User Comments - richwarm2
richwarm2
Posted on: Copy and Paste
March 31, 2012 at 11:11 AMThanks, Connie. That's very helpful.
Posted on: Copy and Paste
March 30, 2012 at 5:12 AM"复制"两个字, for example, means "the two-character word 复制 (copy)".
Same sort of thing with "粘贴"两个字.
Posted on: Copy and Paste
March 30, 2012 at 5:07 AMDilu and John say it's nian1tie1 and kuang1, but the transcript says nian2tie1 and kuang4! Looks like whoever compiled the transcrpt didn't listen to the podcast.
By the way, is it first tone just for the computer sense of those two words (粘贴 and 框) or is it for all contexts?
Posted on: License Plate Characters
March 10, 2012 at 9:32 AMI don't think anyone has commented on this yet. John made an error giving the tones of 简称 ("third tone, fourth tone") during the podcast, and Dilu then says 没错. It should be "third tone, first tone" and both Dilu and John pronounce it with the correct tones.
Posted on: Taking the Plunge into Intermediate
January 2, 2012 at 9:58 PMZhongwen Chrome extension is a free "popup translator" tool which uses the CC-CEDICT Chinese-English dictionary.
Google Chrome Web Store:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/kkmlkkjojmombglmlpbpapmhcaljjkde
Blog by the author of Zhongwen:
Posted on: Taking the Plunge into Intermediate
January 2, 2012 at 2:59 AMDidn't Jenny say there would be links to the online reading tools mentioned in the podcast (Zhongwen and Perakun plug-ins)?
Posted on: The Seven Year Itch 3: Extramarital Involvement
December 10, 2011 at 3:24 AMJust like grit in one's eye, something objectionable (such as one's husband's indiscretions) is a constant irritant lodged in one's mind.
Posted on: The Seven Year Itch 3: Extramarital Involvement
December 8, 2011 at 10:03 AMOn the other hand, www.zdic.net says 沿着蛛网的细丝可以找到蜘蛛的所在,按照马蹄的痕迹可以寻到马的去向。比喻细微的端绪或形迹
Posted on: The Seven Year Itch 3: Extramarital Involvement
December 8, 2011 at 9:42 AMAh, I see! Thank you very much :-) It makes more sense than "spider's thread and horse's hoof marks"! :-) Hoofprints are not nearly so subtle as the traces of a cricket!
Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls
October 2, 2012 at 6:40 AMHey, Mr_Trendy -- don't be put off by a show of bluster. You're on the right track. Bluster is a typical response of someone who is having trouble providing solid evidence. Tal's assumption is that the way English-speaking people divide up the animal kingdom is the right one. That assumption should be examined.
1) Tal says "they are not the same animal, they are entirely different species." That's not true -- "mouse" and "rat" are not species at all. Here is what the Wikipedia article "Mouse" says: "Mouse often refers to any small muroid rodent, while rat refers to larger muroid rodents." This is corroborated by Tal's own reference (http://www.ratbehavior.org/RatsMice.htm) which says "Rat and mouse are actually not scientific classifications. These words are common names for rodents that look alike to the casual eye."
It's true that Norway rats 褐鼠 and house mice 小家鼠 belong to different species (according to scientific *convention*), but it's entirely reasonable that the Chinese refer to all muroid rodents generically as 老鼠.
2) "just another example of the imprecision of this language [Chinese]". Actually, in English, we don't have a colloquial term for "muroid rodent", in the way that Chinese has 老鼠, so you could say that it's *English* that comes up short here. It's the same with 老鹰, which is used to refer to any bird of prey similar to an eagle, hawk, falcon, kite etc. We don't have a colloquial term for that category of birds in English, but the Chinese do. English speakers are typically being imprecise when they refer to "mice" and "rats". Often, what they are actually referring to is "house mice" and "Norway rats", and Chinese can be that precise if necessary (小家鼠 and 褐鼠).
3) "as far as I know all you can do is say 大老鼠 for a rat and 小老鼠 for a mouse" -- Given that "mouse" and "rat" are common names, not scientific classifications, and "mouse often refers to any small muroid rodent, while rat refers to larger muroid rodents" [Wikipedia], what's the problem with saying 大老鼠 for a rat and 小老鼠 for a mouse?