User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: 麻将风波

wchan 您好！

介意不介意，让我自己回答： 不会的啊！我比你大很多，猜得对吗？ but i think you bring up a valid question. if i were speaking Japanese, being new at Cpod i would consider most everyone, and anyone who is obviously more advanced in Chinese than me (regardless of age) to be my 先輩, the closest translation i felt to be 师兄/师姐. i wouldn't mind if you wanted to address me like that, but don't feel like i am a 师姐 to you! 哈哈

let me also add that the restrictions on "bad-day" weddings in Japan are relaxing recently, but the thing you can NOT do is have a funeral on a 友引--that would be almost like inviting more such events to ensue.

眞利江

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

hi changye,

岩波中国語辞典 is an irregular dictionary for sure. i didn't realize such a movement could be behind it though--how interesting.

entries by order of hiragana would probably be very annoying for me; also i happen to think that the pinyin system is a very good one that enables foreign (limited though? to those who speak English or other Latin languages like natives?) learners to reproduce the 普通话 sounds accurately.

a 逆序词典 i should get. i do waste quite a bit of time looking for certain compound words.

unlike small children just learning to speak, we mature students of foreign languages lack terribly in vocabulary in relation to all the things we want to say.  so i feel it's valid to do something a little drastic in an effort to make up for that.  i just think it takes that much work, to become fluent like you all.

i envy your "ability" to enjoy the same mystery novel multiple times--also, i bet that you would have to be scrupulously honest at all times, with a memory like that!

Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲

pete, thanks for that!  very interesting, and i do realize it's a bit off-topic here. i'd just wondered if the Chinese people have any interest in this at all. changye refers to 广东话, i wonder about that too. for the record, in my extremely limited experience i don't know any native speakers of Mandarin who can't carry a tune  ...

Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲

speaking of music (and the musical qualities of Chinese esp. as recited in poetry), an American man working in the music industry once told me that an exceptionally high proportion of the Chinese population has the absolute pitch--is it 绝对音感 in 中文？ he didn't have the figures right he said but heard it was like 50% (that may be way too high) as opposed to say 5% among the American population.  i don't have the data for Japan but know it is quite exceptional if you have it. of course i assume that hearing and speaking Chinese since infancy has everything to do with that.  anyone know anything about this?  maybe you Chinese are not aware of your "gift", it being so prevalent?

pete it's nice to have the map--thanks--and kesirui for the painting!

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

hi pete

one of the reasons i came to Chinesepod--i had this feeling i would find other "geeks" like me here  !(^^)!  很高兴认识你

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

hi changye,

i'm sure there are so many great dictionaries to be found over there. i've only been to a used bookstore once but was thrilled to find 4 of the series of children's illustrated 辞典 from the late 80s-early 90s i was hoping to find in China. yes, books in general are just so expensive in Japan.  i wasn't going to buy an electronic dictionary at all (being completely disdainful of them), but got nervous at my impending trip to Shanghai--my first time on the 大陆--after only a year of studying Chinese. so at the last minute i ran out and got the then latest model Ex-Word which i guess had just incorporated the 中日大辞典 as a new feature, that was in 2007.

the 東方 is pretty thick actually. it's edited by a team including 相原先生. 相原先生 edited, or looks like he practically wrote, the 講談社 日中辞典. both these are full of cultural notes. but i think i shall first read my 岩波, as it's a smaller volume giving more concise definitions and just looks a lot more accomplish-able.

for anyone who thinks it's a waste of time to read a dictionary, it's worthwhile to me because i believe it takes us the second encounter with a 生词 for it to actually "stick", even if you are a reasonably earnest student. so if you feel like you haven't learned anything the first time--OK. the next time you hear or see a word already once encountered should be payola (but yes i know this is a geeky kind of thing to do ...).

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

hi changye,

i also use the same dictionaries you do (第2版, on the CASIO Ex-Word which also has 大修館's 中日大辞典 but i don't turn to that one as often for some reason). i also have in printed form 東方書店's 東方中国語辞典and 講談社's 日中辞典 as well as the 岩波 中国語辞典簡体字版, which i haven't looked at in ages. though i've been lazy and impatient and rarely consult mine lately, i am a printed-book dictionary snob at heart.   last year i thought i would take on the 講談社 日中辞典 as i would an epic novel, hoping to read 5 pages a day and complete it in 8 months or so. but gave up very quickly!  discovering that it takes HOURS of concentration to read one page of the reams of information contained w/in all that small print ...  i mean to try again someday. maybe with another dictionary.

it's important to try to find the answers on your own, but best to then also have good people to ask.  问问热心的老师们师兄们师姐们还是最好的！ Cpod 棒极了

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

hi changye

thx much for clearing things up about my name, and making the correction!  i guess i was missing the point of wchan's question.  yes even friends i've had since childhood often get the 利 or the 江, or both, characters wrong, when they send me new year cards for instance.  but it never happens when they send wedding invitations!   and i had wondered about the connotations of 悍妇.  see what i mean about dictionaries frequently being useless--still, you can't do w/out them.

Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac

新年好 wchan!

那你们广东的年糕是一种甜食。mmm... 听起来很好吃。

i know you can't use the 眞 character in simplified, but this is precisely the kanji used in my 日本名字。用罗马字，写 marie。

恭喜发财

新年好 for the second round changye,

my dictionary gives me 悍妇 for じゃじゃ馬.  男人婆 looks scarier, like a transsexual--i don't know!

i know Beverly Hillbillies but have never seen it. and yes 紅白歌合戦 is ridiculously bad, but at least it only drags on for 3-4 hours.