User Comments - tony.cpod

Posted on: Simplified vs Traditional Characters

Thanks suoanli, that's a big help! Is there somewhere I should be checking for patterns such as 是。。。的? If there is a section of this site that lists such patterns I am unaware of it.

Posted on: Simplified vs Traditional Characters

Two quick questions here please.

1. I've only ever seen 用 used previously for "to use". This is the first time I've seen 使用. How is this different from the single character 用?

2. I'm having a hard time understanding why there is a 是 before the 用 in the sentence "使用繁体字法律是有规定的." Could somebody please help me understand?

Posted on: Awkward Colleague

Just wondering if somebody could be kind enough to enlighten me as to any difference between 怪 used in this dialogue to mean "strange" and the two-syllable term I have often heard which is 奇怪?

Also curious how much difference there is between 理 and 注意. Both seem to mean "pay attention", but I get the impression the context for each would be completely different?

Posted on: Official Receipt at a Work Lunch

Is there any similarity between 口味 used in this lesson and 品位 used in the Intermediate lesson "Running into an Ex"?

Posted on: Put your Phone Down!

Thanks user14238, that's a huge help! I just wish the explanations were given in English because the spoken Chinese is way beyond the level of the lesson actually being taught (seems a bit counter intuitive to me).

Posted on: Put your Phone Down!

First off, let me apologise for the lengthy post and multiple questions. I know it must test your patience at times. I've recently tried studying Intermediate level lessons after spending way too long stuck on Elementary (and completing more than the recommended number of lessons). My feedback would be that the jump is *big*, and equiped with only an Elementary level understanding of Chinese, I have no idea what Jenny is saying when explaining the dialogue. I can only understand Ryan since he's speaking in English. I think the Intermediate level lessons would be better served by somehow bridging the gap a little more, allowing for Elementary level poddies to more easily make the jump.

Having said that, I'm totally confused over a number of things and this is where the questions start. This may have been answered by Jenny's explanations in Chinese, but I'm not sure how much of that an early stage Intermediate poddie is supposed to understand.

- 起来 is introduced as a "directional complement", but anything more than that was lost in translation. I went to the grammar section but it is not explained in there. I'd be really appreciative if someone could elaborate on this or point me to a link that explains it some more.

- 赶紧 vs 赶快. Again, I think this may have been discussed in Chinese, but not too sure. Are they exactly the same?

- 嗓门 - is this exactly the same as 嗓子 which I recall learning from a different source? Could you say "大嗓子"? And how are 嗓子/嗓门 different from 喉咙?

- 瞧瞧 vs 看/看看 - I couldn't understand what was being explained about how these two expressions differ from each other.

- 玩意 vs 东西 - Another case of not understanding how these two differ.

- 俩 vs 两 - I'm not sure if it was explained how these differ either?

- It's the first time I've seen something like the following "这玩意儿". I think many beginners would expect a "个" in there, ie “这个玩意儿". Is there some way to know when the "个" can be safely omitted?

Again, sorry for the numerous questions. The jump from Elementary to Intermediate brings more complicated dialogues. My personal feeling is that with so much of the explanations given in Chinese, it's making it harder to understand what is going on and a lot of the details don't make it through. I'm finding that as we are taught multiple ways to say the same thing, we need very clear explanations on how to know which particular word is suitable for a given context. You can see this evidenced in most of my questions above.

Posted on: Fall is here!

Just wondering if 排 used here in this lesson is different in any way from 排队 which a previous lesson also introduced as "to line up"?

Posted on: Catching a Train

A couple of questions regarding the dialogue please:

1. How is 候车室 different from 候车厅 as used in the Intermediate lesson "A Long Bus Ride"? Both seem to mean "waiting room".
2. Is there any practical difference between 站台 and 月台 to mean "platform"?

Thanks as always for any assistance!

Posted on: Grab Some Veggies From the Store

This lesson is interesting because it's the first time I've seen "到家". My old Chinese teacher told us all that you only ever "回家" but maybe that was a general rule taught to newbies. It'd be great if anyone could clarify this.

Posted on: Charging your Phone on the Run

Just wondering if the 时 used in this dialogue is maybe a shorter version of 的时候?