User Comments - toianw

Posted on: Funerals and Consolation

Hi 忠Jaron,

This is not at all weird to the Chinese. It's the principle of 吃什么补什么 - eating certain foods for health reasons or to help you recover from something. You can take a look at this lesson for more details.

Posted on: So (adjective) that...

Hi Xiaophil,

给力 is a new word (less than 1 year old). Means something like 牛, 酷, 棒, 爽. It's popular among young people, especially on the net. I'm told it comes from a Japanese cartoon 《西游记：旅程的终点》 which was dubbed into "modern/slang" Chinese by a group of students from the Communication University of China, Nanjing and posted on youku. The first line in this episode uses the negative 不给力。

这就是天竺么？不给力啊老湿 (老湿 here means 老师)

Interestingly, the word seems to have gained official recognition, appearing in the lead headline on the front page of the people's daily (人民日报). It also got a mention in the New York Times column on modern words and phrases.

Posted on: Flu Vaccination

As a rule of thumb, I think you'd use 几 to ask a question if you expect the answer to be in single figures. So 几岁 if you think the kid is no more than 10. It's generally used for small children.

Posted on: Shut down by Pimples

I also hear 泡咖啡馆 from time to time. As Jenny says, the emphasis is definitely on leisurely hanging out somewhere. This would be more than just going to drink a cup of coffee. You might settle down with a good book, or play some board games and generally stay there for hours rather than minutes.

Are there any other common places you can go to 泡?

Posted on: Which is better: China or the USA?

十年多了! (shí nián duō le). That's a long time, John. I notice you've started mixing up your "he"s and "she"s. 你真是个中国通 (nǐ zhēn shì ge zhōngguótōng) - very Chinese.:) 

Posted on: A Visit to the In-laws

xiaofrosty,

I think traditional characters should be no problem. If you scroll to the top of this page, at the top right-hand corner of the white box , to the right of all the tabs, is a small symbol of a cog. Click on this to find options to change your settings to traditional.

If you want the option to download traditional PDFs, click on [Show Extra Options] and tick the box.

Hope that helps.

Posted on: A Visit to the In-laws

Hi xiaofrosty,

Welcome to ChinesePod!

At the bottom of each page of the PDF, in red, you'll see:

Visit the Online Review and Discussion (text version).

Click on (text version) and this will open a text page that you can copy and paste from.

Good luck with your studies.

Posted on: A Visit to the In-laws

Hi amesburygeorge,

There may be other terms, but the only ones I've come across are:

公公 - gōnggong (husband's father)

婆婆 - pópo (husband's mother)

Collectively you can call them 公婆 - gōngpó (husband's parents )

Posted on: Expressing Location with 边 and 面

Hi darkstar, Here's my take on it.

地上 gives the feeling of "on the ground" - generally used to refer to location of things (i.e. the focus of the sentence will probably not be the ground, but something else).

地面 is the ground surface. For example, is it flat, bumpy slippery, dirty etc? Also could mean the floor (e.g. 水泥地面 - a cement floor [surface])

So you could (I guess) say: 别坐在地上，地面很脏。

I think there's probably some overlap. For example:

地面都是雪 or 地上都是雪 both seem OK to me.

I tend to think of 边 as an edge and 面 as a surface.

so 海边 = the coast (the sea's edge)

海面 = the surface of the sea.

Similarly, 河边 (river side) & 河面 (river surface)

Posted on: Getting Taller (Not Fatter)

Number 2 has got me wondering. Would 长得... ever be used to talk about babies?