User Comments - podster

Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners

你很厉害。 "You are really something." Just as in that English translation, its ambiguous. It might mean something really good. Or really bad. Depends on the context.

Posted on: The Life of a Programmer 3: Heading Home

Hi Toianw,

According to the mandarin popup plugin dictionary on my Firefox browser 屌 can mean "cool or extraordinary (colloquial)"

Now with 牛屄　you have to be a bit careful. It might be okay to say "牛！“　(Beijing slang for "cool" or "great") when speaking informally but 牛屄 would sound much more vulgar. To extend the bovine imagery a bit, it's like American English where its okay to say "bull!" although not in public speaking (okay, well George W. Bush might) but you don't want to say "bullshit!" in front of every type of audience.

I hadn't heard about the Taiwan usage. Maybe they are saying "bird"? haha. Interesting that diao, niao, and niu differ by just one phoneme.

As to whether it is recent usage, it could just be snobby (or priggish) lexicographers.

Posted on: The Life of a Programmer 3: Heading Home

Four dictionaries? Sounds like time to get a new dictionary. I could not find one the did NOT have 屌. Interestingly, when I searched by pinyin one of my Pleco dictionaries also returned 鸟 but when I looked that one up as a separate character it only has niǎo, or "bird." (Vera, is 鸟 a 多音字？)　　Cowndparkseattle, thanks for the great mnemonic for　男屌丝, even if its not the way in which the word is actually thought of, according to Vera.

By the way, while my mind is still in the gutter, let me put in a plug for the book "NIUBI, The Real Chinese You Were Never Taught in School" by Eveline Chao, a fantastic treatment of modern Chinese slang. Very entertaining and informative.

Posted on: A Bad Guy

Re the difference between 你跟事聊天 / 你 *在* 跟谁聊天 ， "What babardwan said". My interpretation is the same. I don't think your proposed alternative is "less correct." Maybe just more ambiguous, or "less precise." But the context would make it unambiguous in this case.

Posted on: A Bad Guy

ummm . . . the background looks like a floral pattern, not sure if its a curtain. Flower fetish? There are flowers on the tea cup too. Or curtain fetish? Her hand and mouth make her look pensive. Maybe she is thinking dirty thoughts? Now I am wondering if I should put a shirt on. I'm afraid my avatar is titillating the prurient interests of female poddies.

bohan, hope you don't mind my tweaking; I know you have been on the site for a long time now and are a serious student. But I don't think the graphic designer or whoever chose the photo should be made to feel that they did something "perverted."

我自己也欣赏美女，不觉得是证据我是色狼。

Posted on: A Bad Guy

哈哈 I think many male poddies will be happy to have such a 网友。 Were you the one who also found the hot spring vacation lesson photo offensive? Maybe we should have a lesson on standards of modesty and decency. I'm sure a lively discussion would ensue.

I thought the woman in the picture for this lesson looked pretty. Does that mean I have a fetish? 你要说 “Podster， 那个人不好” 吗？ 嘿嘿。

Posted on: What's Your Name?

Skritter is actually well integrated with Chinese Pod. The lessons have a "Skritter Lite" writing practice tab, and vocabulary lists for each of the Chinese Pod individual lessons are available on the Skritter site's vocabulary list section. I highly recommend Skritter for anyone serious about memorizing written Chinese by writing the characters.

Posted on: Ordering Noodles

Josh178: Really? How "shocked and offended" were the ladies when you addressed them as 小姐？ (xiǎojie) Did you get a slap? : ) With all respect to your direct experience, I am starting to suspect that this whole thing about the use of 小姐 causing shock and offense is a bit of a linguistic urban legend among foreigners. Of course, you are absolutely correct that it is used as a euphemism for prostitutes, and I'm sure it grated on the ears of the women in Shandong province, which is why they "graciously" told you it was not the preferred term of address. On a related note, now I'm wondering if I will cause an uproar (or just giggles) if I address a group of guys as "同志们“ (Literally "comrades" but now it would be used for homosexual lovers in popular slang). Anyway, I have a suggestion for you. Whereas in the West it would probably be offensive to call for a waitress' attention by saying "hey, good looking!" it is perfectly acceptable to call a young lady 美女 (měinǚ) in modern China. Give it a try in Shandong, and let us know how it goes!

Posted on: The Final Show

Agreed

Posted on: Kung Fu King Comparisons

谢谢，Connie， 我要看一下 的 / 得 / 地 的 QW 课。