bit like a fourth tone to you. Connie has just fixed the pinyin.
There's no transformation of third--> fourth tone in Mandarin. I
Posted on: Lost in the Desert
January 7, 2009 at 5:03 AMHi itw0509
Good old William B. Yeats said that the point of education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.
Chinese is an immensely challenging language. It's easy for students to get disappointed or bored. So in addition to words used in daily life, we try to include words that are interesting and may get learners excited about digging deeper into the language.
If you are serious about mastering Chinese, you will eventually need to know how to say "rations," and "hallucination." As a learner, you could try to study them with a dictionary. But you'll have more fun (and likely retain the words longer) if you encounter them in an intriguing context.
Why is a mirage called "ocean market, clam building?" Don't you want to find out?