User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: 土葬和火化

As we wait for the final word on your questions Floalvarez, here's what I got.

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/11562

No help really because I had ?s in pretty much all the same spots and more! But for what it's worth:

@3.18“需要去”办丧事。-- I thought so too.

@5.50“保存”得是否完整。-- yes, I would think.

@16.52“零散”的墓地。-- agree.

Posted on: A Little Bit About 一点儿

Not to contradict anything that's been said above, just to say that 有点儿 is often best translated as "a bit".

It's a bit hot in here. / Soup's nice. A bit salty though. / These pants are a bit tight. / Hmm that's a bit expensive.

Posted on: A Little Bit About 一点儿

If you're speaking English and you say something is too XX, then you are saying it's not to your liking, that you're not perfectly happy with it. The climate somewhere is too hot or too humid, the flight too long, these pants too tight, the soup too salty, your hotel room too small, etc.

I always thought that was what's meant by "a complaining tone". Not really that it also has a complaining tone to it in addition.

Posted on: Beyond Or: Another Use of 还是 (háishi)

还是 ～ 好 is a pattern.

Although this 还是 is often used when suggesting that someone do something, I wouldn't say the word alone really means "you might be better off to". This 还是 represents acknowledgement that there are multiple options and possible courses of action already considered, and one has been favored. Does that make any sense? I've listened to this podcast but quite some time ago, and don't remember exactly how the teachers explained it. I think everybody agrees it's difficult to translate into English.

Both 我们还是坐地铁好。and 我们还是坐地铁吧。work. I think in the former, there might be just a little more emphasis on declaring that taking the subway would be the smarter choice than the alternative. But just a little, no significant difference, esp given the context.

Hopefully I haven't misled or confused too much here.

Posted on: What stop is this?

OK, only it still seems strange to me to say "Where is the next stop? 下一站在哪里". Also how are bus stops called in China (street names? addresses?)? I've taken them a few times but don't remember. In New York for instance I would still say "What's the next stop?", not "where". This is all just repeating what Changye said over 2 years ago. I think in this case we have to free ourselves of the thinking that you would say "where", just because what you want to know is where the bus is taking you.

下一站在哪里? sounds like something I could say if I'm looking at a map and following a bus route, then lost sight of it, couldn't find the "next stop".

Posted on: What stop is this?

We speak of the "next station" because we're on the train on its way somewhere. You wouldn't say "Where's the next station?" which as Changye has said is 下一站在哪里. The next station is ... coming up next, down the tracks.

What we do say is "What's the next station?" in English; in Mandarin that's 下一站是哪里？ Don't fixate on 哪里 meaning "where". As you wouldn't fixate on 多少 meaning "how much/many" when asking for someone's phone number.

Posted on: Talking about Illness

I see 我吃药了就会 ～ and think it's the correct way to say "I'll ~ once I take my/some medicine", or "I should ~ once I take my medicine".

Posted on: A Creepy Guy

This isn't a boring discussion! I was going to say, because I'm not a guy I don't know what it's like to just look at a woman, or look at her hair or something cool she's wearing, or the way she dances or whatever and have her be totally repulsed at my creepiness, my not leering making no difference to her. But then I remembered that in my (middle) age I've started to become pathetically careful not to even appear to be "looking" at any guy younger than, say, 35. Because they do get visibly put out and offended (maybe this is a Japan thing too, this degree of age-sensitivity)--a reaction that is rather insulting once you're on the receiving end of it. It all happens in seconds and is entirely non-verbal so you can't even protest that they're misinterpreting a meaningless, or friendly-interest, glance. You just say "Huuuuuh?!" and then "Grrrrrrrr" in your heart.

But so I'm sympathetic to all such innocent people of both sexes and all ages who are instantly branded creeps. And as has already been said, this is so subjective. A girl who notices she's being looked at will likely decide "Creep!" if she finds the guy way too unattractive for her to ever consider associating with. So it's not his behavior or intentions, but her taking offence at his "audacity". He's completely beneath her, how dare he even think he can talk to her? Doesn't seem very fair does it? But life never is.

I agree that ogling is invasive, especially when the offender shows that he/she knows the subject is very uncomfortable and still persists. Btw in my life I think I've been ogled by nearly as many women as men, and it repulsed me for different reasons. Women can also be rude and disrespectful. And some are even physically big and strong enough to scare.

(Haven't listened to the lesson and have no idea about the dialogue!) Don't worry so much about posting many comments or long comments! It's OK! Cheers

Posted on: The Monkey King

Hi floalvarez, I transcribed this lesson some time back. I'm not listening to the audio now so I don't know about the time codes, but taking what I think are good guesses as to which words you mean:

《魔戒》

有字有画

取经

确切地说就是鬼魂

on @7:50 John: Ghost, Demon“denizens”--I wasn't sure about this patch either. You can see what I mean here:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/5643

Posted on: The New Intern

Hi Baba, I haven't had too much time for Chinese these days. I agree actually with a suggestion someone had not long ago about offering individual lessons for purchase. I'm not holding my breath or anything, but if that were ever to happen here I'd probably buy some lessons to study. Even like a dozen-lesson pack, not a Course in which you don't get to pick the lessons yourself. Makes more sense to this user than a subscription period of X months.

Thanks (to Bodawei and Chris also!) for saying Hi. I really hope for you that the fun of studying at CPod always remains. Cheers