User Comments - wenjong

Posted on: Office Lunch Options

OMG, this brings back memories... finding lunch at the Forbidden City, with my newly adopted 22 month old... we got a self-heating boxed chicken lunch... I took photos of the steam coming out the sides. It was sooo hot, but not only that, the jirou was interspersed with sharp shards of bone... pretty much impossible to feed to a toddler if you want the child to live. Definitely an experience! And fortunately I work at home, so I don't have to dai fan! Thanks for the great lesson!

Posted on: Hang Up and Ride!

This is great: I'll be able to say "ting bu jian" and "ting bu qing" to my four year old son as well as "ting bu dong"! Do I need to say "chu" at the end of "ting bu qing"?

I've answered my cellphone while pushing the stroller and walking the dog, but never while riding a bike!

Posted on: Grammar Lesson

yulisa says
September 8, 2009

although grammar is the spinal cord of all languages, it is “hen wuliao"

That's very funny... I bought for myself Claudia Ross's Modern Chinese Grammar as a special treat and I read it in bed before I go to sleep, or as another special treat, go to a coffeeshop to read it with a café au lait instead of working!

And I went to grade school in the 70s in Saskatchewan, Canada, and we definitely studied grammar in English, and we did diagram sentences, with wavy lines for one part of speech, straight lines for another, double lines for another, indicating adjectives, adverbs, and subordinate clauses and what they modified etc... And I think that strong basis in understanding parts of speech and how they fit together has helped enormously when I learn other languages, be it French, Swedish or Chinese... and dare I say, help make it enjoyable! ;D

Posted on: Thank You Note

I came to point out an error in the expansion (谈恋爱in the second sentence only has the english "to fall in love" but not the pinyin, so I only understand "ai")... and here is an amazing discussion on handwriting! I too think the traditional one is more "beautiful" but Ellen's is very nice to look at too, tho as an elly I would probably not be able to read it. I was surprised however at how much of the dialogue (monologue) I could understand!

Now I'll have to come back and look at all those links... I am fascinated to see more examples of cursive. And me too, I practice writing but it is like a grade one student in English! Carefully carefully making the letter A, drawn in the right order. Cursive may take years! ;D Thanks for a great lesson, even accessible to us ellies!

Posted on: Which Time Zone?

Re Barbhong and dictations...

I have stopped doing those exercises as they are more an exercise in frustration than in Chinese pinyin. Me too I often get zero or one out of five etc, even though  I have both the pinyin and the one tone correct. After rewriting in all sorts of variations, with spaces or no spaces or trying different numbers or no numbers for the neutral tone I give up.

Chinesepod: would it be possible to give an example correct input form for the dictations? Such as they often do in forms where they ask for your telephone number (ie showing if they need spaces or not, parenthesis or not). Thanks so much. It would be great if they were userfriendly as it is so important to be able to write from dictation.

Another suggestion would be to indicate which word in an answer was wrong instead of the whole answer . Or to have a "correct answer" option where it would show us what we should have written after we have gotten it wrong multiple times. Thanks!

Posted on: It's cold, wear more clothes!

Very timely! Here the leaves bian huang, hong he cheng se de!

One note, in the "expansion":

你怎么样？还好。
How was it? So-so. 1 (How was it? So-so.)

Definitely means, How are YOU, not how was IT.

thanks.

Posted on: Buying a Bike

@bodawei...

re my unconvincing... all I can say is they are sport specific and tested extensively for the particular usage. On the other hand I am totally a layman and am giving my layman's take on it.

re:"And I am intrigued about what a 'moto' is - is that like a European 'moped'?

No, not at all, in Quebec it is french and they say "une motocyclette" for a motorcycle, almost always shortened to "moto". A big honkin motorcycle vroom vroom with the gas tank in front of your chest... think Harley Davidson, Guzzo. Mo tuo che. (I am so sorry to be too lazy to look up the tones or put characters... I only plead it is 2:31 am)

Scooters are newly popular here. "Un scooter". Very popular with young people... I can't swear by it but I think you can get a license earlier than for a car. And unlike motorcycles your car driver's license is valid to drive it. Good for zooming around Montreal's Plateau district.

And yes, mopeds are big in Europe... I zoomed around Corfu on one at 17 yrs old in 1981! But not much here. Sometimes I see older men (think retired) on motorized bicycles, usually electric), that have both pedals and a motor, but it is very rare.

