User Comments - pearltowerpete

Posted on: Don't push that button

Hi chris,

You're right. In this sentence and others like it, some noun (usually 东西 dong1xi1 thing) has been omitted. So the point isn't so much to emphasize the adjective （as in a 是...的 sentence) as to simply describe the noun.

Thanks for helping out your fellow poddies!

Posted on: Food Oddities and Eye Exercises

Hi tvan

Don't feel too guilty about hunting and fishing. Sportsmen and -women do a great deal to protect and respect Mother Nature. Often, they do more than well-meaning armchair conservationists.

Animals clearly suffer, and I don't eat them anymore myself. But they and we would be far better off if more people followed your example and caught their own. Instead, most of us are happy to pay as little as possible for feedlot meat raised with cheap oil and antibiotics.

Posted on: Early January News

Matt is a wicked addition to the CPod team. Our brotherhood was forged in the painful flames of the Radical Show ;-)

Hi Cassie and Kevina

The song Yankee Doodle was originally intended to mock the Continental (American) soldiers as backwoods, uncivilized rustics. But as sometimes happens with words intended to be hurtful, the Continentals defiantly adopted it for themselves.

The line "He stuck a feather in his cap/ and called it macaroni" makes more sense when you learn that "macaroni" was slang for "cool or fashionable" in the Revolutionary era.

Right now, I'd say Yankee is understood within the States to mean "Northerner" (specifically from the states in the Union during the Civil War of 1861-65) whereas it means "American" in general among non-Americans.

Apparently many other languages have added some form of "Yankee," such as Singlish's "Yanqui." Do our poddies have any other examples?

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

Hi zhenlijiang

Thanks for your comments and enthusiasm. The CPod community is definitely what makes this site great.

Hi changye

Chinese people not much older than the 80后 (ba1 ling2 hou4 --children born after 1980) generation can remember needing to 打 other liquids, including 醋cu4 vinegar and 白酒 bai2jiu3 grain liquor. In the old days, individual bottles were rare, so you would take your ration ticket down to the supply station and 打 from a big tub of whatever you needed.

You can still ask them to 打一碗饭 in the cafeteria.

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

Hi andr3y

Thanks for sharing your opinion. I hope my earlier comments made it clear that CPod is not endorsing Communist ideology.

This topic (and other lessons on topics such as the Long March) are presented so that our learners, who overwhelmingly did not grow up behind a "curtain" (Iron, Bamboo or otherwise) can get a taste of these culturally significant concepts. Like them or not (like many commenters on this board, I do not) these stories and legends are a part of modern Chinese culture.

You can't fully understand your own position without understanding your opponent's. Often, exposure to your opponent's views will clarify or strengthen your own opinions, and make it harder for anyone to trick you. There's nothing a dictator or propagandist likes more than an ignorant audience. 

Again, thanks for commenting. I hope to see your questions and comments on the boards.

Posted on: Applying For a Visa

*Comment deleted by moderator

Posted on: Paying the Bill

Hi dunderklumpen

No real reason for the different versions of face.

On a funny side note, I had a professor once who said that the reason that 面容的容 mian4rong2 also means "face" is that it is a roof radical over 谷 gu3, grain. Being rich enough to have grain in your house gives you a lot of---- face! I doubt if that's the real etymology but it is cute.

Back to sleep now. Jetlag is no fun.

Posted on: A Promotion

Hi weibosi

Really interesting suggestion. Thank you. We are currently discussing how to improve the practice questions. Your idea has come at the right time.

Posted on: Personal Trainer

Hi all

The character 耐 nài in the podcast is used in many useful compounds.

• If something will stand up to repeated washing, it is 耐洗 。

• Something durable is 耐用. 

• "Food for thought" is 耐人寻味, literally, it can stand up to your efforts to find something interesting in it.

What are your favorite 耐 compounds?

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

Hi barto,

Thanks for an insightful comment. As this is an elementary lesson I'm afraid some poddies may not understand your comments, so I've taken the liberty of translating the last part. The whole comment is interesting, but the part I feel is most relevant to the conversation is:

"Would anyone seriously say "Well, the Qin dynasty was bad, so we shouldn't study Han Feizi (a Legalist philosopher and major classical scholar of that era -ed.)!" Whether Lei Feng was real or fake, he's already become a part of Chinese culture. For that reason, this guy is worth studying."