User Comments - sclim
sclim
Posted on: Introducing Kids to Each Other
June 1, 2011 at 5:02 AMIs it my imagination, or does the mother in the audio dialogue actually not follow the text 你们两个一起玩 verbatim, but tags an 儿 "r" on the end, almost can't help herself? I think she (or maybe it's the other mother) does the same thing on the last line of the dialogue, and they do it all 3 times! But when Jenny does it, slowly, she toes the party line and reads it exactly as printed both in the middle part and in the last line, out of consideration for us poor beginners.南南,謝謝啊!
Posted on: Rowing a Boat
May 31, 2011 at 5:49 AMOops: be careful of uninformed guesses!
SCOW like so many of our nautical words is from Middle Dutch SCOUWE, flat bottomed boat with blunt ends
SCULL is from Middle English SCULLE noun used in mid 14th cent kind of oar but origin obscure.
Posted on: Rowing a Boat
May 31, 2011 at 5:04 AMThanks for the clarification. But as I mentioned earlier, the response in the Writing Practice session to answering "3rd tone" for the pronunciation of 会 is an unequivocal WRONG, IT IS 4th TONE (no other explanation or alternative tone given) which would be very confusing to students at our level of understanding. So it should be fixed if possible.
Posted on: Rowing a Boat
May 31, 2011 at 4:58 AMY'know, I meant it as a joke. But now that I hear what I've written, free from any prior linguistic bias, I bet scow and scull (the verb, using the oar as an oblique water wedge) are etymological cognates.
Posted on: Rowing a Boat
May 30, 2011 at 6:08 AMI guess if you didn't like manual propulsion but you didn't have a choice you'd be scowling.
Posted on: Rowing a Boat
May 30, 2011 at 6:04 AM謝謝!
And how about with a single oar at the stern of the boat (I understand technically it's called sculling in Western boat-speak)?
Posted on: I don't smoke
May 29, 2011 at 4:59 AMRuined? Bit harsh, don't you think?
Posted on: Rowing a Boat
May 28, 2011 at 11:09 PMcalkins:
Oh-Oh -- I did more research, and you're right; as you correctly point out, there are 2 apparently equally valid, but different pronunciations for 一会儿, yīhuǐr and yīhuìr (actually pronounced yíhuìr, due to the tone sandhi). I was not able to independently ascertain which pronunciation is more common, so I will provisionally accept your conditional opinion that yīhuìr (4th tone) is more common. It would be tempting to guess that regionality might influence this variance.
Still, in the Writing Practice section it would be helpful to explain this apparent contradiction. It is a confusing situation, and the way the Writing Practice feedback is set up makes it worse.
Posted on: Rowing a Boat
May 28, 2011 at 7:55 AMI think 在 alone would be grammatical and terse without needing 坐. 在 meaning "at", in this context would also act as a verb "to be at". So 我在左边 would be "I'll be on the left", or "I'll be on the left (rowing, implied)" 你在右边 "And you on the right".
Posted on: Introducing Kids to Each Other
June 2, 2011 at 5:52 AMOh oh, the voice actors are in big trouble now, 南南这么厉害哦!