User Comments - pulosm

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pulosm

Posted on: 澳门赌博
November 6, 2007 at 4:19 PM

robertk/amber: I love that expression. "saliva weapons"...very vivid; kinda gross.

Posted on: Are you OK?
November 6, 2007 at 2:43 PM

nicolas, :-) I have a job, but I'd be willing to spare some time on the side to Chinesepod if they could use me. I think what they do is great!

Posted on: Are you OK?
November 6, 2007 at 5:57 AM

I think you are right. In your example of the boss and you carrying the books, using 行 is the only way to go; no other "good/okay" would really work. 行 kinda carries (to me) the feeling that something is "okay", as in it will do, even if it's not necessarily your ideal or is good itself. For e.g., when you bargain, in accepting your price, the seller might say "行" to mean "okay (that'll do)", even if she/he isn't feeing that it's a 好 situation. On a side note, how does one get to be admin???

Posted on: Are you OK?
November 5, 2007 at 7:28 PM

aert, "shan" does mean "good" as in "good person". In the famous 三字经, it starts by saying 人之初，性本善 (in the beginning, people are good . . .) But, the problem with the expression as I see it, is that it doesn't seem you are saying the person is "instrinsically good," in a good/evil sort of way, but rather saying that there is nothing wrong with them. I don't know if I really understand what you are trying to express. Maybe if you gave us a short sample dialogue where this type of "OK" is used and from there see if we can translate it.

Posted on: 澳门赌博
November 5, 2007 at 2:39 AM

Auntie! 你不要谦虚，你的中文很棒！ I will try, but I am not very good at translating things: "A couple of days ago I read an newspaper article, it said that there is bickering (trash-talking) amongst some of the gambling champions. They can't bear the sight of each other! (literally: among them none can bear the sight) I am not sure because I haven't actually listened to the recording yet. :-( If anyone can correct this, by all means, please do!!!

Posted on: Are you OK?
November 4, 2007 at 2:20 PM

aert, maybe that concept is not translatable, as seems to be a distinctly American idea??? In Chinese, I think you'd probably have to be a little more directly by saying what you are saying literally and not using the "ok" shorthand. In the proper context though, I think people could possibly understand what you are saying if you used something like "没事" or "没问题" but definitely not if you used "好". Sorry, I tried, but I'm not sure I can get my mind around a time when this phrase would be used in Chinese with an "okay" equivalent.

Posted on: 澳门赌博
November 4, 2007 at 3:42 AM

yveee,　你是说我啊？别担心我写的是开玩笑的而已。

Posted on: A Ghost Outside
November 4, 2007 at 3:29 AM

wildyaks, what are those dictionaries called? I miss mine. :-( I wonder if I can find them on Amazon or something. They simply do not sell them in the States!!!

Posted on: A Jizhou Child's Warning
November 4, 2007 at 3:24 AM

john, you're totally right. I guess I was just saying that it's not like it's completely not intuitive to the English speaker. nicolas, 了解 doesn't really work in that situation, unless you are trying to say, for example, that you understand Beijing's sociological phenomena or something like that. Also, I don't think you can 了解得很好. You just 了解 or not, you don't 了解 well. If that makes sense. In English, we say "I understand this well," but in Chinese it sounds odd (at least to me) to say 了解好， 懂好， 明白好， etc. To show degrees of understand use 很, so 我很了解。。。 As for your sentence, I think the most natural way to express what you are saying is to say: 我对北京很熟. 熟 is prounounced either "shu2" or "shou2" depending on where you are from, and means "mature" or "ripe" or "cooked," literally. If you are in Beijing, it'd be "shu2" ;-).

Posted on: Editing a Document
November 3, 2007 at 10:10 PM

This was cool. One thing, I wouldn't translate 发挥 as "express" because it means more like to manifest or to bring something into play. It is very often used in the phrase 发挥作用 which means something like "play a role." Other than that, you use "发挥 x" to mean something like "bring x into play", x being some skill usually. For instance, you say 发挥特长 which is like "to bring one's unique skills into play." I am not sure 发挥 has a really good English translation that can be used in every situation.