User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: National Day
October 1, 2009 at 3:33 PM我来晚了，在中国现在23：30, 日期还十一吧。
很特别的这次国庆节大家过得快乐吗？
电影《建国大业》有人看了吗？
Posted on: It's Stopped Raining
September 30, 2009 at 5:20 AMBodawei your sentence is poetic. I find it very difficult, in particular the ending (because you have to actually get how the wind is sounding like rain, to express this).
Jimijames so nice of you to ask for my opinion, but I'm no expert!
Where I am I can hear the sound of wind, sounds like rain.
Major things are being lost in translation in this attempt here, but I think this is another possible way you could express I can hear the sound of wind:
传来风的声音；像是雨（滴）下的。
Chuánlái fēng de shēngyīn; xiàngshì yǔ (dī) xià de.
The grammar in the second half I'm not sure about. There should be so many different ways to express this too, according to what kind of wind and how near/far it is, what kind of rain Bodawei is hearing and how that makes him feel, if anything ...
I don't believe we can combine 能 néng with 着 zhe.
We can say 能听到 néng tīngdào to express "I (can) hear" something like this.
Dear Teachers--please come to the rescue! I'm sure this can be expressed so beautifully in Chinese.
Posted on: It's Stopped Raining
September 30, 2009 at 3:37 AMAh I'd interpreted
Where I am I can hear the sound of wind, sounds like rain.
as 'sounds like rain' = 'looks like (it's going to) rain'!
Posted on: Not Cooked Enough
September 29, 2009 at 6:31 PMNone of my sources mentioned cannibals and none mentioned Cantonese background. That leads me to guess 生番 was at some later point adopted by Cantonese-speaking people and came to take that meaning, in Cantonese only.
Posted on: Not Cooked Enough
September 29, 2009 at 5:46 PMJenny, Kimiik
I'll be honest, I had never heard of 生番 shēngfān, which doesn't automatically mean it isn't Japanese.
From the quick research I did it appears to have been a Qing term, taken and used by the Japanese when they (sorry, I am Japanese but saying 'we' here feels really strange) took colonial rule of Taiwan in the late 19th century.
生番 in one of my Mandarin-Japanese dictionaries is listed as (obsolete)(derogatory) seiban; a barbarian, a savage.
1) an aboriginal who does not defer to civilization imposed by rulers ant. 熟蕃
2) term used to refer to those among the 高砂族 who did not assimilate into the Han people, in Taiwan during pre-WW2 colonial rule by Japan.
google search result "shengfan seiban".
Some of these ☝ googled sources written in English "translate" 生-熟 as 'raw VS cooked' but in this sense of course 生/熟 has nothing to do with rare/well-done. It's more like 'unfamiliar VS familiar'.
My favorite use of 生 in this 'not familiar' sense is 认生 rènshēng
(literal breakdown = acknowledge as unfamiliar) as in
这个孩子一点儿都不认生。 Zhège háizi yīdiǎnr dōu bùrènshēng.
This child isn't at all shy around (afraid of) strangers.
Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy
September 28, 2009 at 2:28 AMBaba, 你真的了不起！
not only should such cleaner options be made more appealing,but also research into what the barriers are to making such options practical and ways to remove the barriers.e.g as alluded to above,town planning for safe bikeways.
说得很对。
Posted on: Two Tough Ladies
September 27, 2009 at 12:30 AMI was in Shanghai two weeks and saw 2.5 fights on the streets (no catfights though). So in my impression this is something that happens frequently! The first time was fascinating (我真的到中国来了！ I thought. Also, "I'm going to stay a suitable distance away.") but how quickly the novelty wore off. Didn't even stop to watch the third time, just caught the large crowd in the corner of one eye and moved on quickly to wherever I was going. Mostly because the ones I witnessed went on and on but never came to blows or otherwise resolved themselves. Even after the police arrived.
I found that interesting, that the police were good about coming when called but then didn't really seem to do anything. In Japan the police would try to break up the argument as soon as they arrived. Thoughts on this, anyone?
The second time, I was having my hair washed at a salon near the French concession area. I had scoured the neighborhood for a good-looking salon (didn't want trendy, with a stable of 帅哥's waiting to serve you, charging twice the local prices; didn't want dark and seedy either) and picked that one because it looked really local, charging local prices (洗+吹 / 20块) plus with the glass facade and bright lighting you could see down to the back of the place from the street. I was in my seat with the cloth around my neck and the paunchy, middle-aged, positively un-trendy 老板 had barely begun on my wet hair when a taxi stopped just outside the salon and a drunken passenger got out, he and the driver arguing very loudly; this one looked like it could get violent. My 师傅, hairdryer in hand, left me the customer with wet hair and looked out, got visibly excited and went to the phone. With his free hand he dialed for the police, giving them his account of how bad things looked. Then, having done his duty as a good citizen, he didn't come back to me but picked up where he left off looking out the glass facade, apparently providing a little play-by-play in 上海话 even though neither the local ladies getting their hair done (they were being attended to, unlike me!) nor any of his employees showed any interest in the developments outside. As far as I could tell from my seat, the altercation was not coming to blows but the shouting and insults were escalating. The police arrived soon after, but again, didn't really do anything. So this "fight" too continued on into the night, with the police also looking on. I think 师傅 left me a good 20 minutes like that. Only in China! (???) I was overwhelmed and felt too vulnerable to tell 师傅 to get back to work on my hair； good thing I wasn't in a hurry. Now hopefully I would be able to complain convincingly (in 普通话). But I admit I rather enjoyed the whole experience.
Back home, at the first class I triumphantly reported like the 中国 novice I am, that among other things 我在上海瞧了几次热闹！ My teacher was like, well hum yes, of course you're going to see arguments. Anything interesting you saw?
Posted on: Fruit Basket of Cause-Effect
September 26, 2009 at 8:02 PM我也喜欢；效果如成龙影片！
Wǒ yě xǐhuan; xiàoguǒ rú Chéng Lóng yǐngpiàn!
I like it too; you've got a Jackie Chan (movie) touch here!
If I've misused 效果 or otherwise made a bad sentence pls correct--
先谢了!
Sound quality is fine here as well.
Ah just noticed we can now Convert to Tone Marks here! Super.
Posted on: “90”后女孩炫富
September 24, 2009 at 5:33 PM那么‘我们是80前的。’——这个可不可以？
我也想看一看链接的录像，想知道这个女孩的言行究竟有什么争议的。但是这个土豆网还是老样子，说无法对我所在的区域或地区（是日本）提供服务的。有同学知道看到这篇录像的好方法吗？
Posted on: National Day
October 1, 2009 at 3:44 PMjuzi--sorry, this is lousy timing unfortunately.
I was just going to add this to my comment above.
Out of curiosity (I'm not bristling here, simply asking.), where did you get the number 300,000?
* Thoughts not directly related to this question and references to the Japanese in this thread (I am not accusing any of you of having 'Japan-bashed')--I'm starting to really appreciate how so important an aspect of learning the culture 'Japan-bashing/trashing' is and therefore how we could say that, in a way, belongs in a Chinese learning place.
It is learning the culture (should be learning about the culture though, really), isn't it.