User Comments - zhenlijiang

Posted on: Sex Education Class

There's this Elementary lesson:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/where-children-come-from

Posted on: Sex Education Class

Appreciating your appreciation!

Posted on: Sex Education Class

Jenny on your observation near the end--

... Sex no longer comes with the same kind of harsh moral judgment it once did. Living in Shanghai for a while will likely tell you how liberal this place can be when it comes to sex and sexuality. But I tend to think that it’s due to indifference rather than true sexual liberation.

I tend to think it has to do with "fever", but agree that it must be something other than true liberation. When a city like Shanghai is booming and fluorishing and looking upward and growing as it is now, it can make people giddy in a way they'll look back later on and wonder just what they were thinking then. And this is not so much a stereotype but an observation of mine--people with money to throw around often act with more abandon. I saw people behave in the late 80s in Tokyo as if life were just an ongoing carnival. After generations of being raised and living conservative, people had gotten the wrong idea about "being free". I'm not predicting that the bubble is also going to burst in Shanghai and the city will experience the kind of slowdown and decline Tokyo has since. Not at all. But I am thinking the "fever" has many of the same characteristics and effect on masses of people that I saw in Tokyo back then. Actually I know sociologists have done studies on this. The way women in Tokyo dressed in those days is telling of what our psychological state was as a society.

Anyhow, I am very glad for your presence in this discussion with this particular contribution. The one thing that makes me uncomfortable on the CPod boards at times--and surprisingly, I've found it not very easy to talk about--is hearing talk about Chinese people and attitudes on sex, in particular Chinese women, as if you guys weren't in the room. Practically all such talk goes on in English, but many Chinese who come here read English, we know our teachers do, also others among staff. I know you've told us many times it's still quite hard for many, even quite young people, to talk about sex openly and be part of such discussions, and we need to remember and appreciate that (I guess Bodawei might have different views on this though). But I would always see those discussions and wish Chinese voices would join in and give us the insights that would be really welcome, knowing we couldn't really expect that to happen usually (1. young women too embarrassed to touch the topic. 2. the high level of fluency in English required to express themselves adequately they don't have). If they were in Chinese, maybe some would be more inclined to join in? But still few women I would guess.

I can't speak for Chinese women of course. But there's always a part of me when I find such a discussion, that gets on edge (people will say I'm being too sensitive). I feel like I have to say something to bring a bit of balance to it, so that it's not just a bunch of western guys talking about Chinese women, in their presence as if they weren't there; feel like Asian women need to be represented properly and as individuals. But I often won't because I do find the turn the discussion has taken embarrassing sometimes (as well as exhausting to do the work).

Not saying at all that the poddies who raise the topics because they have honest questions they want to explore and hear from others on should not! I know those discussions aren't meant to be off-limits to Chinese. But as long as they're in English, it does end up almost always being exclusively non-Chinese (mostly Western) participants.

Ah, glad to get that off my chest. It felt safe here.

Apologies for the off-topic (and length)!

Posted on: Sex Education Class

蛤蟆骨朵儿吧。没想到，它们长眉毛会说话。

Posted on: Catching a Train

Not spunky--I meant tough, sassy maybe. Anyway it's a stereotype.

Posted on: Some uses of 些

Bodawei (ah Jenny just replied to you, which is good. consequently I'm editing this comment) I see now asking nciku how to say "out of" yields, among other expressions, 从……当中. This is what they give, but Nciku could contain mistakes too.

http://www.nciku.com/search/en/detail/out%20of/2606656

小男孩从四个球中，选择了红色的那个。

The boy chose the red one out of four balls.

In any case, it still doesn't seem to me that you could use 从 with （最）喜欢.

(again, obviously you want to listen to Jenny here) And I still think 这些 QW（当）中，你最喜欢的是哪一个？ adequately expresses what you mean. I wouldn't let the "among" turn you off so. It may be something I'm just not getting as a non-native speaker, but to me the choice to go for "among" or "out of" has more to do with style than meaning (as you said, how we speak in natural English). Again, we have all those instances where 当中 has been translated as "out of ~" including those first two sentences found in the CPod Glossary search.

About your dictionary, other than the part about 当中 meaning the same as 当众, I guess I have no problem.

Posted on: Catching a Train

I just hate the whole idea of having to wear a fierce, don't-mess-with-me look ("aura", as we like to say these days in Japanese) in order to preempt people abusing you like that. And the whole idea / stereotype of the loud, spunky Asian girl with lots of attitude has always turned me off. I'm mild-looking--very average I'd say for a Japanese. If that means I can't survive in "ruder" areas of the world then too bad I guess. That's just the way it is.

Posted on: Some uses of 些

Nearly forgot, there's also the CPod Glossary search:

http://chinesepod.com/tools/glossary/entry/当中

Posted on: Some uses of 些

Well actually my gut is to translate （在～）当中 as "in". I was consulting a Japanese-Chinese dictionary so was translating from Japanese to English, and maybe got a little lazy. Not to say that I wouldn't choose, in some instances, to say "among".

I'm not clear though, how the nuance of your original sentence is not being adequately caught.

For your interest (I resisted using "FYI") this is what you get on nciku when you run a search for "dangzhong":

http://www.nciku.com/search/all/dangzhong

In a number of the example sentences for 当中, the English given is "out of ~". That makes me even surer that this is what you want to say.

P.S. Hm what dictionary is that?

Posted on: Some uses of 些

You're welcome!

当中 dāngzhōng--Jenny says it sometimes. My dictionary (which I see I should have consulted, then I would have been sure it was appropriate for what you want to say) has two definitions. 1) in the middle or center, and 2) among. The example sentence given for this second sense is 在我们当中他是最年轻的。 He is the youngest among us.

当众 dāngzhòng is "in public; in the presence of all".