User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: Daddy Changes a Diaper
August 8, 2010 at 3:20 PMAh I see what you mean Chris!
If that's the context and meaning though, to me the sentence seems a bit unnatural as is (don't think I should attempt the "natural" version only to require more intervention and correction). Maybe it's the 不能, maybe the 已经. Modal elements like 语气词s and/or a bit of 反问 also seem needed--that's my feeling.
The original is the Chinese and the English is its translation. There's obviously nothing wrong with the Chinese sentence. But if it needs to be altered and adjusted to actually say what you feel it's saying (because of the English), again--I think it's the translation that would be better changed. I do like your interpretation, but would never have arrived at it without all this going back and forth and explaining. The "small child" assumption on the other hand does work with the sentence as is, and though I can't prove this--if you take a look at my comment below from May 5 with pictures from a children's educational poster, that does go some way toward supporting my view--it surely is the first understanding that comes to a Chinese person's mind (if I'm wrong, someone pls tell me!!).
If the sentence as is can really be taken both ways, then perhaps both translations need to be indicated. But the "small child" version really should be given, regardless.
Well I've said more than enough on this already. 说完了！
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 1: A Fated Meeting
August 8, 2010 at 10:15 AMHi, could anyone help me with these bits of Jenny's banter with John? I'd appreciate it very much. Some of these I'm a bit more confident about, on others I'm guessing pretty wildly, a few (the ～'s) I can't even approximate the sounds.
01:40 - 欸，但是在中文里面反而你一说到论坛大家会想的就是 BBS。
01:53 - 所以咱们今天赶快来听听这个由网络引申出来的爱情故事。
04:46 - 所以这也给大家介绍……
05:06 - 那 John 我觉得第一个开始很有意义的……
05:39 - 所以我们有些听众这样～会很高兴，好像他见过这个 Chen Li。
05:56 - 嗯。所以～～觉得男孩子就要有一个很，光明的未来嘛，会给男孩子起～这个名字。
07:04 - ……我来的时间比你要久，这样。
08:03 - 起早来了很久我也说，没有，刚来了一会儿。
09:17 - 好呢，我经常会～～这样！
09:41 - 那他们知道你在开玩笑，对吧。
10:23 - 嗯，在上海呢，比较南方一边我们平时会说“没事干”。
11:11 - 所以我可以把这个“平时”放到一句子里，就是……
I still have a few more, will put those in a separate comment. Thank you in advance!
Posted on: Daddy Changes a Diaper
August 7, 2010 at 8:35 AMMmm but if the boy is an adolescent and he's the one not eager to be hugged by Mom, who would be saying that to him?
I think the translation for this sentence should be changed. It makes much more sense understood as the kind of thing said in China (as in Japan) to a small child. I wonder why the native speakers Jason consulted didn't just say so.
Posted on: The Shanghai Literary Festival
August 5, 2010 at 6:10 AMSorry to be so rude alexbr, but your English isn't even mediocre. You obviously don't know the meanings of "specific", "constructive criticism", "personal".
Posted on: Tea Tasting
August 5, 2010 at 12:55 AMDuh sorry. Hope your question gets answered soon.
Posted on: Separable Verbs
August 5, 2010 at 12:17 AMOK I see. Sorry to put you through the trouble of explaining a comment you'd withdrawn. I just wondered, with the way comments disappear and posts fail to stick these days.
Posted on: Separable Verbs
August 3, 2010 at 7:29 AMHi tvan, I did notice you'd replied to me in Simon's thread. Just wondering if you decided to withdraw it for whatever reason, or if it was one of those disappearing comments phenomena.
Posted on: Tea Tasting
August 3, 2010 at 6:06 AM?? Hey XiaoLiang your original question says The dialogue has: 哪种好喝？
Anyway, it does. It's the customer's second line.
Posted on: Tea Tasting
August 2, 2010 at 7:59 AMThese are example sentences in my dictionary for 怎样 in the sense of "what kind?" (the same sense as in 你喜欢跟怎样的人做朋友？):
怎样的方法？ What sort of way (do you mean)?
我们应该制定怎样的政策？ What kind of policies should we be fomulating?
他是怎样一个人呢？ What sort of person (fellow) is he?
In natural English we would normally express these differently probably; I made the translations a bit more literal.
Does this help?
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 1: A Fated Meeting
August 8, 2010 at 5:44 PMThanks again for your input. I think it's 男孩子 though--Jenny (and John once or twice) says 男孩子 and 女孩子 numerous times throughout this lesson, and every other time (including later in the same sentence) is ~孩子. For this one time to be an exception seems strange.