User Comments - JasonSch

Posted on: 人家: Other People and Pouty Girls

What I know about 老子 as form of 'I' is that's only used for by men (老娘 for women), that it's somewhat less elegant than 我, and also that it's used mostly by old men in particular. The examples I always get are of a guy ordering his wife around, or complaining. I have fun throwing this one in from time to time. ;)

Posted on: Yellow Mountain

Good question. Both of these sentences are somewhat ambiguous, which is in part due to the nature of Chinese grammar, and also in part due to them being single sentences with no real context.

I've talked about them with the teachers though, and here's their verdict:

The first sentence, could be either or. It's technically in not in any 'tense', but a 在 before the 陪着, or a 了 after the 迎接 would serve to clarify it as happening right now, or having already happened, respectively.

For the second sentence, if it were in some context that made it obviously in the past, it could be translated as it is. However, without any context at all, the intended meaning, and thus a better translation would be: 'We'll meet at People's Square, and set off together." (like instructions of some sort) I'll go ahead and make that change. Sorry about any confusion this may have caused. Sometimes with single sentences like this, my 语感 (feel for the language) misleads me, as I heard it as a portion of a series of events.

Posted on: Yellow Mountain

我上次在黄山本来准备直接到杭州去，后来去了江西婺源。婺源是离黄山市不远的一个小村庄。那边的环境特别好。我和几个朋友租了摩托车在乡间路上骑了几圈。我估计你会很喜欢。:)

Posted on: Yellow Mountain

我去过黄山两次，她又美丽又神秘。那是一个让人流连忘返的地方。只有一个坏处：人太多了！

Posted on: 电影故事 3

哈哈！笑死了

Posted on: 电影故事 3

我也是这么想的！徐洲每次写这些高级的对话，都很悬念的！翻译起来很有趣。继续学，等到第四集，我保证不会让你失望。:)

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

Glad you guys like it! No plans for a series yet, but I think that's a good idea. There is a somewhat related (albeit a bit less dramatic) Upper lesson coming up in the next few weeks, and if you liked this one, I think you'll dig it.

@Baba: agreed! Those same lines stuck out for me as well. Good stuff. (I'll have to look into that chengyu request...there's gotta be one out there!)

Posted on: Adoption

明星 is a general term for celebrities or pop stars. 影星 specifically refers to movie stars, but more than often they are referred to as 明星.

Posted on: Buying Sandals

拖鞋 tuōxié = flip-flops and/or slippers. (from the supplementary vocab) Thong means something much different in American English. :)

Posted on: Organic Food

It's definitely a Newbie word all by itself. (if 是 isn't, then what is?!) But, I think it's in the vocab because of the construction it's found in in this lesson: 贵是贵了. There's expansion sentences there using this as well. Granted, when a construction is included in the vocab like this though, usually it's made clear with (...) or some other sort of marker. (i.e., 一...就..., etc)