User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: Chinese Seasonings

desluo919, sorry, I may have interpreted the sentence slightly wrong--though that doesn't affect the reasoning for the 吗 being there.

请问还需要什么饮料吗？
Would you like something to drink (on top of that)?

might be a better translation.
You've just given your server your order, and at the end he/she asks you if you'd also like something to drink--I think!

Since the expansion is illustrating the use of 还 (which in my translation would correspond to "on top of that"), I agree, the currently provided translation is confusing.

Posted on: Chinese Seasonings

desluo919,  re your first question

请问还需要什么饮料吗？
Qĭngwèn hái xūyào shénme yĭnliào ma?
Excuse me, what other drinks do you want?

I think actually this should be translated as
Would you like (to order) any other beverages?
Would you like anything else to drink?

什么饮料 being "something to drink"--hence the 吗 (but because in this sentence it's a question, the English becomes "anything (else) to drink".

Posted on: Job Interview

ouyili and go_manly,

You've said respectively that
constant rewinding is required to understand, and that
you struggle.

But that's what we're all doing in the learning process. Particularly for students who breezed through beginner levels to get to Intermediate, the going seems to suddenly get really tough. And the struggling is for years, for all of us except the extraordinary.

And it's still fun. Have faith--all the struggling, like physical training, really does build bones and muscles.

Posted on: 无性婚姻

It's nearly a month since this lesson was published but I've been transcribing it to see if I can understand it all. I finally have a first draft and put it up here for anyone interested to look at.

Media lessons are usually way too hard for me (with no script I'm pretty much lost), but this one I found relatively easy to follow; perhaps Jenny and David speak a little slower. Otherwise I wouldn't have attempted transcribing at all.
There are a lot of vocab and grammar points which should be useful and interesting for Intermediate learners like myself in here--those I would like to note in a later draft once I get the text a bit cleaner.

Many bits and pieces I was not able to get, and there surely are many more mistakes I've made than the words I've marked as "uncertain, or probably wrong". If anyone would be kind enough to offer feedback--critiques, suggestions, help filling in the blanks in the thread in Transcripts with Raygo--I would be so very grateful!

Transcribing has been beneficial for me personally, but I also hoped that with a script many more students who do not usually follow Media lessons might feel like taking a crack at studying it--or just be inspired to try looking at the more advanced lessons sometimes even if they're above "our level" and see what great content awaits us when we do get to higher levels.
This lesson is very interesting and worthy of discussion and I feel it would be a shame if all the material like this went unnoticed by most of us.

Posted on: Bringing it All Back Home With 回去 and 回来

xiaophil, if I understand this correctly, in the example you found

脱岗是要扣工资的，还不赶快回去工作。

工作 isn't a place, like 美国 in 回美国去 is.

I think this is more like "回去 go back/get back (to your station, desk etc.), and 工作 work.", or "go back (to workplace) (in order) to work". It's a bit confusing to explain because in English too "work" is both Noun and Verb--here I think it's a Verb, and not an object.
I think this is one of those 坐车上班 types of usage.

Would appreciate corrections/confirmation!

(I'm no salary-earner myself but have a deadline to meet and really need to get back to work now)

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 13: Wang Meets the Big Boss

Raygo 我实在不敢（简洁地说抽象究竟是什么）！我也不太清楚哦。从我感觉来说，蒙德里安算抽象艺术代表画家之一。

抽象这个单词，我是跟其他的老师谈谈王家伟导演的影片时初次听到的（其实，日语的单词一样，所以很容易记住）。我醉心于王家伟的电影，觉得他是一位天才。老师不怎么喜欢。她跟我说，他的作品“有点儿抽象”，令人费解。我呢，最讨厌的电影是那些（往往是哈莱乌生产的） “什么都应该说明明”这样的垃圾片。
附带说一下，星际旅行（星舰奇航记，星空奇遇记、星舰迷航记、星际奇旅、星际迷航？你们 trekkies 怎么说我不知道！）还没看过。

Changye, 我不是理解艺术的人，相反地是老赶时髦的人。所以毕加索对我很有吸引力（敬爱毕加索的人，对不起）。除了克利姆特以外，他大概是我最喜欢的画家。 I'm just a 巨人 大鵬 玉子焼き kind of person (sorry, this really is a Japan-inside and generation-specific reference), hehehe

OK going back to work now.

* 我写的中文很乱，而且内容跟课程没有关系，真对不起大家 *

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 13: Wang Meets the Big Boss

Funny, a teacher used the same exact example to illustrate 抽象 in a recent class, and I had said that to me--because I always think first of Guernica--Picasso is concrete, not abstract. Not everyone agrees with me of course that Guernica is a concrete painting.

Posted on: Lessons and Comment Policy

Tvan, no I do see your points. And I do see the "changes" aren't a big deal at all. Actually I was just admiring what you personally were doing with the, or around the, "new order"--looks like a lot of fun. Not for the witless.

I can't really help being serious. I also can't help joking around and chattering (for some reason don't think of myself a driveler) about irrelevant stuff sometimes.
I know the point of the "policy change" is to preempt unnecessary negativity, which is obviously important. Ironically though--just repeating myself in different words--the announcement made at that timing could be interpreted as validating the  behavior of a person who did actually, wilfully, inflict negativity. But I shall be accused of obtuseness for pushing this point too hard.
I think you'll agree, you calling yourself a bit of a driveler isn't exactly the same thing as being rudely attacked by another for it.

That's the thing about shoes--most won't fit. But there are much worse things to be called than a driveler. And I believe I've said quite enough on this subject already.  周末快乐！

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 13: Wang Meets the Big Boss

I wouldn't mind having a double drivel called on me, or even a fragrant (sorry I'm Japanese here) foul--depends who the referee is though. You know how some referees are much more attractive people than others are ...

Posted on: How're You Doing? 得

bamboobiz, to tell someone their English is very good, actually it should be the same "de" as in your second sentence:

你说英语说得很好。 (You speak English very well.)

的 could be used like this:

你说的英语很好。 (lit. The English you speak is very good.).