User Comments - rich
rich
Posted on: The Stingy Boss
August 9, 2007 at 7:00 AMI'm Outta Luck When it Comes to "Luck" I have to admit... even after living in a country for 4+ years in which everything-but-everything is lucky (except if it is totally unlucky, like the number I just wrote), and being a speaker of the Chinese language, I still stumble when I am talking to a friend in Chinese and have to say "luck" or "lucky". We learn 运气 in this lesson. There is also 幸运 to mean luck or lucky. Then I thought there were others but can't remember (I know there are many more of "lucky"). When do we use which? Is it just like how English has "luck" and "fortune"/"lucky and "fortunately"? Are the two examples I gave interchangeable? Any tips on how to remember them? When I want to say "luck" I remember 运 but go blank trying to remember which character to use with it and in which situation. Tips please!
Posted on: Asking for English Books
August 9, 2007 at 6:30 AMOh, so now I have to be a newbie to ask a newbie question, huh? This place is biased! (oooh... new word I just learned, but not a newbie word: biased, 偏心 piānxīn) At least Bazza attempted to help poor little pretending-to-be-newbie me. Bazza 1, John 0.
Posted on: Asking for a Phone Number
August 9, 2007 at 6:12 AMA question for Chinese: You know in Hollywood movies, or TV shows, whenever a phone number is used, it must be 555-####? Is that a practice in China? A question to non-Americans: How about other countries? In America there are no # with 555 as the prefix of a local number, all of them are just for Hollywood. Is there a law or something that they must use 555, or just good etiquette? I'm asking a lot of questions here, for people of all nations to give input.
Posted on: Asking for a Phone Number
August 9, 2007 at 6:07 AMI heard that "yi" was changed to "yao" in honor of YaoMing the basketball player, as he is # one according to all Chinese people... before he was a star, they said "yi" (don't listen to me, I'm just full of 臭臭) I called the number in the dialog. It was Jenny's since she wrote the script, only could think of her own number. (again, full of it). But that was another great Ken-Jenny moment when they realized in the middle of doing this podcast "Hey, wait, this might be someone's actual number! Don't call it!" Oh, and for those of you that aren't familiar with Chinese phone numbers, that was a cell phone number. In China all cell phones that can be contacted nationally start with 13<#> (and now some are 15<#>). Also there are two cell phone companies, Chinese Mobile and China Unicom. I believe when the 3rd number (the <#>) is 6-9 it is China Mobile, the company I use. I can't remember which are CM and which are CU, but CM has more prefixes. Some useless trivia for your mind.... Well, don't just stand there.... go dial Yao Ming! Or go call Jenny (it may get you a Jenny on the line, but not our Jenny... or maybe a Lily or a Lucy or...)
Posted on: The DVD Vendor
August 9, 2007 at 5:58 AMNext time I'm in China, and I go to buy a DVD, I'm going to threaten the seller that I'm going to tell the cops and have them 没收 his DVDs... BWHAHAHAHA. (oh yeah, this will be fun to try) But seroiusly, and I'm sure the answer is "both are okay", but this is the first time I learned I can just say D九 for DVD-9. I always hear... (I think I hear this ... but maybe because I'm foreigner and not Chinese they said this)... them say "DVD九". Is it a 都可以 answer? Or do Chinese usually just say D九？ Looking for the norm.
Posted on: Asking for English Books
August 8, 2007 at 3:03 PMHere is my absolute newbie beginner question: Can you list all Chinese family relationship names and put them in a family tree, including great grandparents and 2nd cousins?? :P Err...okay, not quite a beginner question. uhh...how about 为什么天是蓝的？
Posted on: A Chinese-Style Contradiction
August 8, 2007 at 3:00 PMAnyone got a little more insight to help me out with this one? Thanks.
Posted on: Jaywalking
August 7, 2007 at 1:35 PMI know it was an accident... and wouldn't have even noticed it, or given it a thought had you not corrected yourself... was just a stupid joke. 不好的玩笑 Foreigners don't upset the crossguards as much as locals, but in Tianjin the guards have gotten into more "I need control, I have power" mode and have yelled at me for not staying in the "Zebra Stripes" 斑马线 （another word American's don't use) even though they were illogically placed in farther than the place to step off the sidewalk into the road. Hmph.
Posted on: What meat is this?
August 7, 2007 at 12:59 PMVegetarian Eating http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese/vegetarian-eating wasn't good enough? hmm....eating vegetarians... okay, that I call barbaric, yet talking about meat that we all eat in restaurants (well, most of us, especially important in China since meat names are more in the name of dishes than in the west) seems like an ideal lesson, even if you are a vegetarian. It is good to know what a restaurant serves and whatnot. -R
Posted on: Asking for English Books
August 9, 2007 at 3:26 PMChangye, I still listen to ALL the newbie and elementary lessons. There are even new words (or reasonings for sayig a word) I haven't used before, plus I like the Jenny-Ken chemestry as much as Jenny-John chemestry. For example, i didn't even know the word 大方before the "Stingy Boss" epsisode...never even came across it (but as you'd know it, the moment I learned it, I started seeing it pop up in a few of the Chinese magazines I read... what was I thinking before, that it meant Big Place or something? ha ha)