User Comments - toianw

Posted on: Celebrating a Baby's First Month

A transcript of this lesson is available here.

Posted on: Hide and Seek

Hi cinnamonfern - We discussed this questions quite recently here , where lujiaojie gave these two choices.

A使我想起B or A让我想到B

Going by a quick google search, it looks like your sentence also works but is not as common.

"使我记起" - About 5,980,000 results

"使我想起" - About 65,300,000 results

"让我想到" - About 13,200,000 results

Posted on: Celebrating a Baby's First Month

Thanks so much, Connie!

Posted on: Celebrating a Baby's First Month

Please could someone help me confirm/correct these five bits of the lesson banter. Thanks...

4:05 - Dilu: 憋就是(蒙着)，(逮着)。

4:08 - John: 这个好像(要?)上厕所的时候也可以用，是吗？

4:13 - Dilu: 我(要?)上厕所憋得慌呀

7:01 – John:（但当）平时，区别不是那么大，是吗？

13:54 – Dilu: 要怎么样【出/去】意思意思呢？ 

Posted on: Hide and Seek

Hi Joeborn,

起来 has numerous different uses. It can be used to indicate certain actions starting as baba suggests.

But here the 起来 is representing the action of "enclosing" something. That's the best way I can think to explain its use as the 起来 after 藏 doesn't really translate into English. Some more examples may help.

包起来 = to wrap up. (enclosing something in paper, for example)

圈起来 = to enclose (e.g. a garden with a wall) or to lock up (e.g. prisoners) or confine (animals in a pen) or also circle (e.g. an important word on the blackboard)

卷起来 - to roll up

You'll also see It used with verbs to indicate the action of "bringing things together into one place" which I guess is closely related

收起来 - to tidy up / put away / collect together

结合起来 - combine

As you probably know, with a 把 sentence, you always need to add something after the verb - in the expansion sentence this is why 起来 is needed. But if you're giving the place (藏在...) you wouldn't use 起来.

Sorry for my bad explanation (probably best to look out for more examples and you'll pick it up) but I hope it helps a little.

Posted on: The Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism

1982 was the year China's constitution was amended to include "freedom of religion" (article 36). Of course, there are many other issues surrounding this, but these are perhaps best discussed elsewhere:)

Re Christianity: In the big cities the popularity of Christianity seems to be growing fast. Churches and cathedrals are packed for services and mass baptisms are not uncommon. Islam is also a significant minority religion - of course in Xinjiang, but also throughout China there are groups of Chinese Muslims.

Here's a couple of links you may find interesting:

China Daily Article: Religious believers thrice the estimate. A summary of the results of a survey into religion by professors at East China Normal University.

Council on Foreign Relations: Religion in China - a look religion and the government/law in China (seems pretty objective and impartial to me)

Posted on: Getting to the Bottom of 到底

if the ad is from Taiwan, it won't be RMB. Perhaps the 人 is 元。

Posted on: Getting to the Bottom of 到底

Hi RJ,

Can't see the ad (youtube) but in case you didn't guess 美式咖啡 is an Americano.

Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 1: A Fated Meeting

Hi Connie,

Thanks for that. I'm often confused between "change of state" and "completed action" - in some cases they seem like pretty much the same thing to me. Can I clarify? By completion of the action, does this mean the sleeping is over (i.e. the person has woken up now)? If so, is this a "past tense" statement ? (I secretly fell asleep in class). The translation given in the expansion sentence is "I secretly fall asleep in the class." which suggests this is something you do regularly. Or could it mean either, depending on context?

Thanks.

Posted on: Food Poisoning

This expansion sentence is interesting:

听说这两种食物一起吃会中毒。

Is this a commonly held belief in China? If so, which combinations of foods should be avoided?