trevorb journal jan 2011

Not at all you are really helping me to get it straight. Basically it's down to the 孩 if it's there it means girl or boy, if not then it means son or daughter.

Many thanks for you help.

a small female child or a young woman ... and everything inbetween of course, though I guess a small child would likely be referred to as a 小女孩儿 / 小男孩儿. Sorry if this is confusing.

Hi Trevorb, 女儿 is and can only be "daughter". 女孩儿（女孩子） is "girl", and like with 男孩儿（男孩子）--and like in the English--can mean a small female child or a young woman.

of course, I make the same mistake with 女儿 I always manage to read it as daughter when it actually means girl...

谢谢，你教我好。 ：-）

谢谢bodawei,

啊哟 我打错了，应该打了“叫外卖” 但是我的电脑换了！

And if I had said 三个孩子 that would also be like saying "her three children" which is not correct. Note also I put 男孩子 which can mean a boy as in a small child or also an older boy, in quotation marks!

Yeah if I had said 三个儿子 that would be incorrect. "Boys" doesn't necessarily mean "sons", right?

trevorb

Congratulations on your one month anniversary - well done!

'今晚我们郊外买了'我听不清楚。。

‘今晚我们外面吃饭了’？

‘今晚我们郊外买东西’？

Thank you :-) now for February

但是我没有三个孩子,只有两个.

我有时希望大儿子努力的学习，化学，生物学 和 数学 没有 空手道和做蛋糕的好

你们是去郊外吃饭的吗？哦，不仅是你老婆很喜欢做蛋糕，大儿子也做蛋糕吗！换句话说，大儿子不仅连空手，他也做蛋糕！无论怎么说，真了不起。那老婆跟三个“男孩子”过了很幸福的生日吧。

Wow 佩服佩服 Trevorb for such great discipline and effort. Congratulations on a complete month of your daily learning journal!

对我自己包了 我应该告诉你在今天的日记写啊

我和享受写日记，我知道我中文写的不好但是很好练习。 我感谢我的朋友都帮助我进步。

Trevorb 你好。

祝你的老婆生日快乐！礼物你自己包起来的吗，哇。送给她什么？不管是什么东西，她应该很高兴吧。

你们一家人真是天天和睦地生活着。看你的日记，连我都受了影响！

我肯定继续坚持写日记。 我觉得写日记很好练习吧

祝你新年快乐，我希望你的假期很好。

trevorb，

从今天开始我们都放假了，要到2月10号才上班。希望你继续坚持写日记哦！我们回来会看的。

新年快乐！

2011-1-29

今天我又是很晚才上Cpod。

今天这么忙了，但是事情还没做完。

明天我要第一次洗新汽车。 希望明天晚上我的汽车没有现在的脏。

我也希望明天比今天轻松。

现在很晚我要上楼去睡觉了。

Actual I think the same is there in English so I'm probably complicating things.

If I say "The book I'm reading at the moment is ...." it could mean the book I have open in front of me or the one on my bedroom cabinet at home. Context would be what the listener would use to work it out.

sometimes I miss what's right under my nose!

不客气！ Here's my understanding on 我现在看的书. If you say that, you could mean you have the book open and are reading it right this minute--if you were speaking with someone. Here, since right this minute what you are doing is writing your diary on the computer, I think you will automatically be understood that it is your current book as you describe. 现在 has that kind of scope. But even if you had said 我正在看的书, which is even more "right now", I think for the same reason (right this moment you are on the computer, typing) you would still be understood to mean "my current book".

zhenlijiang 谢谢，

我觉得了我听过一节课有语词“party"但是我忘了它的名字。

I think I missued 现在 and 最近 because of overly thinking english. I know the meaning of both of these seperately but was thinking too english in looking for a word for nowadays!

Also this I suspect unfamiliarity with time. If I used 我现在看的书 would this give the impression of the book I'm reading right at this minute (or would that be （我在看的书）。 I'm looking for the words to mean my current book i.e. I may have started it a week ago and finish it next week and I may not be reading it right now but it is still the book I am reading.

Hi I think Jiaojie means 现在 and 最近 are two different ways of saying "nowadays". For the sentence about your son, I think my first choice would be 最近. For the second one--the book you're reading these days (is that right?)--I think 现在 may be better.

