User Comments - sclim
sclim
Posted on: A Wasteful Husband
June 18, 2011 at 5:16 PM謝謝, Southernjenny!
Posted on: A Wasteful Husband
June 18, 2011 at 4:51 PMIn the dialog, first line: 老公，我回来啦！it sounds like she pronounces the 来 in the first tone. (Strangely, there does not appear to be any Chinese word lāi, in my dictionary, at least.) Is this lāi pronounciation of 来 merely the voice actor's personal idiosyncracy, or is it a regional dialectical habit, or is there a pronunciation rule that governs it?
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 18, 2011 at 5:03 AMOK, here's a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation review on the situationhttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/06/10/f-asbestos-safety.html. I looked up asbestos on Wikipedia and was gratified to learn that enlightened countries like Australia for example have banned use of asbestos in their jurisdiction as well as stopped mining it. Amazingly, difficult as bodawei finds it hard to believe (I can hardly believe it myself!), Canada still allows mining it, in fact I believe in Quebec the miners unions lobbied to keep the mines open.
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 13, 2011 at 2:18 AMDidn't want to get too far into this topic and be a downer. But I'm a physician, and have my own perspective on this. Back in the 50's there were even cigarette ads in the Journal of the Am. Med Ass. "More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Brand etc," Now of course it's First Do No Harm. The Tobacco companies suppressed for the longest time any evidence that they knew about the carcinogenic effects of smoking, and that they were specifically developing the addictive qualities in their tobacco processing. However, I am particularly distressed that Big Tobacco now is subject to restrictions how they can promote cigarette smoking in N America, but there is no restriction on how they can exploit the growing tobacco market in Asia and Africa. Similar to Asbestos here in Canada: you can't use it in Canada because it is really dangerous, causing Mesothelioma, a particularly nasty form of lung cancer, but we still mine it, so we can sell it for use in China. Not the most neighbourly thing to do.
Posted on: The Little Tadpoles in Search of Their Mother
June 8, 2011 at 5:15 AMHey, I love this forum; I just learned a new word Bahuvrihi! As to whether Chinese uses Bahuvrihi -- for sure -- it's everywhere. A quick perusal of past lessons... Newbie Lesson "Taking a train to Beijing" uncovers 高铁. Well, maybe not a good example, a Hemi-Bahuvrihi, maybe. But although the Bullet Train is 高, the 铁 refers to what it runs on, not the train itself. And how about 电话 (From Elementary "Sending a Text Message")? "Electricity-Speech" is what we transmit on the telephone; it is not the telephone handset itself.
Posted on: The Little Tadpoles in Search of Their Mother
June 8, 2011 at 4:40 AMOn reflection, I wonder if my "Kemosabe is a Pale Face" analogy is too glib an explanation that invokes strictness of English rules of usage of the verb "to be" requiring a noun as the complement of "to be" to signify equivalence but requiring the verb "to have" to indicate possession of an attribute. Perhaps this apparent looseness of the usage of the verb 是 should take into account the usage of 是 sometimes (quite often, really) to mean "that is the the case" or "this is the (correct description of) the situation" as in "是的" in which nothing "is" so much as "yes, that is so". In Singapore where I grew up, there is a spoken, much parodied, but nevertheless much spoken dialect "Singlish" in which direct English transliterations of Chinese phrases are used. "Is it?" (literal conversion of 是的?) is often used to mean "is that so?" rather than "is that object (black or white or whatever)". e.g "I totally forgot the correct formula in the exam!" Response: "Is it?". Perhaps the 是 in this case is for emphasis, and could be translated as "This is how it is -- your mother's belly is white", because the response could well be 是的嗎?"
Posted on: The Little Tadpoles in Search of Their Mother
June 5, 2011 at 9:06 PMQUESTION FOR INSTRUCTORS: I just had a thought, triggered by podster's comment about "kiddie Chinese." I understood the sense of the 你们的妈妈是白肚皮 construction, was able to integrate the meaning into my grammatical lexicon ok, but I had not encountered it before. I wanted confirmation from our instructors that this, indeed, is "adult Chinese" before committing it to memory.
Posted on: The Little Tadpoles in Search of Their Mother
June 5, 2011 at 9:00 PMIt's a lovely story, and benefits greatly for that magic sentimentality that infuses us when we imagine ourselves listening to the story as children, and grants us, alas, for too brief a moment, that innocence we lost so long ago... sniff, excuse me I think I'm going to have a little cry. Yes, I too will memorize the story verbatim, complete with child like mannerisms and big eyes and mouth at the right time, for that opportunity, if it ever comes, when I get 5 minutes alone with some unsuspecting Chinese kid (whom I'll probably terrify, life being what it is). What a great teaching tool!真有意思!
Posted on: The Little Tadpoles in Search of Their Mother
June 5, 2011 at 6:19 AMCould this mean "Your mother is a white bellied (creature)"? In English we have a similar economical construction in "Kemo Sabe is a Pale Face". I see the construction as emphasizing the essential difference between the speaker and the mother -- i.e. this is why I'm not her and how you'll recognize her. Any other way of stating that "Your Mother's belly is white" would be less succinct and might not emphasize "...and mine isn't".
Posted on: A Wasteful Husband
June 18, 2011 at 5:20 PMIn the exercises, the phrase 怕黑 is paired with the answer "dark", rather than "afraid of the dark" which it should be.