User Comments - pearltowerpete

Posted on: Get in line!

Hi light487

The difference you picked up on is between truly by-the-book standard Mandarin, and the softer, less crisp pronunciation of daily life.

Connie mentions another example, 元 yuan2, in which the "a" is often softened noticeably in daily speech.

Posted on: Argument over Garbage (2)

Hi jackfrombelgium

Chinese would generally just say 我喜欢工作 for "I like to work."

If you are crazy about working, or even a "workaholic", you could say 我是个工作狂 (kuang2 - madman). But this is less about how much you really like your job, and more that you are obsessed with it.

Posted on: Argument over Garbage (2)

Hi bettine,

That method might have worked! It is less personal, and it lets the guilty parties 留面子.

But they might not have noticed it, either.

Posted on: Argument over Garbage (2)

Hi changye,

That would have gotten some results!

Posted on: Argument over Garbage (2)

Hi btwbtw

As a learner, I understand and sympathize with your desire for standard pronunciation. In a perfect world maybe all Chinese speakers would have a 承德 accent.

But that is definitely not the world we live in. A good part of the difficulty of learning Chinese is getting accustomed to the wildly different accents, lexicons, and styles of speech across this crazy-quilt country.

My advice to Chinese learners frustrated with "unintelligible" or "bad" accents is the same as my advice to my English students horrified at Scottish/Indian/etc. accents many moons ago: Get used to it. Millions of people speak in the accent that you find so annoying.

CPod tries to introduce listeners to a variety of male and female voices. I encourage you to listen to as many different speakers, songs, and movies as you can.

We've never claimed to be the only show in town. But we are proud of the production values you mentioned, and will continue to do our best to meet the needs of our listeners.

Thanks for your comment.

Posted on: Good Night

Hi apple41

Generally, 干 gan4 and 做 zuo4 can be used interchangeably.

In some special situations, 干 is more negative. It still means "do” but has a bad connotation. For example, 干坏事 gan4huai4shi4 “to do bad things."

It would be remiss of me not to mention that 干 can sometimes have a crude sexual meaning, similar to "to do [someone]"  in English. Just be aware of it.

Posted on: I Want This

Hi china4me

对不起 is more of an apology, and indicates that you've done something to be sorry about.

不好意思 just softens your tone when you want someone to let you pass, for example.

So it's more correct to say 不好意思，请让一下

Posted on: Chinese Characters and the History of Sex in China

Hi antony73

There's no real magic. In my case, it was a lot of repetition and rote copying. I would only be satisfied that I knew the character if I could write it very slowly, stroke by stroke.

Studying radicals is a good place to start. I guess the main thing is to study words you find useful or interesting. Don't try to dig into Tang poetry yet. Just keep a little notebook (or some more hi-tech device) where you record each character you don't automatically recognize. At the end of the day, look them up (preferably in a paper dictionary, as these lend themselves to browsing and flights of discovery).

A lot of people use flashcards. You can review them while you wait for the bus or whatever. I just always used free moments to thumb through my notebook.

But people have wildly different methods. And none of us will ever really get done learning.

Posted on: Get in line!

Hi tiffany9

There has been some heated discussion here about the implications and usage of phrases like 老外，外国人，and so on.

While 外国人 can be translated as the generic "foreigner," it could arguably be understood as "not ethnically Chinese." The Chinese idea of nationality is based more on ethnicity than on the legal status of the person.

Any mention of this incredibly delicate topic is sure to set off a barrage of wounded commentary from poddies Chinese and "foreign." For the sake of relevance to the topic of getting in line, let's restrict the fascinating discussion of ethnicity, identity and getting our groove back to other groups or boards.

Posted on: 一见钟情

Hi goulniky

没错。"投机“ 的出处是：

酒逢知己千杯少，话不投机半句多

你要是跟某人合得来，一起喝一千杯酒不会嫌多。如果合不来，跟他说一句话就很烦。