The commonly used word now for "party" seems to be the transliteration 派对 pai4dui4.

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/a-chinese-bachelor-party

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/thank-you-note

谢谢，我想问一个问题。 我用party在这个日记上， 在我的现在最近的看书也是英语的语词"Party". 用中文没有语词有意思Party吗

nowadays 现在 最近

你说得对，儿子玩儿，爸爸是打的啊。

我希望大儿子快pass开车考试，但是可能我还要开车，因为现代（nowadays)大儿子开始喝啤酒。。。

诶，今天的“请问”课程很巧，因为它有这两个例子：

她要到十一点才睡觉。

她等到女儿回来才去睡觉。

在这里：

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/the-various-guises-of-until/dialogue

2011/1/28

周末到了，今晚我大儿子去参加一个party了。

我要十二点开车把他接回来。

今天天气又很冷，中午的时候下了一点儿雪。

十二月下雪比一月小多了 （一月下雪没有十二月的大？）

现在我在用电脑学习，老婆在看电视节目。我们都在等十二点到。

我不可能睡觉了。

trevorb,

哇，你太棒了！你快一个月写在这里。 加油朋友！

“我要十二点把汽车带他回来。。。。等十二点到了。我不可能睡觉了“

呵呵，这我能系【在中文怎么说” I can relate to that" ?]

