User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: Are You Free?

Bodawei, as I have remarked recently elsewhere, people reading sentences which I have attempted to end with these modal particles have had to endure a pain similar to listening to a very non-musical person with no training at all try to play the piano--loudly hitting the wrong note 19 times out of 20.

You're right, for this, being distracted all the time in an immersion environment is probably the only real solution.

Posted on: Are You Free?

burly-girly, hahaha. But yes, it is all about context, tone and your delivery isn't it. And so much of learning to speak a language is mimicry, so if you can do like the burly locals and pull it off, then 啊 away, I say. (And maybe it's also a Shanghai local concern the guys are talking about in that QW--?)

Men are in this predicament in Japan too; they need to be aware that they could be learning to speak in an effeminate manner. Glad not to have to worry about all that. I get to try to speak as 娘娘腔 niángniangqiāng as possible (as age will allow!). Putting on an inappropriately high-pitched voice and cutsey mannerisms actually helps me in pronunciation.

Posted on: Are You Free?

On 啊，there was a QingWen on it and 呀.

Posted on: Summer at ChinesePod

I should probably let newbie learners speak for themselves, but if I were one (moloch has a good point) I think I would hate not having a regular lesson schedule, would probably find randomness discouraging. This new Pinyin Program should definitely be regularly scheduled.

Posted on: 老外批评中国

kimiik, 花心 means you're a player (not the kind to be faithful to a single partner). I believe at that point in the video the host means Dashan--contrary to many people's presumptions that he is entirely dedicated to 相声--is a man with many interests. Not as a criticism of course but jokingly, in an approving tone.

Posted on: Pinyin Sections 1-2

When we learned the word 出租汽车 and had to say things like 坐出租汽车去 I thought I would never be able to travel to China (then was annoyed, later, to learn of the term 打的). That one's no longer a problem, but I still fear the terribly simple 我们一起去吃饭吧. Makes me sputter and bite myself.

You guys having no issue with ü's make me sick. That IS my major problem--and you can forget the combination üe.

Nobody asked, but my favorite vowel combination by far is uo ♪

Posted on: 武松打虎

原来是这样！Thank you Pete for explaining that. I'd seen that reference before in a conversation between poddies in the Adv Vinegar lesson and didn't get it then.

Posted on: 无性婚姻

Hi Christine, actually that's what I've already tried to do, which is why I suspect maybe 婚姻 has not been used. And probably have hit some of the large blocks of text containing the passage I want, but am having a little difficulty identifying those sentences.

Thanks very much for your help and the original text (I know absolutely no German)!

Have a good trip over here to Japan.

Posted on: 无性婚姻

Still slowly going through this lesson and finding this topic very interesting--would like to comment further when I'm finished--but seeing so many of you versed in German I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask for a little help:

"The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust. A merging of two people is an impossibility, and where it seems to exist, it is a hemming-in, a mutual consent that robs one party or both parties of their fullest freedom and development. But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky."
— Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)

I'm trying to find the Chinese translation of this well-known passage by Rilke (esp the first sentence, which I love). Am guessing the word used for marriage is not 婚姻 but something else--could any of you tell me? Am totally prepared to do the rest of the search work myself, but would appreciate a clue to help me--thanks in advance!

Posted on: Are You Free?

不好意思，没什么   mmm sorry，nothing 　(^^ゞ