User Comments - rich

Posted on: Heading Home

But Pete, can  you even have the "你知道" on that "你知道他是谁？"?  It seems that with the "你知道" that is just a statement "You know who he is." and shouldn't have the "?".  Or does a raise in the tone on "谁" like in English make it a question, like saying "Can you tell me, who is that?"

Posted on: Heading Home

@kanokwan

I believe you meant to put that in another lesson.  Not sure which... only one advanced lesson I know that is about 垃圾 , absolutely no idea where  电车 comes from.  You never posted before, so this must have been some random thought?

Posted on: Heading Home

@bababardwan

Yes, correct, you can say 我明天要回澳大利亚, which is "Tomorrow I will return to Australia."

You can also put 去 on the end, to add direction: 我明天要回澳大利亚去.  "Tomorrow I will GO back to Australia."  You CAN'T put the 去 after 回. (Not correct: 我明天要回去澳大利亚)

If you were in China, the sentence you wrote could be said to anyone in the world, just the fact that you are going back to Australia.  However, the second the sentence with "去" could be said to anyone in the world OTHER THAN someone in Australia (but most likely to someone in China)

To someone in Australia, you would say 我明天要回澳大利亚来. "Tomorrow I will COME back to Australia."  Again, don't forget 来 comes after the place and not the main verb 回.

Posted on: Heading Home

I would think the hardest thing to grasp in this lesson is the line "你不要回去!" ("Nǐ búyào huíqù!") 

Even after studying Chinese non-stop for 8 years, and knowing "要" as one of the first words I learned ("我要" "I want it") or, even more important with the people in your face around the Forbidden city, “不要”！"I don't want it!"), I still have NEVER used it to say "shouldn't" as it means here, or "Don't..." as they translated it (dropping the "你" in the English, as Ken said you can also do in Chinese), or even, which I guess would suit this "romantic" dialog, "You can't go back!"

If I had to quickly say this sentence to someone leaving, I would probably say "你不能回去！“ ("nǐ bùnéng huíqù!"). 

I then beg to ask, to anyone who can answer, is that "你不能回去!",  even what a Chinese person would say?  And even if so, is "你不要回去!" a little better in this situation?  Is it better than 不能 (can't) or even 不应该 (bù yīnggāi, shouldn't)？

Posted on: Heading Home

Piperpub,

I would also normally say 我明天回国 (Wǒ míngtiān huíguó), and usually hear that.  I believe 明天我回国(Míngtiān wǒ huíguó) is grammatically correct, but more like English grammar of Time + Subject + Verb, where typical Chinese form is Subject + Time + Verb.

Posted on: Zombies: Deader than Ever

Wow, first time to post.  And it looks like this is tomorrow's lesson, but some reason I am getting tomorrow's lessons today (gee, sounds like the Early Edition show) in emails.  Used to be I was not being told about a lesson until 20 hours after it was released.

Wow...cool..another 僵尸 lesson!!  They just won't die, will they?  "我不是鬼，我是僵尸"...love it.

Posted on: Getting Old Isn't Easy

And seems I wasn't paying close attention to my Facebook birthday alerts, which I forgot also lists birthdays the day after, and now see your birthday is actually today...but same diff.  :)

Posted on: Getting Old Isn't Easy

If I remember correctly, today (well, yesterday now in China) is John's birthday, no???  Was this lesson in response to that?  haha. 

Well, if I have the date right, happy getting-old birthday, John. 生日快乐！

(tried to post here earlier, but problem connecting to site, from Britain anyway)

Posted on: Does it Have Bones?

bababardwan,

Having done this bone marrow drinking myself, at a few 东北 restaurants in Tianjin, it took a bit of effort drinking the marrow from the upper leg of a pig.  If I remember right (haven't done this for a few years) it is easy once you start, but it's not liquidy, so yeah, takes a lot of effort to suck it through the straw.  I remember my straw being a little bigger (wider) than that guys though.  He could easily be posing after having gotten most of the marrow that is worth getting out, or starting...who knows.

Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights

Weren't we to learn how to say "free-range chickens" here on the discussion page?  Searched for the words (too many comments to read everything) and found nothing.