User Comments - rich
rich
Posted on: The Old Man Who Moved a Mountain
June 21, 2007 at 8:19 AM你挡了我的路了。You blocked my way 那辆车挡着路。The car is blocking the road Even as an advanced student of Chinese, I too am not good at using 了, especially when translating 英文 to 中文 or vice-versa. I too wondering, from the two sentences above in the expansion exercises, why one needs two 了s and the second has none. So the first is refering to the action that I DID something to BLOCK your way (moved a chair, box, etc.), right? So therefore your way is "blockED". So is that the first 了? And the fact that NOW it is blocked, the second 了？ Now in the second example, let's say we change it to "You are blocknig my way." I guess now it is my body that's in the way, and no 了 is needed? so it would be 你挡着我的路... 对吗？No 了 needed? Would 你挡着我的路了 also be correct? Inquiring minds want to know... 小明
Posted on: Chinese Money Denominations
June 18, 2007 at 9:40 AMTaken from the "You know you live in China when..." (found many places on the 'net): You know you live in China when: - you have a jar full of "fen" at home - you give a beggar a handful of fen and he gives them back - you know what "fen" is
Posted on: Parent/Teacher Meeting
June 18, 2007 at 9:19 AMHave to second Danjo's comment... just reviewing lessons today and man that dialog recording is fast. :) Also, to find this lesson (since you can just search by lesson number even though that is the main way I refer to my lessons on my mp3 player) I wasn't able to search for 家长 or 家长会 even though it was the first word to be taught in the lesson. Please add episode numbers to either their web page (would be nice to be able to also go http://www.chinesepod.com/learnchinese/0302/ to get here) or the search... 谢谢！ Rich
Posted on: Sweet Watermelon
June 18, 2007 at 9:14 AM@ Amber What about 甜蜜？ (tian2mi4) I thought that was the way to say someone was sweet, but maybe that is talking about their qualities like you just did. @ changye Best fruit for the fridge is 荔枝 (li4 zhi1 / lychee) in the freezer! :) Again, happy 550 lessons (if you count #350 as a lesson in which John talks to a squeaky voice...Bob? Well, they are numbers up to 550 anyway)
Posted on: New Year
June 17, 2007 at 11:02 AMYo! Why no dialog MP3 for this lesson? Well, there is, but it is the shortest dialog in history :) Please update.
Posted on: Chinese Money Denominations
June 17, 2007 at 10:44 AM@ CPod: Ooo...look, tomorrow's lesson is 550!! Happy 550 Lessons Jenny, John, Ken and the rest of the CP family! (5 more lessons and we'll be at the numbering index that V2 ended at [due to all the stuff at extra.chinesepod.com being removed from the mainstream] Yes, I paid attention to the numbers... sad. ;)
Posted on: Chinese Money Denominations
June 17, 2007 at 10:39 AMYes, I found it hillarous that a man was being called 宝贝 in this dialog. Always thought CP has great actors, but I think someone could have tried to sound a little more child-like for this one. :) Sooooo... when is China going to get something bigger than a 100? I'm tired of paying tuition and stuff with huge wads of 100s... ugh.
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 16: It's Over
June 12, 2007 at 6:54 AMJust make sure Lili is out of the story from now on if this continues, despite the title of this lesson "It's Over." I can't believe she just mentioned she was getting married, immigrating, and all that as if she was talking about her morning... how long has it been since their breakup anyway? Is there a time line here? :P Nonetheless, if ZhangLiang comes back, have him getting a better date (and maybe the plane Lili leaves on will crash on some crazy tropical island with a smoke cloud monster and will be eternally Lost...oh wait, that couple was Korean)
Posted on: What's that smell?
June 4, 2007 at 4:22 AMI have to tell the story of when I went back to America last summer. I happened to go to the overseas student icecream social event at my home town's university's church. There were students from many many countries, but mostly asian, and even a few American families who had lived in China such as myself. There was a guy there from New York who now lived in Idaho, and he and I have been briefly before, and he has this interest in learning bits and pieces of every language, so I knew he could say "ni hao" and the likes. Yet when I met him that day, after it been sometime since our last meeting, he came up to me and loudly as he could say "FANG PI MA?" Honestly, I at first was like, what language are you even speaking? Then it took me a few to scan my memory banks of what these words (coated with a new york accent) even meant. The funny part was at the time I was talking to this very young girl who was an exchange student that had just arrived the day before from Shanghai. I bursted out laughing, kind of whispering to him, "Uh, you know she can understand, right?" At first he asked embarrassed, but for a New Yorker, that doesn't last long I think. Ha ha. Good memories. Keep 'em coming. 小明
Posted on: The Old Man Who Moved a Mountain
June 21, 2007 at 8:27 AM有另外一个问题: Getting someone to move over - In the exercises, there is the sentence "你能不能往旁边移一移?" That is the first time to hear this one. Is this commonly used to say "Please move over a bit?" What about “让一下”“挪一挪”(hope I got the characters right on there "nuo yi nuo") and I've heard others I can't even remember at the moment. Can someone help me with this one? Maybe because I'm a native speaker to English, it seems like English has only one or two ways to ask "Please move over" or "Please get out of my way"... how many does Chinese have and when do we use them? 谢谢！ -R