User Comments - tingyun

Posted on: Noodles and Child Labor

No, the translation must be wrong. You've got the right understanding of 些's modern use. If we include early modern use, then Lu Xun sometimes used 些 to mean 'all', but it never means 1.

Posted on: Car Crash

Hi pretzellogic,

My opinion is based on the last 10 years or so - not because I have much of a reason to believe it was different before then, but rather because I've never had cause to look into it.

As for race, it can always have influence in certain circumstances and cases, and that is true everywhere. But in my observations racism is less of a problem in Texas than most states. Which is natural, as it is a very diverse state: white excluding Hispanic is less than a half of our population. As for prosecutor, sure, that's going to affect things, like it would anywhere.

I think most people's opinion of Texas is based on some tiny percentage of the population that lives out in the hills and trades in gold bullion. Though even there, one should keep in mind that they distrust the police. ;)

Posted on: Car Crash

Texas is actually one of the best places to be a criminal defendant - my home state offers protections that go far behind the Federal constitution. For example, no confession given while in custody of the police is admissible unless it is videotaped from start to finish - on the concern that police may intimidate a defendant or misrepresent the circumstances absent full videotaping. Most states don't require this, and often their police, if making a video at all, only turn it on once they've convinced the defendant to talk - raising some concerns.

A higher conviction rate could represent all sorts of things - from how pleas bargains are used to the demographics of the crimes being prosecuted. Maybe our prosecutors and police are better at managing themselves, ie they don't prosecute people on weak evidence, thus leading to higher conviction rates.

I worked in a prosecutors office for awhile, and I can definitely say that the juries I saw were very strict on the evidence they required for conviction. Of course, that likely varies by region, Texas is an incredibly diverse state. But yes, there's this pop culture notion of Texas as being a police state. The opposite is true - I'd say its more of a culture that is rather suspicious of government and tends to identify with the individual citizen.

Living in MA for school, occasionally I have to show my Texas pride...;)

Posted on: Making Comparisons Using 比 bǐ

The comparison structure is fine, but you don't say 知道 in reference to language ability in Chinese. You could replace it with 好 for a simple correction, or switch to talking about 'level' saying something like 我的中文水平比我哥哥的高很多. Note that I think it is best to place a 的 after your brother - since you are talking about his Chinese, not him. The 的 has an implied 中文水平 after it, but it is omitted to not sound repetitive. Also I'm not sure why, but 很多 feels a little better than 得多 in this sentence, maybe because I slapped a 的 right before the 高, or possibly I'm imagining it. ;)

Posted on: Dinosaurs

Interesting question. I also wonder what the guidelines were before this - that would allow us to compare how serious they enforced them against the shows being produced.

Posted on: 禅的故事

The below is my favorite passage from one of the oldest Chan texts available, lost for over a 1000 years before discovered in the Dunhuang caves. I think its interesting how understandable the language is, once you have a hint as to what they are getting at, so I'll provide a quick translation to assist (don't judge it too harshly, I'm not a very poetic translator, just use it as a language hint to help you appreciate the beauty of the original Chinese).

Note, While 禅宗 claimed a direct transmission from the Buddha to its patriarchs, actually its more of a Chinese innovation, and largely represents a rejection and critique of much of what came before. 禅宗 at its core rejects even its own teachings as being another illusion, and is something of an attack on the whole monastery system, though then, as now, the vast majority of monks and practitioners seem more focused on a cleaned up version with greater popular appeal...

本無見相，

Originally without illusion (相xiang4 is used to represent those false unstable things we perceive in the world, 见相 thus represents being in a state of illusion)

何有善惡及與邪正。

How could there be a difference between good and evil, or crooked and righteous?

生亦不生，

Creation is also non-creation

滅亦不滅。

destruction is also non-destruction (you could also oppose these two lines as birth/death, or existence/nonexistence)

動則不動，

Movement is also non-movement

定則非定。

stillness is also non-stillness

影由形起，

The shadow arises from the body (形 is the actual physical form, so by body I mean physical form)

響逐聲來。

The echo follows the sound

弄影勞形，

Discarding the shadow and depending on the body (弄, 劳 use is a bit ambiguous, my interpretation is based on the logic of the next few phrases, but you could read it the other way)

不知形之是影，

is not knowing the body's nature as shadow

揚聲止響，

Raising up the sound and seeking to to silence the echo

不知聲之是響根。

is not knowing the sound's nature as the echo's root

除煩惱 而求涅槃者，

Eliminating worries of the world in order to seek nirvana (涅槃nie4pan2, nirvana, 者 here is not indicating a 'person who' but rather just marking off the concept)

喻去形而覓影。

Is analogous to discarding body and then looking for a shadow

離眾生而求佛者，

Escaping from the living in order to seek the way of Buddha (众生, all forms of life)

喻默聲而尋響。

Is analogous to silencing sound and then looking for an echo

故知迷悟一途，

Therefore we know that confusion and enlightenment are a single path,

愚智非別。

Foolishness and wisdom are without difference.

Posted on: Getting Picked up by a Driver

麻烦 mafan can be used to describe people. Some people might not use it that way, but its sort of like how some people will correct you when you want to say that something is interesting and say 有意思 'no, that should be 有趣' - their regional or personal linguistic preference, not a real rule.

Posted on: Dinosaurs

I wonder how seriously this will really be taken, and how much of this is CNN exaggerating things. The quote about time travel is just random cnn reporter commenting on her interpretation, and their quote of the law doesn't even have it phrased as an outright ban.

The guidelines as a whole, if enforced seriously, would seem to ban a vast amount of chinese tv (which seems fairly split between modern life drama, WWII drama, and costume drama), and I just don't see it actually happening. More likely some committee put this through to look tough during a politically sensitive time, which is a pretty costless move, but to actually enforce it would start stepping on alot of toes, and it won't happen.

Posted on: A Visit to the In-laws

老 is more colloquial, 总 is more neutral in formality. Both can also have 是 after them - 老是 adds a little emphasis over 老, though I don't think the same is true of 总是 (I think because people say 总是 so much more often than just 总, there is no such additional emphasis in this choice)

Posted on: Explaining Your Job

Hi iqbar,

The meaning of 作 and 做 is essentially the same - and if all you are worried about is recognizing and reading, then you can leave it at that. If you'd like to be able to write and know which to use, the simplest take is that 做zuo4 is used for more concrete actions, and simpler words, while 作zuo4 is used for more abstract actions and more complicated and formal words.

If you'd like a very detailed explanation, see my post linked below:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/10808