User Comments - sharesindavid
sharesindavid
Posted on: 少数民族
October 25, 2010, 11:25 PM樂家 (the psycologist or whatever guy from 非誠勿擾) is pretty interesting. he also plays a more central role in another show called 老公看你的, but it's kind of stupid
Posted on: 疯狂的球迷
October 23, 2010, 09:20 PMbtw, chinese is filled with such (seemingly) illogical patterns. for example, 好容易 and 好不容易 mean the same thing, and in some contexts 差点 and 差点没 can mean the same thing too. there are more i'm sure, but those two come to mind immediately
Posted on: 疯狂的球迷
October 23, 2010, 09:07 PMwell, it's pretty much a set expression, so you don't need to take it too literally.
it means something like "but ain't that the case!" if that makes sense to you in english. sometimes you'll also hear "可不是吗？“ which makes the rhetorical-question-ness a bit more obvious.
also note that 可 doesn't necessary mean "but". it's often used just to add emphasis:
我是他的亲弟弟 I am his brother (neutral)
我可是他的亲弟弟 I'm his brother! (so of course i'm gunna help him!)
so you can think of 可不是 as a rhetorical question 不是 (with the 吗 dropped) emphasized by 可
Posted on: 出租白人
October 21, 2010, 03:32 AM這個我也聽說過。真好笑
Posted on: Outdoor Survivors (Part 1)
October 05, 2010, 02:55 AMI think the most useful word I learnt from this was 菜鳥
Great lesson!
Posted on: 网络红人
April 25, 2010, 03:46 AM讚！讚！讚！
Posted on: Haggling Like a Local
April 23, 2010, 06:32 PMim wondering the same as siteng. if this is how shanghainese people actually write things, then i guess its good to have the transcripts like they are. but if shanghainese "pi ni" is indeed the same word as mandarin "pian yi", i think it's much more beneficial to the learner to write it as 便宜 (it's not like mandarin 比尼 is that close to the right sound anyway!)
Posted on: Haggling Like a Local
April 23, 2010, 06:27 PMif shanghainese is a dialect of chinese, dutch is a dialect of "germanic"
Posted on: An Introduction!
April 20, 2010, 07:53 PMActually, I think there are more speakers of Wu (all dialects) than Yue (all dialects). But you're right in a sense. People from Shanghai almost definitely speak perfect mandarin. People from HK or Vancouver. . . .
Posted on: Job Shopping in Modern China
October 31, 2010, 01:29 AMin general, i don't think you should curse in another language unless you are VERY sure of what you're doing (i.e. aware of exactly what the word implies, when it's OK to say it to your friends and when it's really not, how you look - especially as a white guy - saying it, etc.) on the other hand, dirty words are just as important to be able to understand as "clean" words if your goal is near-native proficiency. i think the more slang CPod includes the better, but if you really wanna focus on dirty stuff, i recommend using a separate resource (in addition to the book given above, there's one called NIUBI that's pretty good). you can also check out some MC Hotdog lyrics.
if most of your interaction with chinese speakers takes place in north america, it will always be harder to master their slang/profanity, because a lot of that stuff is very regional, i.e. different for different people. if you go to Taiwan for a while you'll pick stuff up pretty easily, but when you come back home and use it on your mainland friends they might not even understand it (first-hand experience)