User Comments - simonpettersson
simonpettersson
Posted on: Originally Original
November 2, 2009 at 7:15 AMI always translated "原本" as "it turns out". That seems to work well in many situations.
Posted on: November Just Gets Better!
November 1, 2009 at 8:37 PMdawei64:
Actually, you can already do this. When you've studied a lesson, click on the "studied" button. It will then disappear from your "my lessons" tab. In the right column on that tab, however, there's a list of how many lessons studied for each level. By clicking on the number, you will access (for example) your studied Intermediate lessons.
Posted on: Originally Original
October 31, 2009 at 12:36 PMgo_manly, I think that's just Shanghai. Shanghainese men have a reputation for being wusses (and Shanghainese women for being high maintenance).
Posted on: Varieties of Candy
October 30, 2009 at 8:02 AMZhenlijiang:
Well, according to Wikipedia:
In traditional Chinese medicine, liquorice is commonly used in herbal formulae to "harmonize" the other ingredients in the formula and to carry the formula to the twelve "regular meridians" and to relieve a spasmodic cough.
So maybe that was liquorice in that medicine. However:
Excessive consumption of liquorice or liquorice candy is known to be toxic to the liver and cardiovascular system, and may produce hypertension and oedema.
So taking it to improve liver function might not be the way to go.
Posted on: Varieties of Candy
October 30, 2009 at 7:37 AMI tried to find out what "liquorice" is in Chinese and got two different results: 甘草糖 (gāncǎotáng) and 洋甘草 (yánggāncǎo). Which is it? Is the first one the candy and the other one the bush?
Also, is it availible/popular in China? I'll assume you don't have salty liquorice (only us Swedes seem to love that stuff), but maybe there's the sweet (less tasty) kind?
For reference: here's the yummy Swedish salty liquorice candy. This is Djungelvrål ("Djungle roar"):
Yummm. Tastiest candy ever. Yes, that white stuff is salt.
Posted on: Kaixin Wang Farm Thieves
October 28, 2009 at 9:48 AMgratone:
Yeah, maybe. We like a bit of off-topic banter here, though the policy is to keep lesson-specific threads on topic, so your critique is fair.
Posted on: The Pen and Paper Mystery
October 27, 2009 at 8:37 AMI'll try this again, as I think it disappeared in the flurry of posts on other topics last time: Why is there no vocabulary tab on this lesson?
Posted on: Anybody home?
October 27, 2009 at 6:54 AMThe character "乱", luàn, is an awesome character. It doesn't look like that much (a tongue to the left and just a hook on the right, though the traditional variant is more complex), but it's a lot of fun. It means "chaotic", and it appears in combos like 捣乱 dǎoluàn: to make trouble (which we see in the translation of "trick or treat" above) and 乱七八糟, luànqībāzāo: it's a mess.
Posted on: Anybody home?
October 26, 2009 at 5:35 PMHere in Sweden, All Saint's Day used to be similar to the Chinese "tomb sweeping day"; a time where you'd visit the grave of a lost relative or friend and light a candle. Nowadays, it's been eclipsed by the American tradition of pumpkins and witches and horror movies. Though nobody goes trick or treating here (it's sort of pointless since nobody stocks up on candy during the holiday). There are masquerade parties, though. Lots of them.
By the way, will we see lessons on other non-Chinese holidays? Holidays that are not American, but maybe belong to some other country? Or maybe there already are such lessons?
I shall expect a lesson on Lucia come December 13th :)
Posted on: Originally Original
November 2, 2009 at 8:04 AMOh, seems I didn't look too closely when I copy-pasted. I did mean "原来". I've never even heard of "原本" before. :)