User Comments - tvan

Posted on: Second-hand Bicycle

A minor question on the character 踏.  In the vocabulary section it lists the character's accent as 4th tone (i.e. Tà).  In Nciku the character is listed as having a 1st tone accent.  In MDGB it is listed as 4th tone.  

Given what a mess my tones are, it doesn't really matter, but is this a multi-tone character or is Nciku just wrong?

Posted on: Cats Are Cool

Pronouns in spoken Chinese are gender-neutral, including 它. Gender is indicated by the noun itself. Generally speaking with animals the only way I know to indicate gender is by appending either the prefix 公/Gōng/male or 母/female to the beginning of the word.

However, there are lots of specific ways to indicate the gender of specific male/female animals. I am not sure of the proper noun to use for a male/female cat.

Posted on: National Day Holiday

Here's a link to a 2007 Associated Press article describing the changes when they were still proposals that also brings up the economics issue that Jenny mentioned. It doesn't make any sense to me, but then it's the government, so what do you expect.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21918634/

Posted on: National Day Holiday

Another reason for the sacrosanctity of weekends in the West is that they're, well, sacrosanct. For regular church-goers, depending upon your Biblical interpretation, Church attendance is mandatory on either Saturday or Sunday. In the U.S. we sometimes move a holiday to a Friday or Monday in order to create a three-day weekend, whereas in China they move the weekend to the holiday; same principle really (i.e. consecutive days off), just without the Christian influence.

Posted on: Making people do things with 让，令，and 使

Ah, thank you so much for the answer Cpod.  You've answered my questions, along with one that I didn't ask.  What raised the question in my mind was that I once commented on a (Chinese) blog re: a news story that I thought was very moving (Sichuan earthquake), "...让我深刻"。One of the other bloggers told me that it would be better if I said, "使我深刻"。Then another corrected him, saying that, "令我深刻," was better.  They (i.e. Chinese bloggers) all agreed that “令” was the best choice, tried to explain to me, lost me in the Chinese, and left me totally confused.  From this lesson I can see that they chose “令” because it was an emotional reaction.  However, from Connie's last comment, I assume that my original comment, ...让我深刻," is also proper, is that correct?

I'm sorry I didn't offer my thanks sooner, but I'm in the middle of a move and have been "netless" the past week or so.  I just saw this Qing Wen pop up on my mobile while walking through a local hotspot last night.  As always, I really appreciate CPod's responsiveness.  Definitely gives the site a personal feel.

Posted on: Negotiating a Deadline

所以 "远在天边，近在眼前" 是个俗语，是吗？

Posted on: Election Candidates

Well, this probably qualifies as drivel/胡说, but here is a CSpan, er, SNL video spoofing Obama's 2009 visit to China.

Posted on: Cpod's Upcoming Anniversary

alexlexilu, its an apples and oranges sort of thing. The guided+ plan has one ten minute call and one minute twenty minute calls each week; the guide plan has one ten minute call per week. Here's a address. http://chinesepod.com/packages/courses/individual

Posted on: Cpod's Upcoming Anniversary

alexlexilu, its an apples and oranges sort of thing. The guided+ plan has one ten minute call and one minute twenty minute calls each week; the guide plan has one ten minute call per week. Here's a address. http://chinesepod.com/packages/courses/individual

Posted on: Comparing Buts: 但 and 却

Thx Connie. I see what Changye was trying to tell me earlier. It's all in theplacement of 卻 after the noun, but before the verb.