User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: Funny Rice

pete,

We have to laugh at the sheer volume and variations of the "cheap shots at Japanese" jokes too.  A while ago I read a collection of "typical" Chinese jokes--informative and entertaining--by 相原茂, a well-known scholar of Chinese in Japan. I like Prof. Aihara's "I'm just a fellow student who's been at it long" style.  Anyway in the book was a chapter devoted to corrupt regional party officials, a chapter devoted to Riben, and I think a chapter on adult subjects. There was one joke having to do with names of famous manufacturers like Hitachi and Matsushita (Panasonic) and Microsoft, and how if you (are not a woman, and) introduced yourself in China as working for them you need to understand why people may snicker. But it would have to be told by a guy.

bababardwan, what is a laughing group??

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

Regarding the English translations:

(tarcy--you haven't misunderstood, no need to apologize!)

I wouldn't like to be so impatient with fellow students who have expressed difficulties where others don't see any that we miss identifying areas that can actually stand to be improved.

I have a feeling users who have expressed a need for more literal translations would be much more satisfied (comfortable) with the dialogue and expansion sentence translations as they are, once the popup annotations, and also the vocab entries, begin to be improved.  Personally I find those to be surprisingly unintuitive and somewhat inconsiderate even, in terms of helping students (esp in lower levels) understand what a word does in context of that particular lesson. (That could be where some of the apparent resentment = frustration is coming from.)　I presume the Vocab entry - Dialog context - Expansion sentence link is meant to reinforce quite comprehensively, but in reality the associations should be presented in a more recognizable manner. When they are, I think you'll have aha!s from many more people and much less puzzlement over translations.

Obviously CPod is not trying to be a dictionary in the Vocab section but those entries too are much less helpful than they could be. See the way goulnik's News posts handle vocab in comparison. I think it's evident that not much (if any) more space for each word is required, to improve here.

Sorry, I didn't mean to start complaining or criticizing. Just wanted to say that I think the problem is more this other stuff than the translations themselves. And I know the improvements I talk about mean an enormous amount of work in addition to everything already in the pipeline, and are not done easily. Still think this is very important though!

Pete has already said he would provide more information in the annotations, so I am looking forward to seeing that--thank you.

Line-by-line translations are always going to be more difficult. The majority of us in the trade do our darndest every time to produce a perfect translation, hand our attempt in and then pray, knowing each time that the perfect translation is just not attainable. I like doing "real people talking" stuff the best myself--there's no BS to have to make sense of and work around!   (On second thought there are many real people who are full of it, but you know what I mean--it's much better than translating a PR kit.)

Posted on: Pain and Suffering 伤心, 难受，郁闷 ,不爽，难过

you two:  What is your problem?

Your "target" is right not to respond and I am not here to "back him up".

I am here to say that your continued insistence on being rude has been tolerated on these boards for too long.  Your manner is neither cute nor clever; it is highly insulting in fact--as you well know--and has no place here.  I suggest you cut it out once and for all.

If I'm mistaken--hopefully you'll be generous-hearted enough to tell me so.  I can then explain to you what made me think you were being rude, we can sort this all out, and make sure such misunderstandings don't happen any more.

Dear CPod people--I am not trying to start another row.  I do want to call your attention to something I find offensive.

Posted on: Counting Coins

In Japan it's customary to use traditional number characters when writing the amount (in the inner sleeves) for our cash envelopes, when attending 红事 hong2shi4 weddings and also 白事 bai2shi4 funerals--a lot of formality involved in such occasions. (红事-白事 are Chinese terms, not Japanese)  There will be a group of 3-4 "trustworthy" people assigned with keeping track of these cash gifts--opening the envelopes, counting the notes and checking off with the guest list, tallying everything up in the anteroom before the event is over. But I guess the idea is also that you couldn't take away a digit like would be possible w/Arabic numerals by removing the last "0".  Personally I'm not accustomed to using numbers any higher than 参萬圓 (the Japanese traditional number characters for 30,000 yen).

Posted on: Zombies: Deader than Ever

the kind changye describes are certainly authentic--in fact they're old school, and kind of folksy(?) and comforting in a way. i have the same questions changye does. i'm totally comfortable with (de-corporated) spiritual entities--which would be 幽灵?   zombiedom is so foreign to my understanding of the world.

Posted on: Dog Personalities

timbendersls,  when i first learned measure words i was taught that there are 条 kind of dogs and 只 kind of dogs.  as all my teachers have described it to me, 只 dogs are the small and cute ones.

but a quick baidu search indicates these are interchangeable, like for dachshund 腊肠狗 (sausage dog), miniature dachshund 迷你腊肠狗.  i would assume standard poodles 标准型贵宾犬 take 条 and teacup poodles 茶杯贵宾犬 generally take 只; however i don't think you'd be wrong if you used 条 for these small cute ones too.

Posted on: Kungpao Chicken

alexyzye, if i may butt in--like i just commented in the bike rental lesson discussion, i think the way 怎么租 was explained in that lesson could be a bit confusing.

when you say 怎么租/卖? to ask "how much?", what you're doing is asking the terms of the transaction.

Posted on: Renting a Bike

自行车怎么租？ --the english translation provided is "how much are bike rentals"? because that's how we would speak in natural english, to get the same info you want out of the vendor. (of course since you're not buying the bicycle you don't say 自行车多少钱？) 

i think actually the way ken and jenny explained this usage of 怎么 in the lesson could be a bit confusing.

when you ask 怎么租？ what you're doing is asking the rental terms, which include of course how much it will cost.  for me anyway it does make a lot of sense to think of it literally = how are these bicycles rented?  and you get the terms:  2kuai/hr; 5kuai/day.

as changye says, 怎么卖？(lit. how are you selling these?) is used at stores.  i learned it in a tea-purchasing context so it was easy to understand. nobody buys a tea leaf.  so after tasting maybe, you can ask the shopkeeper 怎么卖？ and they tell you 40kuai/50克kè (grams), 150kuai/1斤jīn (500 grams) or whatever.  you're asking actually two things--you sell by the XX?, and how much per XX?

therefore i don't think you would ever ask 怎么卖? for items you buy individually.

hope this makes sense!

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Music Class

henning,  给你添麻烦真对不起!  in the future i will consult the last resorts before coming here to ask.

if anyone's interested, of the two, baidu responded better to 疯克 (this page actually has a lot of info relevant to my interests):

http://baike.baidu.com/view/602819.htm

多谢你的好意！

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Music Class

could anyone tell me how to say "funk" （as in George Clinton, Sly and the Family Stone etc) in chinese?  coming up empty in all my dictionaries.