User Comments - pcmi7

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pcmi7

Posted on: A Correction of Tones
August 26, 2008 at 6:29 PM

This book helped me greatly with tone recognition: 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Through-Color-Nathan-Dummitt/dp/0781812046/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219775360&sr=8-1

 

 

Posted on: Language Power Struggle
August 26, 2008 at 2:18 AM

Oh, yeah.  That's sure to be a great way to impress Chinese people and make friends:  "Ha, ha!  If you want to study English, you should go to America."  Duh!  I mean, the visa process, cost of travel compared to average income, number of CSL programs that will employ woefully underqualified teachers etc. is just about the same.  Way to go!

Posted on: Caught in the Act
August 25, 2008 at 1:29 AM

I've seen both 干吗 and 干嘛.  Any explanations (Pasden?) for the etymology of this?  It sounds like something that might have come from a non-Mandarin dialect.  Perhaps the present characters are just a phonetic transcription of the original sounds? And is the progressive 在 necessary? I seem to recall seeing just 你干吗？