反正，咱都知道这是一个爸爸的负责，对吧？

加油！已经越来越好了！

啊哟，这么错了！我应该小心吧

我刚刚练完太极拳回来了。

今天学习中文的时间没有昨天多。

除了开车的时候听CPod以外，别的时间不学中文了。

明天我很可能会有时间。

其它都对！很棒！

今天工作了，但是觉得没有兴趣。

2011/1/25

今天我开了老婆的汽车去上班。 不太舒服，她的汽车也没有我的干净！

我提早一点儿离开了办公室，因为明天大儿子要生物学考试。他没准备，我要让他学习。

老婆还住在Norwich那今晚我要一个人睡觉。 睡觉一个人比两个人好，但是请不告诉老婆 ；-）

明天是星期三，已经是一个星期的中间了，周末快到了。

明天我只开一个会，所以有时间做工作。

谢谢，我明白了

不能说”睡不觉了“，可以说：睡不着觉

暖和 nuǎnhuo 是“warm” 。

可以说：我的汽车比他的舒服得多。或者我的汽车比他的舒服多了。

不可以说：他的汽车比我的不舒服。

这样的比字句中修饰语（modifier）不能放在动词前面。

啊哟我打错了，我intended to写”睡不觉了“，这也错了吗

暖和(?) nuan3huo 我老师告诉我暖和的意思是“warm” 对不对

我的汽车比他的舒服多。。。？

2011/1/24

昨天我和老婆睡不着， 我不知道为什么。

明天的天气比前天暖和(?)，可能我们太热了。

今天上班的时候老婆把我的汽车开到了她父母的家。

我下班以后做了晚饭，然后我和两个儿子坐在电视前一边吃饭一边看碟。

明天我要开老婆的汽车去上班。 她的汽车没我的舒服。

那里那里，我还练习。 你的帮助很有用，很多谢。

加油！trevorb, 你写得很好！

2011/1/23

昨天我看完了新书， 书名叫《我一定要找他》

今天我们起晚了。起床以后去买东西了。

我买了五件衣服但是没有我的新衣服。

我的旧衣服比家人多！

我今晚开始看一本新书叫《错错错》。

明天我老婆要去她父母的家。

那你可以说：小镇的中心

谢谢， 我用“市中心”但是Horsham是一个Town。用市中心 对不对

2011/1/22

今天我去了父母的家。 他们都很好。

我在他们家的时候， 一边修电脑一边跟他们说话。

回来了以后我做了一会儿家务。 下午我的家比上午干净。

明天我们全家一起去市中心买东西。

2011/1/21

今天又去伦敦开会了。 这次比上次电梯好。

今天的会开得不太久，所以回家的时候我和我好朋友去酒吧了。

我没喝酒，因为我从来不喝酒以后开车。

明天老婆必须上班，她工作的时候我把开汽车去看我父母。

我要把他们的笔记本电脑修好。

你是这么辛苦帮我，多谢。

今天天气冷死了，但是今天比圣诞节以前暖和。 不下雪，也没有霜。

星期四晚上我去了一个离我的家三英里远的中学练习太极拳。（Perfect!）

明天是星期五，但是我不可以穿休闲装。 因为我必须去伦敦开会。（Perfect!）

我很高兴，这天的写日记不太错了

今天孩子去了学校以后， 我和老婆就坐火车去伦敦了。

在那里我们看了很多漂亮的画。

美术馆里的人比外面的多很多。

回家以后我和老婆去了老婆的姐姐的家。（老婆的姐姐你可以叫"大姨子"。）

大姨子比老婆高一点儿。 我们很晚才回家。没有时间写日记了。

谢谢，我有一个最后的问题。

Is the use of 要 at the start of the sentence to put it in the future tense and if so why does the 明天 alone not do that?

1. Today I drove my colleague to work.

今天是我开车带同事上班的。

2. With the A比B+adj+一点 pattern. You can always omit the 工作 equivalent on the B part of the pattern.

今天的温度比昨天的低。or 今天比昨天冷。

3. Art Gallery is 美术馆 měishùguǎn or 画廊 huàláng.

Art/Paintings Exhibition is 画展huàzhǎn。

So you can say, 明天我要和老婆一起去伦敦的美术馆看画展。

Again thanks for the feedback.

My first sentence was supposed to be "Today I drove my colleague to work". I think I missed by a long way somehow....

With the A比B+adj+一点 pattern. Can I always omit the 工作 equivalent on the B part of the pattern. I'm assuming its implied because of the use of the 比 So 今天的温度比昨天的很冷。。。。。对不对。

we went to an Art Gallery in London to see some pictures. (I'm trying to work with my vocabulary rather than just using a dictionary as it is that which I need to expand!) 请问一个有画面的地方叫什么？

今天我开车带同事上班了。

今天的工作和昨天比有一点无聊。

今天下午大儿子要化学考试了，希望他能考好。

明天我和老婆一起去伦敦看(一些画面?some picture?or scenery 景色 ）。 我们打算坐火车，因为坐火车比坐汽车轻松。

Sorry, 我也不明白你第一句话的意思。

后面的应该是：

今天的工作比昨天的无聊一点。( A比B+adj.+一点 )

今天下午大儿子要化学考试了，希望他能考出好成绩。

明天我要和老婆一起去伦敦看（一些画面？）。我们打算坐火车去，因为坐火车比坐汽车轻松多了。（A比B+adj.+多了/很多）

First sentence, try it with 把 .. :)

Also, Chinese friends use the verb 陪 pei2, which strictly means accompany, but works here even if you are doing the driving.

今天我把同事陪了上班。

If you want to add that you went by car I would put this last:

今天我把同事陪了上班坐车。

啊哟 I can't believe I got 下大雨了 backwards!

啊，connie谢谢。 我知道迷途的涂的意思（我看过电视节目叫《迷途》），还不知道涂是具体的词！

今天上班的时候下大雨了，路看起来像一条河。

但是对于我来说今天的路途很轻松，因为今天轮到我同事开车。

回家以后我做了晚饭，因为老婆要迟一点下班。

后来我上楼去上课了。

通勤到公司轻松的，(the drive to work was quite relaxing...)

通勤 tong1qin2 (a commute)

[I wonder if you could also say 到公司一趟。。(the trip to work)??]

因为今天该轮到我的同事开车了。 (because today it is my colleague's turn to drive.)

Please feel free, the more people that get a learning experience out of this the better.

ah, I might be leading you astray about half the time! :)

I'll try and restrict myself to when I am confident of being right, and hope that it is the right half. Actually it is fun trying to see if I can express myself properly; just don't take it as gospel.

嗯。轻松的一天，快乐的一天，美好的一天。不说“轻松的一日”。

Right! 我们开了四个小时的车。

’我们四时开车了（？）‘

我们坐/开车四个小时。

I don't think 了is necessary in the simplest form of the sentence, where context makes it clear that you travelled for four hours.

