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rich

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: History
March 1, 2008 at 11:00 AM

"Screech" in Chinese: 尖叫 (jiānjiào), screech, scream 吼叫 (hǒujiào), screech, call, shout, howl

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: History
March 1, 2008 at 10:55 AM

Great lesson. I love studying Chinese history using the Chinese language... there is no other way (and having Jenny teach the people, places and words is even better). Can someone please list the characters Jenny said for the 6 countries of 战国? I am assuming without doubt that 汉 was the last one she mentioned. I was a big fan of Saved By the Bell in the early 1990's when I myself was in school. Remember the German exchange student who lived with us liked it even more, and probably the one who introduced it to me. Would be great to have an upper-intermediate series that was even closer to a classroom sitcom than just a history lesson, with a Chinese-style Screech. :) (Was actually hoping we'd here someone like him in it) Was probably one of the shortest upper-intermediate lessons I've heard... and guess since I've used Chinese to study Chinese history, I knew a lot of the people and places. Would be great to make this a series where we get to hear more about what kids talk about in school and how they joke around, Chinese-style.

Posted on: What meat is this?
February 28, 2008 at 3:04 PM

I came back just to read this lesson's blurb again, due to getting the best award, and am sadly reminded Changye eats dog. (his avatar is just to remind him to eat more often...)

Posted on: Are you OK?
February 28, 2008 at 3:02 PM

This one rightly got best picture Oscar award. (That girl still hasn't gotten up yet!!)

Posted on: Parking Lot Rage
February 28, 2008 at 2:59 PM

Hmmm... even more humorous than the DVD Ploy lesson? Congratulations on best comedy!!

Posted on: Abducted by Aliens
February 28, 2008 at 2:57 PM

Congratulations on best lesson Oscar, Alien Abduction! :)

Posted on: London
February 28, 2008 at 2:54 PM

Sebire, Edinburgh is where its at, not London. ;)

Posted on: London
February 27, 2008 at 8:02 AM

ya all welcome. A few more reminders about 了 is that you use it only when your purpose of your sentences is to convey that something was completed. So for in the example of when you report what someone said, your purpose isn't to show they completed saying what they did, but to report WHAT they said. Oh, and to answer your question where I study, I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland. I actually haven't even gotten the chance to go to London yet. Really want to. The tuition here for a year for internatinal students is 10,000 pounds, so that becomes $20,000. Gives me a headache to think about it, and how much I play arond not studying. :-S

Posted on: What's up?
February 27, 2008 at 7:57 AM

什么是新的? ha ha... I often use that with a Chinese friend to ask "What's new?" And they get all confused. Don't try it if you want an answer. They tell me to say 你有什么新鲜的事情? nǐ yǒu shénme xīnxiān de shìqing? You have what fresh matters? but I find that too long and defeats the point of a quick question.

Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 6:40 PM

I have been reading what you guys have been writing about 了 and verb result compliments (到，好，完，etc.), and hope that my quite expensive Chinese degree ($20,000 a year, ugh) will pay off a little bit to save you the trouble that I had to get through to get the following statement out of my mind: CHINESE HAS NO PAST TENSE. 了 DOES NOT MEAN PAST TENSE. DON'T THING WITH ENGLISH GRAMMAR! (this is what my teacher, from Beijing and has taught Chinese for 10 years now, has to keep correcting us on, and practically yelling it like that.) No, instead, what has finally helped me see the light, is that 了 indicates COMPLETION OF ACTION, not that it was done in the past (but is usually the case). You see, you can even use 了 to talk about the future. For example, the first time I started realizing that I was always thing incorrectly about 了 being like the English -ed is that you use 了 in the following sentence to talk what you will do after you complete something in the future: After I eat dinner I will go see a movie. 我吃了晚饭去看电影。 wo3 chi1 le wan3fan4 qu4 kan4 dian4ying3. You don't even need to say "After ..." like we do in English, and we know it will happen in the future because the watching of the movie is not completed. So if I did say something that happened in the past, the following sentence: Yesterday I want to see a friend. 昨天我去看朋友了。 zuo2tian1 wo3 qu4 kan4 peng4you le. Is literally: Yesterday I go visit (and completed this action) my friend. Some more future examples are as follows: 别忘了！ bie2 wang4 le! Don't forget this! Literally (and my teacher verified): Don't complete the action of forgetting this! (kind of confusing, as many verbs with 别 don't use 了， but when the action of forgetting something happens it gets completed, or you wouldn't have actually forgot it!) Here is a more complex one that I just did in my exercise book: 先往右拐，再往前走，就到了。 xian1 wang3 you4 guai3, zai4 wang3 qian2 zou3, jiu4 dao4 le. First towards right turn, then towards forward walk, and then you will have completed your arrival. The resultive complements you guys have been talking about (到，好，完，etc.) have nothing to do with really the action being completed but HOW it was/is/will be completed. 看到 － to be able look and see something (to see) 吃好 － to eat well/satisfied 吃到 － to be able to eat something 吃过 － to experience the eating of something So these can be used with 了 when specifying they have been completed. 吃好了 － have completed eating and satisfied 吃到了 － able to eat and completed getting it down 吃过（了）－ to have experienced eating it (了 not necessarily, but some people use it to emphasize that it has happened). This is all kind of hard to explain, as it is VERY different than English. If you get any things from what I've written (and I did this pretty quickly, so not complete), even if I have added to your confusion, the one thing I hope I do I get across is that we can't think about Chinese as we do English. It doesn't have past-tense verbs, resultive verbs (to see [from 'to look'], to find [from ' to search/look'), etc.], nor plurals, and so forth. @richnirish Oh, to answer your question, which I am not sure if you are asking why 说 in that sentence doesn't have a 了, or if you just wondering the meaning of 对. First, in a sentence with 说 or 告诉 (to tell) or 问 (to ask), 了 can't be used if it is to report what someone said/told/asked. You can't say: 他对我说了他要八点来。X Lit: He to me say he will at 8 come. We can already assumed it was in the past. Just don't use 了: 他对我说他要八点来。 However, if you are talking about the completion of saying something (that it was done), you do use 了, such as in the following dialog: A: Yesterday you said you would come at 8! B: No, I didn't. A: You did say it! A: 昨天你说你要八点来。 B: 没有说。 A: 你说了！ As for if you were asking a question about the use of 对，it is just implies TO WHOM it was said, as in my above examples. Hope that helps.