And I am so sorry, Shanpan, I have no idea what this means:"wenjong

waht a modest guy you are . I saw your response of my comments in characters.This is an elementary lesson but you can try that make comments in characters."

ps, that is me and my son in the thumbnail, I'm not really any kind of guy. Wo shi wo de erzi de mama! ;D And I can read a bit of characters, but I understood about 1/2 of the characters in your "jin" explanation, and could deduct what you were saying because I knew the answer, but if I hadn't known the answer, as a true blue elementary level learner, I wouldn't have understood at all! ;D

Posted on: Buying a Bike

"the British standard that helmets have to adhere to are to protect any rider that that falls off sideways whilst stationary"

I know that sounds completely insane, but my nearly 4 yr old son has a balance bike (that is a 2wheeler with no pedals, rides like a bike but you push it with your feet, sort of like a super super fast walk... he can go for a good twenty-50 feet on a glide once he gets going)... and he ONLY falls down sideways whilst stationary. True enough! While he's going, he is balanced and has his feet on the ground, and unlike walking (where he falls forward onto his hands and knees), holding onto the handlebars he never falls forward. And he is with both feet on ground when on the seat, so he never flies over his handlebars like a regular cyclist. (and no cyclists fall backwards) He falls when at a standstill and twists around to look at something, gets all caught up in the bike body and goes offkilter. haha!

Who knew bike helmets were specifically made for him! I am supremely reassured in my purchase (and his wearing it!) thanks! ;D

Posted on: Buying a Bike

Hi, yes, I mean more the helmet that has a full face shield out of plastic. My moto helmet is like that, but with no wraparound of the helmet for the chin... more people wear ones that are wraparound for the chin like Orangina just posted, but less "sporty" (more rounded, less pointy darth vader looking!)... mostly only read biker gang types wear the ones that only have a chin strap like the first one orangina posted! So yes, with full helmet over the ears to back of neck, plastic shield coming down over face to chin (with or without chin guard) is very uncomfortable on bicycle! ;D I find having my head in a moto helmet like having it in a refrigerator! ;D

And no, I don't think they compromise safety for comfort for the bicycle helmets. Actually something with all those vents would be quite chilly here in Canada on a motorcycle on the highway. You WANT to have protection from the wind, or most people do.

And you must have very different types of bikes and motorcycles there... one thing I disliked about motorcycle was you are not up as high as a bicycle and can see less far in traffic. You can sit on the seat with feet flat on the ground on a motorcycle. On a bike, you are high enough your pedal doesn't hit the ground when your leg is down. I cannot put my feet on ground when I sit on my bicycle. I get off the seat to stand. And yes, we shouldercheck to change lanes, but I insist, vehicles in lanes are very orderly, at least here: if you stay in your lane, no one is going to take you out, vs on a bike where here there really is no lane: you are dodging parked cars opening doors, buses going in and out of bus stops, people turning in front of you etc.  Anyways, both helmets are highly tested for the sort of accidents they get into. Though here motorcycle helmets are obligatory and bicycle helmets are not... but I've been wearing one since 1989 when friend died of hitting head on the pavement on her bike.

And haha, re Carlos_in_irvine: after buying three new bikes in Montreal in less than 12 mos, each stolen within 2 wks, I bought a beat up 2nd (4th?) hand one for cheap, and have had it for 7 years!

Now if only I could say all of that in Chinese. Duibuqi (and thanks to matt_c... yes I am newbie migrating to elementary and I cannot keep up with all the characters and pinyin!)

Posted on: Buying a Bike

Hey Easemac! Did you get that response that was all in characters? (I understood what it was about as I know the radical)...the similar element you talk about is the left-side way of writing "jin1" or "metals/gold". Money, bells and locks are usually made out of metal.

And re:

So my query stands because a bicycle accident and a motorbike or scooter accident potentially produce the same kind of head trauma. 

I suggest that the bicycle 'solution' is a compromise - there is no way that the little styrofoam jobs would protect you like the helmet that I wear on my motorbike. Otherwise, why not allow styrofoam jobs for motorcyclists?  I have seen study results that suggest that styrofoam contributes to certain kinds of brain injury (somehow causing the brain to shake inside the cranium.)

Frankly, motorcycles travel within the lanes of traffic, often at speeds up to 160 kmph, and when you fall, you are often flying off very far and hitting hard. You are down low with feet at ground level. If slow, you fall stuck with the bike, ie sideways. Because you have rearview mirrors, indicator lights and travel within lanes, you are usually looking straight ahead. You are also just sitting there in wind. Very little energy output on a motorcycle.

On a bicycle you seldom go over 15-30 kmph, you are higher up, on a lightweight vehicle and fall differently. You are often beside vehicle traffic and have to turn your head a lot to all sides for visibility. You are cycling, ie getting all sweaty, so you need a lot of ventilation and for it to be light.

Both kinds of helmets save lives and brain injuries (I have friends who have had accidents on both types of vehicles where the helmet cracked but their head didn't), but they are VERY different situations. I have ridden my bike with a motorcycle helmet (to motorcycle classes!) and it was not pleasant. Hot, heavy, no visibility. cheers.

And thanks for all the answers on what a helmet is called! I too would like more vocab on bikes.