User Comments - richwarm2

Posted on: The Seven Year Itch 3: Extramarital Involvement

Is there any particular reason to have 灶马 (house cricket) in the Supplementary Vocabulary list? I don't think it was used in the podcast.

Posted on: The Seven Year Itch 3: Extramarital Involvement

The vocabulary list defines 眼里容不得沙子 as "to pay acute attention to details" but I think this misses the mark. I think it's more about one's reaction to what one observes, rather than being about one's powers of observation.

One explanation I found on the web is 不能让已经发生的事当作没有发生, 不能把不该看到事当做没看, 也不能把不该听到的当做从来都没有听过。就好象, 眼睛里有沙子不舒服一样。

So, to me it seems more like "unable to put something objectionable out of one's mind" or "unwilling to view someone's misdeeds with indulgence".

Posted on: Cell Phone Connectivity Issues

Thanks, Jenny. I found this example on the Web: "My cell phone is running out of credit. 此句的意思是手機很快欠費﹐快要停機。"

But it seems that 停机 can also mean "to suspend a telephone service" -- as in the following example I found -- 我想停机，大概三四天就再复机，那里面原有的话费复机之后还在嘛？

I also found this China Mobile definition of 停机：指客户因移动电话丢失或其他原因办理停机，暂时停用而保留该号码的使用权的业务。

Posted on: Buying a Book

Thanks for the suggestion, liangaorong.

I couldn't find Yu Hua's novels on the Web as easily as I found 《明朝那些事儿》, but "To Live" seems to be here: http://www.sbkk8.cn/mingzhu/huozhou/ ... although it seems to be rather short for a novel (?)

Anyone got any other links to those novels?

Posted on: Buying a Book

Here is a website where you can read -- or dip into -- 《明朝那些事儿》

http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/index_40931.html

But it seems to be specifically about the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (the founder of the Ming Dynasty) -- which sounds a little different to the way John described the contents of the book (?)

Posted on: Cell Phone Connectivity Issues

What do you mean by "this situation" ? I seem to have missed the context. I didn't hear 停机 used in the podcast.

Posted on: Cell Phone Connectivity Issues

Thanks a lot! So I suppose you could say 停机 is not really as specific as what the vocab list says -- "out of credit".

Posted on: Cell Phone Connectivity Issues

Does 停机 only mean "out of credit" as the supplementary vocabulary list says, or does it just mean "stop working" (e.g. because of a faulty telephone)? Nciku says "(of a machine) To stop working"

Posted on: Help with the Baby

Re: 这个很有中国特色, I see it like this:

特色 = characteristic; distinguishing feature or quality (MDBG definition)

中国特色 = Chinese characteristics

有中国特色 = it has Chinese characteristics

很有中国特色 = it has Chinese characteristics *to a large degree*

(MDBG @ 很 = "(adverb of degree) ...")

这个很有中国特色 = This (i.e. the concept of 月嫂) has Chinese characteristics to a large degree

That's it *literally*. More idiomatically in English, "This is a very Chinese concept."

I think 很有 should be understood as 很 + (有...) and that it's really not helpful, in the long run, to have a dictionary entry for 很有. BTW, I'm an editor of MDBG's CEDICT dictionary. ;-)

Posted on: Monopoly, Uno, or Twister?

切 ("Yeah, right.") is pronounced qiè on the podcast, which I think is correct, but the transcript says qiē.