User Comments - pulosm
pulosm
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 19, 2008 at 6:12 PM***I should note that 少 here is still pronounced in the third tone in this usage.
Sometimes, 少 is pronounced in the fourth tone and means something like young, as in the phrase "shao4nian2" (youth).
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 19, 2008 at 6:09 PMrash,
少 here is used as a verb. So, he's saying "I'm missing one piece (of luggage)." The word 少 can mean "to be missing [something]" or "to be short [of something]."
You'll be surprised at the fluidity at which adjectives, nouns, adverbs, and verbs can switch roles in Chinese. You have to look that relationship as fluid and not rely on a rigid understanding of what the word "means." If you keep that in mind, you will start noticing things like this and you'll eventually be able to pick up on these things.
Hope that helps (that, and the gratuitous advice!) ;-)
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 19, 2008 at 6:01 PMMichele,
No. There are no dual plurals in Modern Greek.
I know that Arabic has dual plurals, as do Polynesian langauges, which also have inclusives and exclusives.
For example, in Hawaiian, "we" is expressed in four different ways:
kaua: we (you and I) [dual plural]
maua: we (someone else and I) [dual plural]
kakou: we (you, other people, and I)
makou: we (other people and I)
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 17, 2008 at 9:24 PMhenning,
But doesn't neuter count as a gender for langauge purposes?
btw, in Greek "luggage" is feminine:
Posted on: Missing Luggage
June 17, 2008 at 9:15 PMBoran,
气死我了 could als be expressed 我气死了. The difference in meaning is slight. The second means something like "I'm so mad!" The first means something like "It really makes me mad!" Again, it's a slight nuance, but I think the first one has a silent subject. I.e., it means something like X 气死我了! X makes/made me so mad!
I would point out that, in my experience, mostly only women use these phrases. Men don't really use the 死了pattern, especially not to express 气.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 16, 2008 at 7:21 PMWho did the Taiwanese accent? I get the impression that this wasn't a blind test, i.e., they were told pronounce this in a "Taiwanese way." He pronounced "reng" as "leng" and "gongzuo" as "gongzhuo." That type of accent is not considered "correct Mandarin", even in Taiwan.
Also, while this was somewhat balanced (i.e., you tried to portray them as different but equal), when talking about the northern accent as compared to the others, you referred to the former as "zhengque." I think it's helpful to note that adding "er" to everything is actually not Standard Mandarin and that it comes from a Mongolian influence.
I think the way the tones are pronounced is one of the most interesting differences. Beijingers have sharp third tones, whereas Taiwanese speakers rarely complete the third tone (i.e., rise upward). Also, there are tons of words with alternative tones:
coconut: ye1zi (mainland); ye2zi (taiwan)
week: xing1qi1 (mainland); xing1qi2 (taiwan)
I am sure there are tons more, but none are coming to me right now!
Posted on: Fortunate Cookies
June 16, 2008 at 5:05 PMbillm,
That's funny considering the fact that "mein" means "noodle" (of course, it's spelled to match the Cantonese pronunciation).
Trust me. In California, you can find all kinds of awesome Chinese food. I would take California Chinese over soaking-in-grease Mainland food ANY day of the week.
One thing that's hard to find is "zha mantou" that they have in Beijing. Delicious deep-friend mini-mantous that you dip in condensed milk. That stuff is SO awesome.
Oh, and what's the sticky potato or apple dessert that comes out super hot, covered in sticky carmel-like goo, and you have to dip it in water to cool it quickly before eating it? I recall it has the word "si1" in it (like silk strings). It wasn't my favorite dish, but I must say, I haven't seen it here. Probably because most of the food is southern Chinese or Taiwanese.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
June 16, 2008 at 3:17 PMI think there is a tendency to compare the situation with Mandarin accents to the accent disparity in English among Canadians, Brits, Americans, and among people inside those countries (Manchester vs. London, for, e.g.).
Mandarin isn't like that. It's important to realize that many of these people are not native Mandarin speakers. To that extent, it's like having a lesson on the way Vietnamese people speak Mandarin. Sure, it's interesting, but it's not really a regional pronunciation as a comparison between New Yorkers and Californians would be. People buy into the myth that China is really one country with one language. It's not. Most of the time, speakers of other languages (such as Cantonese) only vaguely try to communicate in Mandarin. They didn't listen to Chinesepod to learn Mandarin! They take it in school, but that's it. So when they speak, they could say "wo" if they wanted, probably, but it's easier to just say "ngo."
Also, Beijingers have accents. They are not speaking Standard Mandarin as learned in textbooks. It's close, but it's still heavily accented. You know this because people on the news don't talk like people who drive taxis.
With Taiwanese, it's the same. People on the news clearly distinguish "shi" and "si." In fact, a lot of people do. It's become a sort of slang not to, and that of course comes from influence from the local Taiwanese (min3nan2) language.
Finally, I think it's important to realize that "Mandarin" as we know it is a constructed language. It's based on the Northern Chinese langauges, but it is a manufactured language native to NO ONE. When it was chosen as China's official language (and this was a battle that Cantonese came close to winning, btw!), it was changed, reworked, and modified to form a standard language.
One example is the "ru4sheng1" or entering tone that many Chinese languages have. Mandarin had this as a fifth (or sixth, if you count the "qing1sheng1", as some do today) tone!!! It was removed and those words were merged into other tones.
The same is happening with Cantonese. There are currently two tonal pronunciations of certain words. For example, "to listen" is "teng." That can be pronounced with a high flat tone or a high flat tone that falls slightly. Eventually, my feeling is, the latter will go away, at least in Hong Kong.
Posted on: I Can/Can't Afford it (...得起 & ...不起）
June 16, 2008 at 4:01 AMIf you say "学得起", I think most people will understand that phrase to mean "able to learn." Of course, your sentence wouldn't work. You'd have to say something like "用Chinesepod学得起中文". 学 might be confusing because people also say 学得来, 学得会, etc. The nuances there are somewhat subtle.
As for "不动", I didn't listen to this podcast, but I can say that it usually goes with verbs that involve movement or physical action.
The "complements" (as they call them here) are a very important aspect of Chinese grammar. The idea is that you are trying an activity, but the result is either accoplished (得) or not accomplished(不). For example,走不动, means that I could try to walk, but if I do, I won't be able to move. In other words, I'm unable to move (I'm tired, someone's holding my feet, etc.)
They can be other things, too. Like if you try to open a door, but it's stuck, you can say that the door "开不开".
Another one is "了" (pronounced liao3). This is sort of generic and means that the verb cannot be accomplished. For example, "卖不了" means "unable to sell."
There are tons, though, but just be aware that they are out there and you will pick up on them.
I think it's VERY good that Chinesepod teaches these. These types of things are usually grammatical points you have to learn over time. Kudos to Chinesepod.
Posted on: 旧金山
June 19, 2008 at 8:50 PMIn SF, 90% of the Chinese you will hear is Cantonese. Mandarin isn't that useful. There is one guy who stands on the corner, elevated on a crate, and spouts pro-China propoganda (i.e., "falun gong is a cult" or "tibetans lie about oppression"). It's interesting. He does this in Mandarin.