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Posted on: 港媒：上海幼儿园鼓励方言被批鼓励歧视
February 23, 2014 at 12:17 PM你会在中文播客学上海话：
http://chinesepod.com/library/courses/shanghainese-newbie-course/13
Posted on: Where Is The 在 At?
February 21, 2014 at 3:59 PMRe: "this is the use of 在 that explains WHERE the action occurs" I think they said the opposite in the podcast. That is to say, that when showing where the action occurs 在 is placed BEFORE the verb.
Re your second point, ("When 在 is placed before the verb, it is saying that the action is in the process of being done.") I don't disagree, but I believe this pattern was not addressed in this podcast. I assume you mean a present progressive tense: 我在吃饭 "I am eating." Or 我正在吃饭。
Posted on: Where Is The 在 At?
February 21, 2014 at 3:52 PMRe.: "What about 住在。。 。？ “ -- Interesting question. In English we seem to have a simple pattern:
Tom works in Shanghai.
Tom lives in Shanghai.
But in Chinese the placement of 在 seems inconsistent.
Tom 在上海工作
Tom 住在上海
The first example seems to match the hosts' explanation that 在 comes before the verb to show us where the action is taking place. The second example seems to violate this "rule." I guess 住 is just one of those verbs that has some "directionality" implied:
放在桌子上。 Put it on the table
睡在地面。 Sleep on the ground
住在上海。 Live in Shanghai.
Posted on: A Robotic Solution?
February 21, 2014 at 7:23 AMVera， 在上海可以买 “玛纽尔职能吸尘器。” (http://elec.it168.com/a2013/0116/1447/000001447441.shtml) 不过以前我买了Roomba，不太满意。 电池必须重新买。 而且履带破了。 使用的时候很方便，如果有小房间，没有很多家具和其它东西在地面，而没有地毯的话。 不过我觉得不值得。
Posted on: A Robotic Solution?
February 13, 2014 at 12:51 PMIdeal for the yurt.
Posted on: Learning to Swim
February 11, 2014 at 7:02 AMGreat suggestion to have a lesson about movement. Does China have a version of the children's games Simon Says or "Mother, May I"? How about the hokey-pokey dance?
Posted on: A Hands On Approach
February 9, 2014 at 12:53 AMYou are probably wise to say "a" correct pronunciation, rather than "the" correct pronunciation. My Mandarin Popup dictionary says that "ling1" is the Taiwan pronunciation. I think maybe we can generalize that both Shanghai and Taiwan are part of the South, as opposed to say, Beijing or Harbin, where they probably say "lin1" .
You say To-MAY-toe, and I say To-MAH-toe . . .
Posted on: Travel by Tour Group
February 8, 2014 at 2:50 PMI'll take a stab. By the way, it would help if you (and everybody) would cite entire sentences when you post questions, in order to give the context and eliminate the need to navigate back and forth. Just a respectful suggestion
Both questions are actually really good ones, I think. The crux of the problem is the verbs 玩 and 赶， because they don't have precise English equivalents.
玩 can be translated as play, but also as "play with" (something)
赶 can be translated as "hurry", but also "catch up" (to something / with something).
什么嘛，海洋公园才玩了一个小时。
Which CPod translates as: What? We're at Ocean Park and we're only staying for one hour?
Even though Ocean Park can be thought of a location, (hence the use of "at"), it can also be thought of as a "thing" (with which one can play.) I realize that in English you would never say "We played *with* Disney Land" but I think this is the sense in Chinese.
So to answer your question, I would say no, it would not be correct to say 上海我住了。。。because 住 is not the same sort of verb. It implies location and requires 在.
And for your question number 2,
perhaps a more awkward but literal translation would be "we have to catch up to the playing, catch up to the eating" . Or, "rush in order to play, rush in order to eat", rather than "when we enjoy ourselves" or "when we eat"
那你看现在，什么都要赶，玩要赶，吃饭要赶.
I have some doubt that my explanation is very clear. Maybe it will help to point out that 赶 translates in a more parallel fashion with English when you say things like "catch a train" (赶火车）
As always, welcome to any of the CPod teachers to tell me I am wrong, and provide a proper explanation. In particular I have a suspicion that 在 might. in fact, sometimes get omitted in colloquial speech.
Posted on: Labor Dispute
February 8, 2014 at 11:47 AMOh, of course, its from Cicero. (Porky's nephew, if I recall. I guess its "Pig Latin". ) But seriously folks, looks like it is in fact dummy data just holding a place: For the straight dope: http://www.lipsum.com/
Posted on: A Robotic Solution?
February 24, 2014 at 2:55 AM是吗？ iRobot 就是 Roomba。 如果你有空气净化器 也许你会发现家里的灰尘少一点。 不过在中国空气净化器也卖得非常贵。还有便宜多的办法： http://www.techinasia.com/team-budget-air-purifiers-chinas-pollutionchoked-residents/