User Comments - tony.cpod

Posted on: Your Mandarin Is Really Good!

Thanks guys. I should probably point out that I don't live in China. So whenever anybody here is talking about the Chinese language, they are talking to others who only speak Mandarin and there are no other dialects that it could possibly be mistaken with.

Maybe this is kind of like myself living in an English speaking country and referring to 'The Queen's English' if I wanted to indicate I was following British English as opposed to American English? Obviously, if I was living in China and speaking with Chinese people, I would simply just call it 'English' since there is no need to be more specific.

But in both Singapore and Australia, all my friends who I have asked have said they would never refer to Chinese as anything other than 'Zhōngwén' if the context of it being Mandarin is already implied.

Posted on: Your Mandarin Is Really Good!

This is something that's always confused me, and I've never managed to find a definitive answer. I hope this isn't taken as being ungrateful for the excellent teaching material provided here at CPod, but could I please ask the following question?

My girlfriend has spent her entire life in China, both north and south, and she tells me that a Chinese person would not really use 'Pǔtōnghuà' to refer to the Chinese language. She says it just sounds strange, and other Chinese friends I have all agree. When I asked her what she would say, she simply said 'Zhōngwén'.

This led me to another question. I asked her, "Doesn't the 'wén' in 'Zhōngwén' refer to the Chinese culture?" I do remember learning that in a previous Chinese lesson at university. They taught us for example that 'Yīngyǚ' would mean 'English language' while 'Yīngwén' would mean 'English culture'. My girlfriend simply said she would use 'Zhōngwén' to mean the Chinese language and that was what sounded most natural to her.

Is anybody able to shed any light on this so that we can all understand it a little better?

Posted on: Explaining Your Job

Thanks lujiaojie.

Do you not tend to use '华语 Huáyǚ' much in the mainland to refer to the language itself? It is the main way that the local Chinese here in Singapore refer to the language, but maybe that is specific to this part of the world.

Posted on: Explaining Your Job

I notice in the expansion section that 中文 / Zhōngwén is used to mean 'Chinese language.'

I previously learned that 中文 means Chinese culture, and to refer to the language you would need to say 中国话 / Zhōngguóhuà, 普通话 / Pǔtōnghuà, 华语 / Huáyǚ etc.

Could somebody please clarify?

Posted on: Lost Wallet and Passport

Hi Jenny, sorry for the confusion. I should have articulated myself better. What I was trying to say was this:

I know there is a rule where two third tones get converted to a second tone followed by a third tone, eg 你好 (nǐhǎo -> níhǎo).

I also know that when you repeat the same word twice, the second syllable is often changed into a neutral tone, eg 等等 (děngdeng), 姐姐 (jiějie) etc.

With 找找 as used in the dialogue here, my question is, what exactly happens to the tones? It looks like the last syllable is changed into the neutral tone. That's fine, I can understand that. The bit I find confusing is what happens to the first tone? Does it get converted to a second tone (eg zháozhao) because 找找 is two third tones, EVEN THOUGH the last syllable has now become a neutral tone? Or does it simply remain as a third tone followed by a neutral tone (eg zhǎozhao)?

I hope that clarifies. Sorry for the confusion.

Posted on: Lost Wallet and Passport

There's something I'm a bit curious about. The last sentence uses 找找 (zhǎozhao). I know that this is two third tones in isolation, but that the last syllable becomes neutral due to the repetition. However, does the third tone on that first syllable change to a second and still follow the 'two third tones' rule?

By the way, your Pinyin program is excellent. What would be a great addition is a couple of lessons on tones in one easy to find location. I know those lessons exist, but they're scattered and require a bit of searching.

Posted on: Where Are You Going In China?

Is there any difference between using 还有 (háiyǒu) and 和 (hé) to mean 'and'? Would it be incorrect to use 和 in the context of this dialogue?

I'm wondering whether perhaps 还有 is favoured when using 'and' in a list of things?

Posted on: Leisure-time Activities and Mahjong

Just curious, at 8:15 Jason seems to say "Wǒ yào yí ge wèntí" but to me it sounds like the last word is being pronounced more like "wènqí".

Is this a regional thing like the nálǐ / nǎr difference between North and South? Or did I completely misunderstand what he said?

Posted on: Breakup

I remember learning at some point that when you are talking about a point in time (eg "when..."), you can use the structure 的时候 (de shíhou).

So regarding the sentence "跟你在一起" (gēn nǐ zài yìqǐ), could you tack a 的时候 onto the end? How would this change the meaning?

Posted on: Swearing at a Driver

Steve, the tone marks you see are actually part of the character set which allows these tones to be displayed. The character set is called Unicode, and it allowed web pages to start using non-standard English alphabet characters when the Internet started being used by the masses.

Hence, nothing more can be done to enlarge the tone marks as can be done to enlarge the dots for 'i' or the dashes for 't'. You can enlarge the page within your web browser and Acrobat Reader (hold down Ctrl and use your mouse's scroll wheel). This is what I do sometimes.

Hope that helps!