User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: Hanukkah

Ah sounds like a significant minority, people who identify themselves as being more highly aware than the 大众? It's a 新词语?

Something that often happens of course, when a concept or anything occuring in one culture (and language) simply doesn't exist in another--the concept gets introduced to the other culture with the term. No sense in trying to find counterparts that simply don't exist. And of course as Changye would have been quick to remind us, 共产主义 for Communism is a Japan-made term imported into Chinese.

We import so easily in Japanese the quick way, with the phonetic カタカナ katakana, 片假名. Terms inevitably cross over and change hands among hanzi/kanji using cultures, and now with the 网络 and young people watching movies and TV from each other's countries it's all accelerated. Seeing all these Japanese terms crop up in mainland China that likely made their way over via Taiwan, I'm amazed at how nearly simultaneous it's all becoming. Who knows, though, whether a very "now" term like 婚活 is going to stick or not (even in Japan where it originated).

Posted on: What does she look like?

Hi Jiaojie, that's "Who does she look like?" though.

Posted on: Possible, Possibly, Possibility

Thanks, that's what I thought. I hope Baba's original question is being answered to satisfaction.

Posted on: 学历造假

Hi, I guess you have your privacy settings to not receive any PMs.

(edit) I too happen to think it's a loss here for us not to have Jenny in Advanced any more--NOT that I want David or Jiaojie or Connie replaced. Jenny's great of course hosting Newbie thru Upper Inter lessons. But have you heard her in Advanced? She only really gets to speak at that speed and more in her natural style at that level (in the early ones more, sometimes at terrifying [for me] speed!). It's enjoyable listening to her there because she seems to be enjoying herself so much. I hope she can return once in a while to present an Advanced lesson.

You're right of course, about choosing approaches that are more likely to get us what we want.

Posted on: Hanukkah

Duh. I finally thought to run a lesson search for "religion". A line from this Upper Inter lesson dialogue from 2007:

道教是中国土生土长的宗教。以“道”为最高信仰。

Says right up in the lesson intro too: ... it's time to listen to this enlightening podcast on the intricacies of Buddhism and Taoism. Learn in Mandarin Chinese about the history, culture, and tenets of two of the most dominant religions in China.

Guess there's my answer.

Someday, the Related Lessons and Related Conversations here are going to work (this Hanukkah lesson does show up as a Related Lesson over there.) ...

Another Upper Inter lesson (from 2006), related I would think, to the religious practice in China you bring up.

The word that corresponds to "religion" is 宗教. As you suggest, 教 I would also say is "teaching(s)".

小众? Small group? My dictionaries are failing me.

Yes I know Bodawei! People are tired of hearing me say this, but if we accept that Mandarin is not a Chinese-language version of English then we expect to be running into heaps of 难翻译的单词和概念。

Posted on: Toothache

(Oh, 是我!) 老师太客气了。

Posted on: What does she look like?

Oh it's all quite mainstream to us (Japanese and Chinese at least), under the category of slightly sensitive personal products. Now that people are much less hesitant to undergo more permanent changes I'm a bit surprised there still is so much demand for such eyelid glues and tapes.

In Japan Eye Putti has long been the brand synonymous with these double-eyelid keepers, from way back when I was an adolescent. If Japanese ever talk about eyelid glue, they'll just call it Eye Putti. In Chinese, apparently it's 双眼皮胶水 shuang1yan3pi2 jiao1shui3--"double eyelid liquid glue".

Posted on: Hanukkah

Hi Bodawei I understand what you're saying. We're saying the same thing, about what to think the term Judaism encompasses. But like man-fong I guess I'm happy to think of Judaism as the religion. The heritage and cultural aspects are perhaps simply--"Jewish identity / heritage", "Jewish life" even? I don't know.

I never thought Judaism in Chinese would be one of the "主义 isms" because in Japanese it is ユダヤ教. While I'm at it, Hinduism is ヒンズー教. Taoism is a slightly fuzzier -ism isn't it (many "is"s!). It's a school of thought (to us Japanese anyway) 老荘哲学 [思想] and we also have the term 道教. For Taoist (N.), my E-Japanese dictionary is giving me not 老荘哲学（思想）主義者, but 老荘哲学信奉者 / 道家 / 道教信者 / 道士.

But back to Chinese. "产生于我国的一种宗教," begins the Contemporary Standard Chinese Dictionary definition for 道教. So Taoism is a religion, no fuzziness there to most Chinese, is that correct?

Posted on: What does she look like?

Once in a bookstore I glanced at a row of women's magazines and was overcome by vertigo. So many cover photos and copy betraying aggression and endless insecurity made for a dissonant, frightening chorus. Cosmo also is so 80s, a most unfortunate thing to be these days.

Posted on: Possible, Possibly, Possibility

Ok so I think the use of 最, and 很, make 有可能 "most likely" and "likely" respectively--as opposed to just 有可能 "possible".

Do our teachers have anything to add to this discussion?