User Comments - tingyun

Posted on: An Improved Understanding of Improve

Hi podster,

I agree with toianw if you are speaking to the seller - but if you are describing the process of getting reduced price, ie asking someone for advice on getting a reduced price or describing a time when you got a reduced price, then 压低 is appropriate, ie "怎样才能压低价格？＂.

So 压低 when it is the buyer reducing the price, as opposed to the seller or market forces (circumstances where 降低 might make sense).

Also, 提高 is a fairly logical and detached way of describing price raises, 抬高tai2gao1 has a bit more of a sense of negative judgment mixed in to seller caused price raises.

Posted on: An Improved Understanding of Improve

I think at this level Vera provides the best answer possible - when you are ready there are always more detailed explanations to look up, like the one I'll drop below (taken from one of pleco's new beta release dictionaries), but it's perhaps best to just absorb such habits slowly through exposure.

【改進•改良•改善】

gǎi jìn / gǎi liáng / gǎi shàn

都可以作動詞﹐都有使事物向好的方面變化的意思。區別在：①「改進」側重在「進」﹐表示比原來有所進步；「改良」側重在「良」﹐表示使事物變得更優良﹑更適合要求；「改善」側重在「善」﹐表示比原來更好或更完善。②改進的對象主要是作風﹑方法﹑工作等抽象事物；改良的對象一般是比較具體的事物﹐如工具﹑品種﹑土壤等；改善的對象主要是條件﹑生活﹑關係﹑環境等抽象事物。

Posted on: Leaving a Tip

Hi Rj,

It would seem most likely to be a 语气词 tonal particle conveying a tone of command or remonstrance here (了often appears at the end of commands and warning reminders).

But in other circumstances, 忘了 could experience the sort of 'tacked on to the end of 1 (more rarely, 2) syllable verbs in certain emphatic statements', ie 我会杀了你 even though talking about the future...a quick internet search on 我会忘了你 turns up similar examples of the sappy but determined lost love blog post variety.

I'm not sure I fully follow your suggested explanation (just woke up and my mind always takes a little while to defog), but I'm sure John will be able to offer greater insight.

Posted on: 私奔

课里面提到了“古代的美好私奔故事” - 历史上第一个美好私奔故事应该是司马相如跟卓文君，感兴趣的话大家可以去看：

英文的介绍-http://www.seeraa.com/china-literature/simaxiangru.html

中文的介绍-http://baike.baidu.com/view/126991.htm#2

《凤求凰》讲的就是他们的故事，凤-feng4 male phoenix,凰-huang2 female phoenix (以’凤‘来代表女性是现代人的一种新想法）

Posted on: 孔子拜访老子 1：道可道非常道

有趣的是，这句话原来是＂道可道非恒道＂，只是老子去世几百年后，为了避讳汉文帝刘恒的名字，才改＂恒＂为＂常＂。所以如果说＂道可道非常道＂而不是＂恒道＂就不知不觉中等于向世俗妥协，向权势屈服，好像跟道家的思想有些出入，但这样窜改已经根深蒂固。

诶，真神奇，对话里的老子居然能预料到几百年后会有一个帝王叫刘恒，而为了尊敬他改了自己原来的话，真可谓神机妙算而又卑躬屈膝。；）

Posted on: 中国古代酷刑

看到Cpod推出关于法律历史的课，感到很高兴又很好奇。

虽然Connie等讲得很有意思，但还是觉得带一点猎奇的味道。。。是有这千奇百怪的整人的东西，它们也值得去讨论，只是想讨论酷刑却少了一种总体的介绍，着实可惜，听众也许会以为这些刑具是用来惩罚犯人，这样就大大误解了中国古代法律制度，就是把中国奴隶和封建时代的重大区别完全忽视掉了。用英文说：In middle and late imperial China (after 600AD or so), most of these aren't criminal punishments - they are ways of extracting confessions or special forms of tyranny meted out in cases of rebellion or against high level of officials. The overwhelming majority of criminal punishment consisted of 5 well defined punishments - beating with a light stick, beating with a heavy stick, penal labor, exile, and execution, (所谓的'封建五刑'), each subject to precise regulations and measured out in relation to severity of crime.

