User Comments - tingyun

Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 13: A Dad Gives Advice to a Broken-Hearted Son

Hi guys, on the second page of the dialogue, near then end, Zhang Liang asks about his father's other girlfriend, and uses 其他.  I've also seen 其它 in previous dialogues when the "other thing" was not a person.  My question is, do you ever use 其她?  Ie does the feminine version of ta ever appear in this use, and if so, why not here, when the other person is a female?

On a similar note, when referring to mix gendered groups, do you always use the male version of ta for tamen?  So the female version is restricted to only female groups?

Posted on: Zombies: Deader than Ever

I love these sort of lessons - even if I never do hear the word zombie (though I think john is right and eventually I will), thats only one word out of a whole lesson of great vocab and grammer.

Fun, off-beat lessons are much more fun, and the odd situations wake up my mind, which makes learning the lesson much easier.  And probably I retain vocab learned in a strange format better than that learned in another interchangable business interaction lesson, as it stands out more.

Posted on: Olympic Medals

Jenny mentions, that in order to use the measure word jie4 届, that the event must be jing1chang2 经常 , and John then emphasizes that it must be regular. This reminded me of something I read in the “Elementary Chinese Readers” books (which are great supplement to Chinesepod if you love short stories).  They have great discussions about distinguishing synonyms in the later volumes.

According to the book, jing1chang2 经常 and chang2chang2 常常both can be used as adverbs to mean often, but jing1chang2 经常conveys a sense of regularity to the occurrence, where chang2chang2 常常 merely means it happens frequently. 

Also, shi2shi2 时时 also means occurs often, but it is used to only refer to concrete actions, not situations or state of affairs (the other two are broader) and can convey the meaning of happening frequently in one day, while  经常 常常  are both generally restricted to happening frequently over a long period of time. 时时 is also mostly used in written Chinese, and mostly used with multi syllable verbs.  Also, 时时sometimes means “all the time” while the other two do not.

Also, 经常 can be used as an attributive after the verb, ex   这种事情是经常的    while the other two cannot, and generally must be used as adverbs.

If anyone has any thoughts on how ping2shi2 平时, or chang2常 used alone, fits into the mix, or any other words meaning often, I’d find it useful.

PS - Also thought of a number rule I learned fairly recently - there is an yi1 in front of the shi2 - though in numbers 10-99 no yi1 is used before shi2, in numbers above 100 you need to use it.  Also, it stays yi1, first tone, no tone change when in front of shi2 in numbers above 100

Posted on: Dog Personalities

Interesting - I remember an old ele lesson, a joke about a dog biting a guy, involved a 一只黑色的大狗，看起来很凶, which is where I originally learned to say 只。I forgot what the name of the lesson was though...

I'm inclined out of laziness to go on using the one I already learned, 只，rather than 条，for all dogs.  Hopefully they are indeed interchangable, and any distinction has indeed faded through common use...Thanks for looking into it further Zhenlijiang

Posted on: Dog Personalities

Interesting, thanks everyone.

Posted on: Dog Personalities

Towards the end of the dialogue, a speaker states he wants "tiao2 gou3" - why the use of tiao2?  Is it an alternative measure word to Zhi for dogs, or is there some other meaning?

Posted on: Describing Travels

Thanks Changye, for the quick answer.

Posted on: Describing Travels

I noticed this lesson uses 待 instead of 呆 for the pronounciation dai1 and the meaning to stay in a place.  Are both interchangable, or is there a difference in meaning or regional preference? 

Posted on: Olympics and more...

John's statement of about 1 newbie a week seems perfect to me...

But I think Sfrrr's charecterization of the debate and comments is a little bit unfair.  This isn't a situation of a person's status as newbie, intermediate, advanced, whatever being an immutable and permanent status with the different classes competing for a fixed stream of lessons. 

If Chinesepod is working, then people are moving up in level, and expect to steadily do so.  Thus, we weren't arguing for advanced learners to be given something at the expense of newbies - rather, it is in the newbie learner's interest to only have a reasonable number of new newbies (1 a week seems just right) so that higher level lessons are built up in the areas where they are in greater shortage, because that newbie learner will need them one day (more than they will need another new newbie lesson, since it would only displace 1 more lesson that would have been studied from the archive to fullfill the amount of study needed to go to ele).

Just as I think its in my interest to have more advanced lessons released, even though I'm only intermediate.  The arguments that were made weren't really about more advanced learners being "irratable" at the newbies, and simply wanting more for themselves - they were about what is best for every learner who intends to use Chinesepod to progressivly increase their language skill.

And, from the recent stream of lessons, and John's statements, I think the right balance has been struck.

Posted on: Microsoft

Thanks lostinasia, I appreciate your insights.  Maybe later I'll try reading a chinese language newspaper from one of the communities here in the US...should be an ok way to learn some of the proper names.