User Comments - toianw

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

nice story. I'm curious where you're living now. you refer to "your city" a lot.

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

I'm almost certain the bowler hat thing is true. It may have been revoked by now, though we have a surprising number of antiquated (and far more ludicrous) laws still on the statute books in Britain. True, ladies of the time would have had their requirements, though (at least legally speaking) we didn't care so much about the ladies back then.

So when did you first visit Beijing? I seem to remember on my first trip, 2002, some of the taxis were red. These were cheaper than the newer ones.

Posted on: Fire in the Hallway!

Yes, it makes sense to me that 火警 means fire brigade to me too. I was just surprised when I looked up the word for "fire alarm" and found it to be the same.

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

I'd argue the London cabs are more identifiable by their shape than colour. Supposedly, there's still a requirement that a man wearing a bowler hat must be able sit in it with room to spare (more recently also a requirement for wheelchair access), hence the unique shape.

Undoubtedly, black became the recognised colour scheme for a taxi in London. I guess the interesting question is why? I suspect a 'sea of cars' wasn't an issue when the first petrol powered cabs were introduced. I also wonder about how the English gentleman wearing his suit and bowler hat would feel getting into a big yellow car at the turn of the century.

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

Hitching is actually very common in remote rural parts of China, for example mountainous parts of Gansu, Sichaun, Qinghai etc, but it's a bit different to Western countries. The reason people in these areas hitch is because there is no other form of public transport or buses are infrequent or unreliable. Usually, when you flag down a truck you are expected to pay a fee for the journeys, so hitching is not a way to save money. A couple of times I've offered to pay and the driver's refused to accept, but that might be because I'm a foreigner. The thumbs-up sign is not used here - you put your arm out horizontally and wave it up and down (kind of like your patting someone who's at arms length on the head).

In the developed parts of China though, I've never seen anyone hitch hiking.

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

Hi louisita72

You're right, the sentence with 可以 kě yǐ is wrong. Actually, 可以 is more about giving or asking for permission than talking about possibility but the point is you don't need to add any other verb. Just use,

打得到车 dǎ de dào chē = able to get a taxi

打不到车 dǎ bu dào chē = unable to get a taxi

Notice the "de" here is not 的 but a different character 得, though the pronunciation is the same. As you study more Chinese you'll come across this pattern time and time again. Some other common examples.

我找不到他 wǒ zhǎo bu dào tā = I can't find him.

这里买得到茶吗? zhèlǐ mǎi de dào chá ma? Can you buy tea here?

Posted on: Fast Food

Hi darkstar94,

Let me try to answer your question. I don't know about Taiwan, but here on the mainland it's not considered at all rude to say 不要 as long as you use a normal "tone of voice" (i.e. not shouting it out), especially in response to someone offering to sell you something.

Posted on: Fire in the Hallway!

Thanks for the reply lujiaojie, but now i'm confused. In the dialogue when the person dials 119 they say ‚"喂，火警.....". It's translated as "Hello, fire department..." . So can 火警 also mean fire department?

Posted on: Fire in the Hallway!

no problem. While you're there I have a quick question about 火警。according to my dictionary 火警 means fire alarm. Is this right? Can it mean fire department and fire alarm? What about 消防队 for fire department?

Posted on: Fire in the Hallway!

tried a few other lessons. Seems to be same problem on all lessons.