User Comments - nderrett

Posted on: Changing Class Time

For the expansion example:  你就是朱老师吗? (nǐ jiùshì zhū lǎoshī ma?)

You could omit the 就, right? Is there something contextual about why you would use 就 or not? Is this the more common thing to say?

Posted on: Going on a Picnic

Can you explain more on the use of 最喜爱?

My colleagues in Taiwan first taught me to use this to tell someone:  

• "[something] 是我最喜爱的"  (e.g., "this is my favorite dessert")

Is that much different from saying:

• "我最喜爱［something］了“？

I understood it that using 的 in this way indicates that it is your most favorite of all.  Like milkshakes are my favorite of all desserts and none come before it.

Is that right? Is using 了 less of a commitment?

(...or is it even relevant to compare the 了 and 的 ?)

Posted on: World Cup and Diamonds

I'm American and occasionally I come across expressions that I've used my whole life and realize, wow, that really doesn't make sense.

'Rooting' would be one of them. It's a pretty common one, though, and is used in a lot of high school cheers (by cheerleaders). Haha

We even laugh at each other region to region within American. There is this ridiculous southern US expression "fixin to". Heard that one?:

"I'm fixin to go to the store, need anything?". I grew up in Texas saying this my whole life, until my friend from Chicago told me how stupid it was and it was hard not to agree. I heard a lot of weird junk moving from Texas to New York, also

But yeah, if anyone is going to correct our speech, I think the Aussies probably aren't the ones to do it :) maybe I have a chip on my shoulder (another expression) because an Aussie guy can get any American girl he wants just by parading the accent around... They love it. Most anyway.

Last time I went to australia, in January, i had been studying Chinese more diligently than usual just before the trip. I decided at that time that maybe I could understand mandarin better than Aussie... I got into a cab in Sydney with a driver from Shanghai and just sighed with relief like, "ahhh... I'm home"

(that last part is a bit exaggerated... I don't live in china, but Singapore, and my mandarin isn't even close to being that good)

Posted on: Expressing Location with 边 and 面

shenbian was one of the first Chinese terms I ever learned, because when I moved to Singapore, my company gave me a Nokia phone and this song was installed on it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdVVtddp2FQ

Posted on: Expressing Location with 边 and 面

I'm really expressing my Newbie-ness with this question, but QingWen is hard for me to follow still without more vocabulary.

Just want to know what Connie is saying before she gives examples.  It sounds to me like "bie2shuo1", and I assume it means something like "you can/could say".

If it is "bie2", I thought that means "do not", like "bie2tsuo4... don't sit!" from one of the Newbie lessons.

...or very likely, maybe she's not saying "bie" at all :)

Posted on: Where Did You Go?

I think the English interrogation style of speaking is actually a good way to approach manyquestions in Chinese:

"You! Last night!  9 o'clock!  .... Where?"

I mean, in certain contexts, we do speak English in that grammatical structure.

Posted on: Does it Have Bones?

That guy's not wearing gloves.  I understand that the red stuff will stain your hands for weeks.  I've had these marrow bones in Singapore but have always worn gloves.

What/why is the difference between the word for bones and fish bones?