User Comments - toianw

Posted on: Math Class Woes

Hi Waiguoren,

I had you in mind when writing that post, though wasn't sure you were still around. Good to see you!

I like your idea of Jenny as an opening batswoman. Plays with a straight bat, but isn't averse to the occasional hoick out to cow corner if you bowl her some filth.

I had David down as an all-rounder as well as a safe pair of hands in the slip-cordon.

Vera was sent out as night-watchman on an overcast evening, prepared to take a peppering for the team just as the old ball is starting to reverse swing on an unpredictable forth-day wicket. Will they be able to bat through the fifth day to save the match?

Now we just need someone to translate all this into Chinese and we're halfway to having a lesson. Can't wait! :)

Posted on: Math Class Woes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24614257

Posted on: Asking for a Phone Number

Hi Todd,

You're right. Writing 零 seems to require a lot effort given that it represnts the meaning or zero or nothing.

零 is made up of the phonetic 令 (líng - giving the pronunciation) on the bottom and the meaning part 雨 (yǔ, rain) on the top. I believe the original meaning was something like 'drizzle' - as in the slow falling of rain. I guess it was 'borrowed' to represent zero because it had the right pronunciation. As I understand it, in the past, if there was not yet a character to represent a word, it was quite common just to 'steal' an existing character with the same pronunciation and assign the extra meaning to this character.

Posted on: Math Class Woes

When we get our lesson on cricket (that's 板球, not the 蛐蛐儿 - though I'd accept a lesson on either), all will be forgiven. :)

Posted on: Math Class Woes

You mean americanization? :)

Posted on: Buying Exercise Equipment

Hi Mike,

Near the end its 让这个5变成4.

At 1:50 it's 在squeeze

Posted on: Numbers in Chinese

Thanks for the input, Tingyun. Always appreciated!

Posted on: Numbers in Chinese

"It's an interesting one too, because it has the larger number first"

I guess the reasoning is that 万 is already often used as an arbitrarily large number, so 亿万 is just 亿个万

Posted on: Numbers in Chinese

How about 亿万。Similar in that it sounds like a real number but isn't generally associated with any specific value. Not sure it has quite the same comedic qualities as gazillion though.

Posted on: 学术抄袭

为零