User Comments - washingtondcmandarincooperative

Posted on: Coffee Break Series #8 - Negotiating the Price

哦，那节关于参观工厂的课很好。 谢谢你改正发布的问题 。 今天我在YouTube上看了一个 “清谈” 的 新 中文播客的视频，但是还没有在你们的网站出现呢。

Posted on: Continued Tone Change Series #8 - Late for a Show

Great, thanks so much. You might want to include the link in the lesson description, for the (majority of) users who don't read the lesson comments. I still haven't gotten around to making my own notes yet.  I am more likely to get tripped up by three or more third tones in a row.  For example, in your pdf you show the two third tones of kě + yǐ becoming kéyǐ, which is a pattern I am familiar with.  But in the dialog another third tone syllable follows, such that there is another tone change to : kéyí zhǔnshí.  (*both* of the third tones of 可 and 以 change to second tones, as illustrated at 4:29 in the video).   

And then we get four third tones in a row with 我敢打赌 (wǒgǎndǎdǔ which becomes a 2-3-2-3 pattern, wógǎndádǔ, apparently because the final syllable is a third tone and influences the prior syllable.  

I guess I owe you another thanks because you have basically inspired me to make my notes here.   Again, this was a very ambitious lesson, and your contribution makes it even more useful. 

Posted on: Continued Tone Change Series #8 - Late for a Show

Thanks for taking up the task. Since I posted that suggestion I did listen to the audio review for this lesson and it does do a pretty good job of highlighting the difference between 3rd tone words in isolation and the way they change into second tones inside the sentences. Maybe I will mark up a printout of the lesson pdf to show the tone changes and this will do me more good than having a reference sheet from CPod. I realized that your exercises are in a rigid format, but maybe instead of just giving us the "before and after" for the 3rd tone syllables in the dialog sentences you could make it in the form of an exercise where the user has to mark the tone changes and the correct answers are on the back. Honestly though I probably benefit more from hearing the examples than seeing it written down or trying to memorize rules. The same probably applies to your question about what I would want to learn about the "half third tone." Maybe just a simple definition and an example or two.

Pending an written illustration of the rules specific to this lesson, here is a resource for the rules on 3rd tone changes:

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/pronunciation/Tone_changes_for_third_tones

Posted on: Continued Tone Change Series #8 - Late for a Show

This was a very ambitious lesson.  Bravo!  What would have made it even more useful would have been if the pdf download had included a written recap of the tone change examples highlighted.  As it is, all of the pinyin in both the download and the expansion sentences, etc. are in the original standard pinyin (i.e., tone changes not taken into account).  Maybe you can create a second downloadable document to show this, similar to what Betty did for the tone differences between Taiwan local Mandarin and standard mainland Mandarin for another lesson.  

One other small point:  Joe makes a passing reference to the "half third tone" but it isn't explored.  Will this be a subject of a future installment of this series?  

Posted on: 哪里不一样：发音差异, Part 2

谢谢你们的修改。 我只是提醒大家在台湾官方的语言是跟大陆一样，而不是陌生方言。

请问，你们也可以提供一张 发音对照表，像上次那张： https://pse.is/TN4XF

Posted on: 哪里不一样：发音差异, Part 2

 写下 ”普通话和台湾的中文“ 又来了！ 囧

谢谢 Lyn 说了 “ 。 。 。。 。 。 台湾人讲普通话跟我们讲普通话 不一样的地方。”  

Posted on: Coffee Break Series #5 - Making an Appointment

后面的那台显示器分散我的注意力。你们早就不是对其他抱怨的用户保证你们会除掉吗？   

Posted on: COVID-19, Rumors and Beer

So is 心理病 a word that people actually use, or just a made-up word for this dialog?

Posted on: 哪里不一样：发音差异, Part 1

学好普通话，走遍天下都不怕

”Study putonghua well and you need have no fear of going anywhere in the world."

Posted on: COVID-19, Rumors and Beer

心理疾病 Is the translation for "mental illness" that I see in a medical dictionary.  （Zhongshan Medical Dictionary) I can't find 心理病 in any dictionary as a stand-alone word, though there are the words  心理病态  (morbid state of mind) and   心里病理学(psychopathology).