User Comments - tucsonmichael
tucsonmichael
Posted on: How do you take your coffee?
September 7, 2007 at 4:21 AMHi... as always, nice lesson. My perspective is that real (American) men don't need sugar! I also suggest that people really wanting coffee in China who are just visting consider bringing their own instant coffee. Starbucks in China charges about the same price as in USA, so paying 三十块 (or more)。。。 for a coffee is ridiculous, since many good breakfasts cost less than that. Ironically, Shanghai and Chengdu 成都市 McDonalds have good and affordable coffee at 4 or 6 块钱。。。 I paid something like 24 块钱 for a cup of coffee close to the size of a sewing thimble in 成都市 which took 20 minutes to make, which was no better than the McDonalds coffee.... i certainly appreciate that China is rightfully "tea" centric... but there are not too many economical good coffee choices in China yet.
Posted on: Time to Go
August 31, 2007 at 9:27 PM你好, from expansion section 我没干吗。 (I didn't do anything.) doesn't seem correct...吗 doesn't belong in a statement. Is the following correct? 我也一点没干什么了. ( or just simply 我没干了. ) 为什么 说 "都" , 不说 " 已经 "?
Posted on: Post-Graduation Plans
August 17, 2007 at 11:38 PMminor correction in expansion section (中文怎么写？ ）... 你真没出息。 (He really doesn't have any prospects.) 汉字应该。。。“他” 或者 英文应该 “you" - great lesson and vocab....感谢。。。
Posted on: Post-Graduation Plans
August 15, 2007 at 3:02 PMrankings from 2005 article: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/21/content_418027.htm Tsinghua University ranked first with a 270.74 score, and Beijing University and Zhejiang University took second and third places respectively. Other universities rounding out the top ten are Fudan University, Nanjing University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Wuhan University, Jilin University and Zhongshan University, in descending order. Compared with the ranking of the top ten universities in the previous year, Shanhai Jiaotong University climbed from ninth place to seventh place. Nanjing University went up from sixth to fifth; Zhongshan University climbed to the tenth spot from the eleventh; Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University and Jilin University dropped one rank respectively, while Sichuan University fell below the top ten.
Posted on: Introducing Oneself to the Family
July 27, 2007 at 9:45 PMYes, the number of family forms of address, 称呼, as Jenny says, is amazing. I seem to remember counting something like 82 to 87 in a second semester Chinese textbook (including both formal and informal forms of address)...太多了！ As a child, there were 22 first cousins in our family, and something like 16 uncles and aunts, and three grandparents, not to even mention great aunts and spouses of older cousins, their kids, etc.. so I am very grateful for the simplicity of English in this instance. ^_^ One other question from the PDF dialogue: 不过还是阿姨您最漂亮！ is translated as 阿姨 being "more" beautiful. I always translated 最 as "most". Is it "more in this case because of the comparison to the home's beauty, or should it really be "most" beautiful?
Posted on: Booking a Plane Ticket
July 27, 2007 at 8:14 PMAmber, 感谢！
Posted on: Introducing Oneself to the Family
July 27, 2007 at 6:38 PM高兴得学到(学习?)中文...只是很难...比如...为什么"天下" instead of "世界"? is 天下 related more to world activities "everything under the sun or sky" where 世界 is the "physical" world? 总的来说 "宿舍" 为什么 "寝室"? 为什么"总是不肯" 意思好像 "never willing to" instead of "从来没想..." never wants to? Is "精神" vigor more common than "健康" health when complimenting an older person? 感谢你很有用的课文! 我的最后的问题...with older men dating younger women, if the woman's parents were in the same generation as the man, would the 阿姨好 still be appropriate (identifying with companion woman, rather than parent)? 又谢谢!
Posted on: Booking a Plane Ticket
July 26, 2007 at 7:18 PMother useful vocabulary words for this lesson might include: destination - 目的地？ hotel reservation 宾而预定？ (get) re-routed ？？ seat availability 有没有位子？ travel documents 旅行（旅游）公文？
Posted on: Chinese Seasonings
July 15, 2007 at 4:11 PMChou4yu2.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot 好吃得很
Posted on: What's tomorrow?
September 16, 2007 at 3:17 AMI'm used to seeing 待 for "stay". Are you sure that you have the right character in the expansion exercise (if so, is this common in just Shanghai, or throughout northern China)?