更深一点说，汉文帝下诏废除肉刑之后，用肉刑作为惩罚的现象渐渐消失，到隋代就正式有了封建五刑制度。自此以后，其实中国对犯人的惩罚是比较文明的，法治的，杖刑之类的，不见得比现代让人坐牢更残忍。流放、奴役亦然，死刑也是现代中美皆有。

诚然，你要是惹上了皇帝，就有可能遭受更残忍的待遇，但千千万万的老百姓世世代代活在他们的村子里、城市里，都不会有这样的遭遇，犯罪后被定了罪，惩罚会按照法定的五刑进行。。。

逼迫嫌疑犯认罪倒是另一种事，既然很多朝代规定罪犯必须自己认罪才能定罪，那自然会有虐待犯人逼迫他们认罪的各种惨无人道的现象(也有一些古书专门教官吏怎么逼供），但这可不算是‘惩罚’，而属于’调查‘和’审判‘的过程，虽然让我们很反感，但必须承认，这不仅仅是古代才有的调查方式，而且，跟惩罚制度是另一种概念。

其实说到让现代人反感，主要不是古人怎么惩罚，而是古人什么时候不惩罚，那就是那些交钱赎罪的事，有钱就可以免除很多惩罚，极其不公平的一种现象。课里面提到了司马迁，看《报任安书》，或《史记》里面的某些章回（例如《管晏列传》）就可以感觉到，让司马迁愤愤不平的不仅仅是遭受宫刑（也叫腐刑），而是没有朋友或识才的人出来替他出钱赎罪，而自己和父亲又为官廉洁，没钱赎罪。

最后提出两个成语一个俗语，基本上都是一样的意思，那就是英文的detterrence这个道理：

杀一儆百sha1yi1jing3bai3 Kil one deter a hundred

杀鸡吓猴sha1ji1xia4hou2 Kill the chicken and scare the monkey

杀鸡给猴看sha1ji1gei3hou2kan4 Similar

还有几个跟逼迫犯人认罪有关：

屈打成招-qu1da3cheng2zhao1 Forced to make a false confession under torture

严刑逼供yan2xing2bi1gong4 Torture to obtain confession

刑讯xing2xun4 Use torture implements to interogate

拷打kao3da3 Beat a person in order to interogate

谢谢Cpod提供99cents的holiday special offer。这几年本来很想来看一看Cpod，重新体会一下我曾经热爱的学习资料，现在有机会看一下跟我的研究方向有关的课，颇为好玩。；）

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

着 In many compound words is commonly read zhao2, even when the formally correct pronounciation is zhuo2. 着想 is indeed zhuo2xiang3, but the voice actor's pronounciation of zhao2xiang3 is commonly heard. 着落 zhuo2luo4 is another example, but You'll notice this technically correct vs commonly heard pronounciation difference in alot of words, 着 is not alone in this respect.

Note that in many words zhao2 is the formally correct choice for 着, it depends on the meaning.

I think Cpod generally doesn't police their voice actors' accents much, at least they didnt when I studied here. That's something that was debated quite fiercly at various times in the past, but at any rate, if you want very standard chinese, outside of news broadcasts your best bet is 古装戏, especially the larger budget ones, they generally hire seperate dubbing actors for each of the actors, because even though they speak mandarin, they generally have a variey of accents not deemed appropriate. So you end up with very standard speech...though even there one finds consistent mistakes, like I've yet to see a costume drama pronounce the 宛 in 大宛国 properly as yuan1.

Either way, true mastery of the language probably means knowing and understanding all the different ways people say things, so there is value to the exposure.

Posted on: Using Verbs 不出来 , 得出来

想不出 seems natural for this.

想不起 does seem less natural, as you aren't remembering something but rather coming up with something new, but this seems like the kind of thing that even native speakers say sometimes, I don't think it's not restrictive.

Posted on: Applying for a Work Visa

协助 does, as you guess, imply a coordinated, joint action between the helper and helped.

Posted on: The Mysteries of 而 Revealed

Have I lost respect in your eyes? As my friend said, it's still better than reading People Magazine or Us Weekly.