谢谢，请问 我应该从来用 “一天” 不用 “日” 吗

Hey bodawei, don't run yourself down you are helping a lot :-) and the encouragement is really appreciated.

我们四时开车了（？）

You were driving for four hours?

I think you'd say something like: 我们开了四个小时的车.

刚刚回家了。 我们四时开车了（？），现在赶快写日记然后上楼去睡觉。

今天很不轻松，岳母挺不好的，我们很难过。 没办法。

明天我上班但是没什么事儿，希望会是轻松的一天。

Hi trevor

Just wanted to note that you've passed the two week mark and still going strong (you should have a special celebration after 100 days - that has special significance in Chinese culture.) Also, pleased to see that you are getting more competent help than mine. :)

I think you could hear 没有事儿/容易的 but more commonly people just say 不忙。 (容易的 does not really translate into an easy day at work, in the sense 'not busy' - it refers more to a task I think.)

明天我必须上班可是不忙。 Is enough I think.

(Bit if those more competent ones have a different view of course learn from them.)

我差不多对了，一步一步来呀 ：-）

今天我和老婆把新汽车开到了Norfolk.

Norfolk是一个离我们的家一百八十英里的地方。 在Norfolk有一个城市叫Norwich，老婆的父母住在那里。

今天晚上我们住在宾馆但是睡觉以前去城市的中心跟朋友们吃饭。

明天上午再看岳母然后开车回家

I was trying to say "tomorrow I will use a notebook to write my journal entry then type it in the day after“

I used 前天 when I should have used 后天 I think.

星期五一般在办公室可以穿休闲装，但是我要去cisco开会了。

我开着新汽车带三位同事到了开会的地方。Cisco的办公室离我们的办公室二十二英里远。

明天我和老婆要开车到Norwich，看她的父母。 老婆的妈妈有重感冒所以我们经常去看。

我明天用笔记本写的journal entry然后前天在这里打字。（看不懂，可以写英文吗？）

lujiaojie, 你是很努力帮我的人。很多很多谢。

Thank you so much for your help here....

今天下午我去伦敦开会了。在一个离我办公室17英里的地方。但是我从来不开车，因为交通从来都不好。

我选了坐火车，看了一本新书。我只看了半本。

到了开会的地方我不高兴。 开会的房间在三十楼，但是电梯坏了！

今晚我很累呀。。

谢谢lujiaojie

bodawei； lujiaojie had it exactly right with her correction of my last sentence that's exactly what I meant. I think my ime swallowed the 猜 and I didn't notice it making it hard to work out!

The 还 in there was an attempt to highlight that for a couple more weeks we are still in 虎年.

我昨天写了“我的新汽车应该到”，很好的新闻今天我的新汽车到了。

我家人很喜欢，晚饭以后我们开着新汽车去看我的父母了。

今年是我的本命年，那你们应该能猜到汽车的颜色吧？

我们都喜欢新的汽车！

。。

第三个句子我不明白，请给我英语的翻译。

x谢谢 一步一步来呀 ：-）

Alas my Englishness showing through. Bodawei is correct 在英国晚饭经常叫tea （although dinner is often used too though is generally a bit later).

但是我老婆也跑了很好喝的红茶。我是英国人，我们都喝很多红茶 :-)

Learning something new every day! I did not know this, really.

Hi helen

'老婆泡了很好喝的茶'

在英国‘tea'是晚饭的意思，哈哈。 在澳大利亚我们要吃饭的时候我们也说’'tea'.

thanks zhenlijiang that was my intention originally then i lost confidence and thought maybe I was writing stuff that nobody could understand :-) I will take your advice and revert to just using Chinese from tonight as i think a lot of my problem is thinking in English.

Hi Trevor, I think it's great you're doing this journal. I agree it's a good idea to provide the English, but may I make a suggestion? I think it would be better if you tried to think and write out your entries in Chinese first, make a conscious effort not to translate from English (make believe Chinese is the only language you can speak)--because "translating" can really mess up your sentence structures. Then, for people who may try to help you, paraphrase maybe rather than translate, that in simple English.

