User Comments - podster

Posted on: Calm Down Before You Startup

Natasha,

Yes, that works, thanks.  I was able to push the lesson through to my Kindle app by clicking on the text version of the lesson under lesson review downloads, and then CTRL-A (Windows) to select everything, and then the "send to Kindle" button I installed on my Chrome browser in the banner at the top of my page.  I even downloaded Google's Chinese-English dictionary to use in the Kindle app.  I did have to sign in to my Amazon account before it pushed the lesson transcript through to my Kindle app though.  

I should have replied to Gwilym below to make it clear that it worked.  I think I did reply to him elsewhere.  It has been a long time! ;-)

Posted on: Buying Cheap Shares

" 对呀，趁它现在还在低点，我就多买点。不过你这样也好，就把这价格 设成你的停损点。"

Is the implication here that the listener should buy now because the stock is unlikely to go lower, but if it does go lower it may go much lower, so set an advance order to sell quickly in that case?  Sounds like the notion of a "support level" on a chart from which the stock either bounces upward or perhaps crashes through.  

So the stock will either go up, or not.  Later we see that if it doesn't go up it just wasn't meant to be / wasn't in the cards for the hapless investor.   I might as well use the lucky numbers in my fortune cookie to buy lottery tickets.  Fun lesson!

Posted on: Buying Cheap Shares

Character A is voiced by a woman, but isn't the term 兄 used as a term of address between two men?  

Posted on: I Forgot to Turn Off the Gas!

I found some of the comments here confusing, so I checked with my friend Hank Hill to get a better understanding. I knew that all gas used for cooking and heating is "natural" gas, with the exception of propane, （丙烷气 bǐngwánqì）which is a byproduct of refining oil into things like fuel for motorcars. Hank explained to me that propane is also a byproduct of the processing of natural gas, where it is removed because it might otherwise cause problems in the pipelines. In liquefied form natural gas is "LNG" or liquefied natural gas (液化天然气 yèhuà tiānránqì) and propane is "LPG" or liquefied petroleum gas. (液化石油气 yèhuàshíyóuqì）If you have taken a taxi in China you may have stopped for refueling with LNG. It seems that 煤气 and 天然气 are used interchangeably colloquially, but it is also not technically incorrect to do so. The 煤气 piped into homes in China is most likely not the product of coal-to-gas conversion, but probably the term which literally means "coal gas" is used because this natural gas often occurs in coal mines. Basically its methane, whether it comes from a coal or oil deposit, with some ethane, propane, and other things in smaller amounts. China is working on developing coal gasification technology as well, but its target is 12.5% of total gas consumption to be from coal-to-gas conversion by 2020. Yes, 瓦斯 is a loan word, actually a loanword of a loanword. The Japanese pronunciation of the characters would actually sound like the English word "gas" but not so in Mandarin. I would guess that people in Taiwan picked it up when they were under Japanese rule and the Japanese language was widely used.

Posted on: Chasing Stars

Not sure what Veronique means by "listening to the vocabulary" but I would think that would fit Timothy's criterion of "in isolation."  

Since you are both regular users I trust you have seen the recent discussion threads on third tone, no?  

Posted on: We Got Skills: 技能,技术,技巧

 re: 歐 or 奥  

I belive the mainland Chinese press calls the US President 奥巴马， but if you ask the White House how it should be written in Chinese it's 欧巴马.  Actually I think papers in Taiwan use the latter.

You say To-MAY-to, and I say To-MAH-to . . . 

Posted on: Cell Phone Connectivity Issues

大哥大 is not used commonly in the mainland anymore, but if you say it you will probably be understood.  I was a little surprised when the company changed its name to 台湾大哥大  (and yes, they DO use the simplified characters to write "Taiwan") given my understanding of the term's (originally 大哥打 -- “call older brother"）reference to gangsters.

Posted on: Sending a Text Message

Re 一会(儿) both tones (fourth or third) might be used for the second syllable, depending on the speaker.  Tone variations between Taiwan and the mainland are not uncommon, although I am not sure if this is a specific example of that.

Posted on: Words of Encouragement

감사합니다.  

Posted on: Calm Down Before You Startup

Re: "When is 給予 pronounced gěi yǔ and when jǐ yǔ?"

I don't think there is a rule for this in practice. The dictionary will probably tell you that it is always jǐ yǔ but I have asked two native speakers, both natives of Beijing, and one speaker always uses jǐ yǔ and the other gěi yǔ.  Hope this helps.  You might find more examples on the site.  I believe it appears in a lesson where someone is giving a speech and uses "jǐ yǔ"