User Comments - podster

Posted on: Lessons Per Week

There was a very interesting story recently on National Public Radio about how it is virtually impossible to get rid of crusty old canards on Wikipedia, now matter how good the facts are behind one's contrary position. Case in point was a history professor who went back and got original source documents, but had his Wikipedia edits immediately rejected for not being authoritatively sourced, etc. etc.

For what it may be worth, I know a couple from Beijing (born and raised; lived there all their lives through University level) who assured me that their "Beijing dialect" (i.e. the language they would speak when among fellow Beijingers) is NOT standard Putonghua.

Posted on: Asking to Be Paid Back

I see; in that case maybe you can think of it as "it has been several months" meaning several months have elapsed - 了。 I am just telling you how I would think of it, and somebody else might give you a more erudite response. I think there have probably been a few Ph.D dissertations written on the uses of 了，so please don't get too fixated on the idea that it "operates on a verb . . . ", etc.

Posted on: Asking to Be Paid Back

As an example of the pattern, how about 我已经等了你 30分钟。

Posted on: Asking to Be Paid Back

actually its "borrowed" in this context. That is part of the lesson; how to distinguish whether 借 means borrow or lend by understanding the context.

Posted on: Sales: Understanding a Customer's Needs

Chris,

I have interpreted the "ba" to be abstract or figurative here. In other words, I am not going to physically pick up my products and drop them into the market. However, you are right that ba can mean to physically take hold of something. But my interpretation is it is "take" in another sense (which parallels nicely with English -- e.g. "don't take me for a fool" ). So I am going to take "those few people" to be my target. Again, the product is not the thing being taken, it is part of the clause that modifies those people in the target market. The are the ones "to whom I can sell my product," and that is what makes them my target.

Well, I'm more than 50% sure of my translation. Maybe a teacher will pipe up tomorrow and reveal that I am out to lunch.

Posted on: Sales: Understanding a Customer's Needs

That is a doozy of a sentence.  I think 才是 is drawing a contrast between the large group, and those within the group who are the target market.  I think of it as "they, and only they" in a context like this. 

I think 把 means consider, or regard as.  So here it means those who can be considered as the target to whom the products can be sold. 

Within the vast group of people, who are the ones that can be regarded as the target to whom my products can be sold. 

As to the "ba" structure, I wonder if we could drop the 产品销售出去的  as it would just be a clause modifying 对象 。  我可能把我的对象  would be a more distilled version of the "ba" structure in this case.  I guess the reason why this sentence is difficult is that it has multiple modifiers in addition to the "cai shi" and "ba". 

Posted on: Rich and Poor

Let me try my hand at American usage:  In an apartment building all of the occupants are tenants and all of them are renting from the same landlord.  An identical building could be comprised of condos, in which case each unit is sold with a separate title, and occupants may be owners, or renting from various different landlords. 

I think in China when someone says 买房子 the closest equivalent in English is "buy a condo" because they are taking ownership of a unit in some multi-unit development.  

I am not clear on the usage of 公寓 in Chinese, i.e., whether it refers to a single unit or an entire building, which we would call an "apartment building."  Can anyone clarify this for me?

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

my hero . Thanks for posting the photo, I have finally decided to start using an avatar!

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

you and I must share Onslow from Keeping Up Appearances as our role model.

Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls

ouch, youse guys are hurting my brain. next yer gonna tell me that a panda bear is not really a bear!

I kinda think Chinese know that a big 老鼠 and a 老鼠 are not really the same animal (eg the former is not just a well fed version of the latter). Btw, when my Chinese friend first saw a possum (or opossum if you prefer) she said 大老鼠! But I digress. When my Spanish speaking friend told me that a peacock is a "royal turkey" I said "of course, it isn't REALLY a turkey" I was met with a blank stare. Fruitless discussion ensued and I began to realize that semantics really does color ones worldview. Any Noam Chomsky fans out there?