User Comments - rich
rich
Posted on: Buying a SIM card
May 7, 2007 at 10:07 AMLester, Yes. 自己 means "self", but often the pronoun is left off for 你，such as: 自己来 (help yourself [as in when eating and you want them to make themselves at home]) 你想自己住吗？(are you thinking of living by yourself?) But for when talking in 3rd person, 她 and 他, I can't think of a time you can leave it off... 她自己去 (she will go by herself). Also, and I may be wrong, if I use it when talking about myself, I think I always add it... 我自己看看 (I will take a look around by myself). Am I right on the above? Never studied 自己 specificially in the above cases, just going by first-hand knowledge of speaking and hearing... the reason living 亲身 in a Chinese-speaking country is a must for getting it down. 老师蓝精灵
Posted on: Buying a SIM card
May 6, 2007 at 10:28 PMAh, Yes, China... Land of the free....of contract phone service... mmmmm (and 300 free SMS a month to boot!)
Posted on: Ordering a Steak
May 6, 2007 at 10:25 PMUhhh... how does one describe country fried steak? I think it is flatter than a regular steak, and breaded. Best to go here and look at the bottom right picture: http://www.sakida.com/fried_fish_fry.htm (And now I'm so confused if country fried steak is beef or chicken... I originally thought it was chicken, then many web sites has it as beef, but the one above makes it chicken... can someone from the south USA help?!) And I in turn I don't know what your chicken schitzel is all about. Is that Aussie talk? ;-P So hey, did you eat any 鳄鱼排 (èyúpái crocodile steak) down-under? ha ha. 孟
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 13: A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son
May 6, 2007 at 11:23 AMSpeaking of growing... The flowers 小花 and grass 小草 analogy was interesting to say the least, and of course John's color comment caught me out of nowhere. ha ha John. :-) But actually, I liked the analogy that Jenny enlighted us on. I think it is a good one, as it is similar analogy when I started my other favorite hobby, ballroom dancing (交际舞). Both of these analogies have quite a few dimentions, just as different rolls for men and women do. In both, the man provides a foundation and protection as the lady gets to be, well, the flower... get all the attention, the radiance, etc., while the man's appearance is insignificant in a sense. So, just thought that was kind of related, at least in my mind. Which brings me to my kinda-unrelated question... is there such a word as "墙花" (qiánghuā wall-flower) in the Chinese language? Is there even such a need for the word as all Chinese women seem to be 墙花 and attached to the wall when it comes to dancing... ha ha. And a lesson request: One on social dancing in China...wheeee! 孟 "Dance dance wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance said He..."
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 13: A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son
May 6, 2007 at 10:42 AMWhat are some adjectives that describe moods? I believe 怀心情 was briefly mentioned in the lesson. Good mood 好心情？ Others? And how do say "mood swings" in China? I actually heard today over lunch from a Chinese friend that some places in China used to believe girls should cut their hair short because they believe that growing long hair "sucked" the nutrients (营养）out of them and caused mood swings. Uh? The hair is still growing even if short!!!
Posted on: Ordering a Steak
May 6, 2007 at 10:38 AMJenny, you said that you probably shouldn't have brought up the word 鸡排 in the lesson, but do you have that in China or in China restaurants? Why did you want to take what you said back? I'm pretty sure I've seen here what should be considered 鸡排 but I didn't order it with that name. Is 鸡排 what we would considered "chicken fried steak"? What do you call a "country fried steak"? 孟
Posted on: Colors Song
May 6, 2007 at 10:25 AMWooo... I got Bazza'a 青! Alright！ Uh, hmmmm, have we lost it? Well, I guess we are teaching a color through all this craziness, right? Education, it’s all about the kids. (And yet we probably have the shade of 青 all wrong...but I've always wanted to be a 蓝精灵 [Smurf]...) (and should my avatar not be blue any more, it's cuz you took too long to get around to reading this and Bazza or someone else has the 青) Anyway, besides wasting my time with Photoshop, Wande, I am in China TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THIS CRAZY LANGUAGE JUST LIKE THE REST OF YOU! Ha ha, okay, you can still 羡慕我。I am here cuz I love China and have a heart for the people and realize America is not the center of the world (中国 is!!! :P) Here's a brief history in which I really need to put back in a blog and website: 2001 - Fell in love with and started studying Chinese in Boise, ID, USA 2002 - Finally decided to heed my calling to go to China 2003 - Arrived in Tianjin (a long story why Tianjin, when I actually love Shanghai the most, but we'll save that for another story) and taught English for a year as a way to have a visa while exploring this land 2004-2005 - Found you can just get a visa being a student, so for 2 years I studied at New Century Language & Culture Center in 1-on-1 classes 2006 - Love for children and beginner language stage drove me to Shenyang, China where I taught kindergarten. Oh, and most important: Found ChinesePod! 2007 - Back in Tianjin, not for the money, but for the people... now just studying an 天津师范大学 (Tianjin Normal University) (Potential)2007-2009 - Get a post-graduate degree in Chinese Studies at University of Edinburgh (really only a dream)2010 - Be a part of educating westerns like our beloved ChinesePod does. Enough about me.... back to the kids! "青青的草..." (Hmm... Jenny in lesson C498 was saying how boys are 小草... interesting...) 孟
Posted on: Traveling around China
May 6, 2007 at 12:53 AMDang, you guys talking about the exact location of ChinesePod's building makes me regret not trying to at least see the outside of the building and stalk around when I was there last week. And I was so close to it when I met Jenny, Amber and John for coffee... guess I gotta go back again to worship the ground they walk/work on... heh! Okay, I actually came here to ask a question about traveling, having just got back from traveling: 旅行：I think I know what Ken was getting at when he asked Jenny if this word was in the vacation sense or business, or any general traveling. I was surprised at Jenny's answer, as I thought it refered to any type of travelLing, 出差 or 旅游. So am I wrong, or was Ken's question just confusing? Sounded like it was kind of asked in the wrong way that even I was going "What exactly are you trying to ask Ken?". Yet the answer sounded like 旅游 and 旅行 are interchangable but not 出差？Right or wrong?
Posted on: Internet Cafe Rates
May 5, 2007 at 7:37 AMcell phone market AND trying to get similar to the Beijing Olympic symbol so that when people see the Olympic Symbol... You can keep V3, but bring back the old T's and mugs... I want one too!
Posted on: The Glory of Labor
May 7, 2007 at 10:15 AMDaiyanru, 而且，我们也应该在这里多打汉字吧。V3后我发现在这里的汉字真少呀。我承认我也懒地打字。我们在UI和高级的课连给解释应该都写中文。我知道看英文为了学习语法比较容易，但是这样我们会提高中文看的。加油！ 蓝精灵同学