User Comments - xiaohu
xiaohu
Posted on: An Introduction to Chengyu
October 20, 2010 at 6:20 PM@Tal,
Do you swear it shall be done?
;)
Posted on: An Introduction to Chengyu
October 20, 2010 at 12:08 AMYou only think I guessed wrong, that's what's so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned. Ha ha! You fool!
You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous is, never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is this...never go in against a Cicilian, when DEATH is on the line!
Ha ha ha ha! Ah ha ha ha ha! A ha ha hgh...(THUMP!)
经典. 实在是经典.
Posted on: An Introduction to Chengyu
October 19, 2010 at 4:41 PMZhenliang,
According toMDBG, 心胸狭窄 is a 成语.
I always love the 心 related 成语 because they refer to one's heart, mind, psychology or emotions, like, 心不在焉 (absent-minded, inattentive, half-hearted), or 心如刀割, (like a knife stabbing one's heart, heartwrenching, to hurt to the quick), 心口如一, (to say what one really thinks), 口是心非, 心口不一 (to be duplicitous, to not say what one means).
One could spend their entire life in the study of 成语, and I've wasted many hours on low-frequency or obscure 成语 that even the Chinese people don't know, so it would be helpful to have lessons from the Chinesepod experts that can clue us into which are high-frequency 成语 worthy of our time and brain-power to study and memorize.
Posted on: An Introduction to Chengyu
October 19, 2010 at 9:24 AM@John
I believe teaching limited chengyu at the intermediate and upper intermediate levels would be helpful, because in some cases the Chinese find it difficult to describe things without the help of chengyu,
For example my friend here was trying to describe another man in a negative way as: 心胸狭窄 (narrow minded), I think these "necessary" 成语 should be taught at lower levels.
Posted on: The Sun Salutation in Yoga
December 17, 2009 at 12:59 AM我明白了，谢谢。
我还有几个问题。我想知道，“摸不透”，“摸不清”和“摸不着边”怎么不同？这些词不是“我不明白”的意思吗？
Posted on: The Sun Salutation in Yoga
December 16, 2009 at 11:55 PM我想问你一下，吃透和摸透两句话，是不是差不多的意思？
Posted on: The North Has Central Heating
December 13, 2009 at 7:35 AMChiwind, Always glad to be of service! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, I'll try my best to help.
Posted on: I don't want it!
December 11, 2009 at 11:16 PMThere are actually three "de's" in Chinese which serve grammatical function.
The first, and most common is, 的 which is a posessive particle, acting like our 's. The presence of this particle indicates that the word or phrase is posessive.
EG: 我的，你的，他的，wǒ de, nǐ de, tā de.
My (mine), your (s), his
It can also work like our "of" (be careful it works the the reverse order of English).
EG: 百富翁的故事 bǎi wēng de gù shì
The story of the millionare.
Like I said, it works in reverse so it's better to train your mind to see this as,
Millionare's story.
You can often regard this "de" pattern as being equal to the English, (the...that...)
EG: 非洲人挨饿的原因 Fēi Zhōu Rén ái è de yuán yīn
The reason that Africans are starving. (African people starving's reason)
The next "de" 得 is a compliment to the degree of an adverb. It will appear "sandwiched" between a verb and the adverb. It answers the question, to what extent.
IE: 你的衣服穿得很漂亮 nǐ de yī fú chuān dé hěn piào liàng.
穿 (wear) + 得+ 很漂亮 (pretty)
V+得+Adv (or adverbial phrase)
Your clothes look good on you.
(literally, "your clothes are worn very pretty")
The next "de" is 地 which turns an adverb into an "ly" adverb.
EG: 渐渐地 jiàn jiàn de (gradually)
Don't worry, even the Chinese people don't use them correctly. My penpal and great friend has never used them correctly. Even when I use them in an e-mail correctly she will respond back with only using the "的"! Of course, we always want to strive for the perfect usage, but if you don't start off getting them exactly right, through practice and exposure 渐渐地 you'll begin to understand where and when to use each one.
Posted on: The North Has Central Heating
December 10, 2009 at 10:38 PMThe oral juxtaposition of these sounds confuses the vast majority of foreign learners.
The proper position of the ü is almost like a whistle. Make a tight rounded hole with your lips, dimples will form in your cheeks, the important part is the dimples, this is your signal that the position is correct.
The best sound to start learning with is, Yüe. Once you've got a handle on Yüe, go to Jüe, Xüe, Qüe (careful with this one because it's aspirated, meaning the sound is accompanied by a strong puff of air), go on to Nüe, then finally Lüe. The final two are particularly challenging for non-native speakers, but with a little practice you'll get it.
Just don't forget the dimples (tension in the cheeks by pulling your lips tight) is the key!
It's the same tension you get when you force a smile.
Note that both Chū and Qü4 are aspirated sounds. Don't forget the puff of air.
See my unfinished blog on the subject.
The difference in lip position between ü and u is slight, just that they are more relaxed. The position for u is almost like we think of the kissing position, with your lips slightly puckered.
The easiest Chinese word I've found to practice the u sound is Lù.
Note that there is a difference between the Chinese Lù and the English name Lou, start the sound with your lips in the puckered position so there isn't much movement and you'll hear the difference.
Just keep practicing and your ear for the sounds will grow more acute over time. Don't forget to match your pronunciation against the pronunciation chart and the podcasts.
Before you know it you'll sound Chinese!
As far as I know, the pronunciation chart is 100% complete and lists all Chinese sounds. Did I miss something?
祝你好运吧！好好学习，天天向上！
zhù nǐ hǎo yùn ba! hǎo hao xué xí, tiān tiān xiàng shàng!
Posted on: An Introduction to Chengyu
October 20, 2010 at 6:44 PM@Zhenliang,
I asked several of my Chinese friends today, and they all told me that, 心胸狭窄 and its sister, 心胸狭隘 are 成语.
I agree that both expressions don't seem terribly idiomatic, they lack the classical form of four separate characters, each with a distinct independent meaning coming together to illustrate a moral or a powerful concept, that's greater than the sum of the parts, so they can easily be called into question as not being true idioms.
BTW: I love the name Chengyu with Changye, whatever happened to him anyway? I haven't been here for quite a while, so I'm missing half the story.