User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: Shanghai Expo Pavilions
May 20, 2010 at 11:23 AMNot trying to nitpick, just want to be clear here--I'm pretty sure I know what 很有中国传统特色 means, yet I wonder what really has a lot of traditional Chinese character means.
"Character", or "characteristics"? John says in the podcast it can be both (but he seems to end up leaning toward "characteristics"). I know has a lot of traditional Chinese characteristics isn't the kind of thing we usually say in English either, but I'm personally more comfortable with that.
Posted on: Dealing with Praise
May 20, 2010 at 6:04 AMI think it's where? where in me would you see that?
Posted on: Realization, Reality and Authenticity
May 17, 2010 at 8:24 AM... body parts not being products.
Or food.
was the funniest part of this podcast!
But yeah Liliana sets a good example. This is 请问 after all. We shouldn't feel too shy to ask the questions that we do have.
Posted on: Travel by Tour Group
May 17, 2010 at 6:39 AMUm, I don't enjoy being this person who always seems to have critical comments on the English translations, but I don't think "It sucks" is cool as a translation for 不爽, even in this (well-written and acted) dialogue. I'm not saying it's incorrect, just not appropriate. The quarrelling couple sound in the English like they suddenly regressed into pre-adolescents there.
Jenny and John explain in the podcast that 不爽 is how Connie has learned to make sense of the English expression something sucks, and that that's where this translation came from. OK it's good to give us this info as part of explaining the range of feelings that can be conveyed when someone says 不爽. But are you sure it sucks is how you want us Chinese learners to learn 不爽?
I was watching 时事辩论会, HK Phoenix TV's current events discussion show, when Barack Obama was visiting China in November. One of the panelists kept saying how 日本的媒体 were 非常地不爽; the reason being Mr. Obama was making a point of spending so much time in China while he'd just been in Japan for barely a day on the same round of Asian countries. This is a good example of how 不爽 is used (even if I didn't quite agree with that panelist there); how would this be expessed in English?
Otherwise I really liked this lesson.
Posted on: Expo, Sandstorms, and Sarah
May 16, 2010 at 10:20 AMHow about adding yourself to all our Groups! It can only improve the quality ...
Great party by the way--大家都玩得很开心！
Posted on: Upcoming lessons, lots of Chinese and a "jia you!"
May 11, 2010 at 2:42 PMjajajajaja! 搞笑！
Posted on: Upcoming lessons, lots of Chinese and a "jia you!"
May 11, 2010 at 8:19 AMWhich makes me wonder, are we certain the Expat Wives or any of the other contestants aren't CPoddies?
Posted on: Upcoming lessons, lots of Chinese and a "jia you!"
May 11, 2010 at 7:40 AMoh you corrected it! Sorry if I embarrassed you Liliana, I just thought it was cute. And I think everyone who knows your first language is Spanish knows you probably don't instinctively turn to the letter "j" for that sound ...
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Yunnan
May 11, 2010 at 7:28 AMoh! I thought it was more like "infant" Jenny.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 4: Communication in the Office
May 20, 2010 at 8:07 PMChangye (replying to your comment from Oct 2008!), like 不爽, I don't think "grumpy" is really a word to describe a person's character but rather their emotional state at a particular time.
On whether 不爽 would be an apt translation for "grumpy" here, I guess it could work, but also have a feeling that grumpy, to be precise, is the way Lao Wang ends up acting (= symptoms) because of the way he's feeling inside, 不爽 (= the ailment).