User Comments - Grambers
Grambers
Posted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat
January 30, 2012 at 10:37 AMPosted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat
January 30, 2012 at 10:34 AMTHAT'S THE ANSWER! Open the window AND put on the air conditioner. The air-con will ensure a reasonable maintenance of comfortable air temperature (though it'll have to burn a few more watts to do so) but the stale air from the air-con will naturally intermingle with the polluted air from outside leading to an approximation of 'fresh air'! Genius:)
Good point, well made on the issue of bus windows. I noticed this too during my years in China. Certainly in Guangdong people are obsessed with opening windows for 'freshness' but the rule doesn't apply on buses. 'Tis a strange one, for sure.
Posted on: Whose Home for Chinese New Year?
January 26, 2012 at 5:07 PMA Chinese friend of mine reckoned that 年货 referred specifically to food purchases. The dialogue, as well as the vocabulary section, implies that it has a more generalised meaning - perhaps incorporating food preparation, decorations etc.etc.
Posted on: A Leggy Joke
January 26, 2012 at 5:02 PMThere seems to be a small problem on the 'Exercises' page whereby the key phrase being tested, 想不出, appears only as 想不 - it's easy to guess the correct answers, but potentially confusing.
Posted on: A Leggy Joke
January 26, 2012 at 12:47 PMYeah, I can't believe that John failed to spot his classic unintended pun - either that or he was, a) too modest or, b) far too cool to actually point it out.
Posted on: 坑“妈”的防辐射服
January 23, 2012 at 3:20 PM新年快乐! I appreciate I might not get an answer on this very quickly, what with it being CNY an' all. However, I wanted to point out this puzzling sentence from the Xinhua article, and ask whether I have translated it correctly...
"当太多的所谓“防辐射服”以科学为华丽外衣去为自己包装的时候，有没有科学家站出来"
"As many so-called "radiation-proof clothes" take 'science' as a resplendent cloak in which to wrap themselves, do any [real] scientists stand up [to object]?"
...If my sentence is correct, it looks and sounds really awkward on two counts: one, it appears to give 'clothing' agency (ie. the clothes themselves 'use' science, rather than the manufacturer of the clothes); and two, the writer appears to be using a clothing metaphor to describe an item of clothing - which feels very confusing. What I mean is, a 'person' may be 'wrapped up' in cotton wool, or a 'policy' may be wrapped up in 'misunderstandings' etc.etc., but an 'item of clothing' being 'wrapped up' in 'science' sounds very akward - in English, at least.
Obviously, the most likely explanation for all is this is that 1) I've misunderstood the sentence, and/or 2) need to improve my command of written Chinese. Nevertheless, something looks wrong with this sentence, and I think I need some help getting my head around it!
Posted on: 坑“妈”的防辐射服
January 20, 2012 at 10:30 AM外国(具体说丹麦的)的童话中国人都认识的吗?
Posted on: 坑“妈”的防辐射服
January 20, 2012 at 10:26 AM喜欢! 我想可以!
Posted on: Market Research 3: Assessing the Competition
January 18, 2012 at 4:10 PMI'm fascinated by the following sentence from the expansion:
国家提倡无偿献血，无偿采集血液，但为什么输血要收钱？
In the translation, the word 血 is written as xie3 the first time around, and xue4 the second. I'm well aware that this is one of many words in Chinese which can change tone depending on context and/or the whim of the speaker, but to see it change within the very same sentence seems confusing/unusual. Is it so?
Posted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat
January 30, 2012 at 6:34 PMWow, that is A LOT of buildings you are making that claim about. What kind of maintenance is usual in your home country?