I'm no teacher or authority of course, but it seems you've made enormous strides in Chinese since the Activity Stream days, I'm impressed! Goes to show that the effort is worth it.　加油加油！

那个天肯定冷死了啊！！

呵呵！我洗了车然后汽车上面结冰了！

啊哟，我打错了 写了“病”但是我要写“冰”！

I was trying to say after I washed the car the water on it froze. 但是可能我也成感冒了

写得不错！帮你改了一点儿：

今天我把汽车洗干净了。天气有点儿冷，温度有点儿低。我洗了车然后在汽车上感觉自己生病了！冷死了。

现在周末结束了，

明天我要上班，两个儿子也都要考试. 他们已经睡觉了。

谢谢。 今天我的新汽车到了 ：-）我今晚快出去开车。。。

下个星期我的新汽车应该会到。

I always forget the 把 didn't occur to use it (or 被 ！）

Thanks for the feedback and for the encouragement. I guess other people don't see the group... :-(

下个星期我的心的汽应该车到。 One 打错了 and I do have issues with the ime sometimes this one was intended to be

下个星期我的新的汽车应该到。

does that make it better or worse for understanding?

Trevor

You've got a week's entries down, 51 to go this year. :)

I hope you interest some other people.

Mostly I understand what you are saying, and if I don't it might be my fault!

The weekend is nearly here. Today my work is really boring; I hope next week is interesting. My car is dirty; tmorrow I think I should wash it. {Actually I don't follow the last sentence.}

Maybe, to improve the second last sentence, you should look into 把 sentences - subject 把 object Verb + something.

明天我要把汽车上脏洗掉了。 (Tomorrow I am going to wash the mud off my car.)

I am trusting others will point out any errors in my work, otherwise this will become a case of the blind leading the blind. :)

Any, avagoodweekend. 周末愉快!

PS. I should have explained that in a 把 sentence the subject 'takes' the object and 'does' something to it (with the verb). Washing your car seems a perfect example.

明白了 mine makes it look like I don't exist! again 谢谢

我,和我太太和两个孩子。

我,老婆和两个儿子, 你呢

太好了！ 在你的家几口人？

大儿子十几岁了, 小儿子十六岁了

哦，你的孩子们多大？

not“ 我们坐车三个小时半”，but“我们坐了三个半小时的车

once again thank you bodawei. I'm particularly bad at past tense stuff, I just cannot seem to get that yet!

That's part of the reason I thought this exercise may be good for me :-) once I embarrass myself enough I may begin to learn it!

Hi trevorb

This entry is (I think) ambiguous as to whether you are writing an account of the day's events or giving us your plans. Given that it was posted 14 hrs ago I am going to guess that you reported what happened. In that case you need to use 了 to indicate a completed action.

Unless you particularly wanted to point out that you paid, I suggest 我们跟老婆的老朋友一起吃饭了。

I'm going to second ouyangjun116 on this, I've used nciku for a while but not ventured beyond the dictionary. I'll have a look at that too....

Indeed. I go by 'beckwith'.

yep, same name, ouyangjun116. I tried looking you up on there but could not find you, so I assume you're under a different name.

Cool! I'm glad it worked out for you. If I may ask, do you use the same name on nciku?

xiaophil,

Many thanks for the advice on the nciku. I use that website all the time for the dictionary but never ventured into their online community. I just wrote my first blog on there and within 10 minutes I've already gotten a response from a native speaker correcting it.

Ah mate, I think you should be directing your suggestions to trevorb? Unless I missed some subtle message to me?

二零一一年一月一号

这是我的第一个的journal post. 今天是二零一一年的第一天。

外面下着雨，我的两个孩子在打电脑游戏，老婆在客厅看电视剧，因此我可以学习中文。

明天老婆和我去她的老家看他的爸爸妈妈。那里离这里很远，开车需要三个半小时。

hi bodawei

many thanks for your support and for your comments. I've now realised I need to add something to my description as the best thing is for the journal entries to start as the first comment to a comment so that the replies to a days entry stay together.....

It's great to get some feedback on your writing as I often have an audience of one to my writing. I have lessons set for me so by the time I read them there are lots of comments that cover my questions and I have nowhere to input!

Sorry trevorb that should be 第一个 not 第一次; I shouldn't post so early in the morning. :)