User Comments - JasonSch

Posted on: An Unplanned Tan

And now, for your learning pleasure!

ruishi_zhizao says

對了，想問一下大家。中國女人（甚至別的亞洲國家也是）究竟為甚麽想要美白呢？這種審美觀是怎麼來著呢？請大家提出一下意見囉。

duìle, xiǎng wènyīxià dàjiā. zhōngguó nǚrěn (shènzhì biéde yàzhōu guójiā yě shì) jiūjìng wèishènme xiàngyào měibái ne? zhèzhǒng shěnměiguān shì zěnme láizhě ne? qǐng dàjiā tīchū yīxià yìjiàn luò.

"Ah yes, there's something I'd like to ask everyone. What's the real reason Chinese girls (not just China, but other Asian countries as well) want to have white skin? Where does this aesthetic come from? It'd be great to hear everyone's ideas and opinions."

stevenliou in reply to ruishi_zhizao

大概以前肤色黑的都是体力劳动者，而有地位的人都甚少参加体力劳动，因此肤色较白吧。现在的大部分中国人沿袭了过去对女人的审美观，所以仍然喜欢皮肤白的美女。女人们也就只好去美白了。

dàgài yǐqián fūsè hēide dōushì tǐlìláodòngzhě, éryǒu dìwèide rén dōu shènshǎo cānjiā tǐlìláodòng, yīncǐ fūsè jiào báiba. xiànzàide dàbùfen zhōngguórén yánxíle guòqu duì nǚrénde shěnměiguān, suǒyǐ réngrán xǐhuān pífūbái de nǚrén. nǚrénmen yě jiù zhǐhǎo qù měibáile.

"In the past, dark skin was mostly a sign of being a manual laborer. People with status rarely took part in physical labor, and because of this, their skin was relatively white. These days, most Chinese people have carried this female aesthetic into the present, and therefore they like girls with whiter/pale skin. So, girls have no choice but to try and have whiter/pale skin."

Posted on: (W)rapping It All Up

Hey guys,

There is no PDF for this lesson. The link being present may have made that a bit confusing, sorry about that! This is more of a relaxed summary of the series with some good music to boot.

Posted on: (W)rapping It All Up

温州话 is actually quite interesting linguistically. It's a part of the Wu 'family', but it's almost entirely unintelligible to other Wu speakers. My friend's wife is from Wenzhou and it's been fun seeing him pick up some of it. Not sure if demand is high enough for a series, but the language lover in me would certainly enjoy it. :)

Posted on: (W)rapping It All Up

Cantonese in the works! It will be a similar series-based format and will stick with high-frequency, hopefully useful stuff. You won't have to pay extra though, it'll just be a once a week part of normal production like the Shanghainese series. I'm also looking forward to that one as I have a few friends that speak Cantonese and I've yet to even scratch the surface of learning anything myself.

Posted on: Check Your Spam

Yeah, it can. I'm not sure if there are limitations as to what types of things can be called 垃圾 (lājī), but I've always heard it with inanimate objects. I'm guessing you could use it with people as well though.

Posted on: Directions to the Metro

Exactly! It only seems difficult because there isn't much material out there. As for the tones, the way I understand it is that they're far less important than in other Wu dialects. There is, however, a pretty complex sandhi (when tones change due to their position in relation to other words) system. Although, because people are no longer educated in Shanghainese, I don't think many native speakers are as aware of which tone a word is like they are with Standard Chinese. So, emulation it is! :)

Next up is Cantonese. That will also be a lot of fun, but who knows, maybe we can revisit Shanghainese again somewhere down the road.

Cheers.

Posted on: Directions to the Metro

That's great to hear! You're definitely someone who can benefit from this series. We hear a lot of Shanghainese in the Cpod offices as well, so learning a bit has been a lot of fun. We currently don't have any skype lessons specifically for Shanghainese, but we may be able to work something out if you're interested. You can get a hold of someone on the packages page, here.

Posted on: An Unplanned Tan

Those are all good as well. I forgot about 笑掉大牙. (What a great image that brings to mind, huh?)

Also, keep in mind that 好好笑 is a more feminine construction. (at least here in China!)

Posted on: How was your flight?

Ah good call. My bad, I seemed to get different search results than you so I assumed otherwise. I actually only started to learn how to be more precise with my searching a year or so ago. It can be a lifesaver with translation.

Posted on: Check Your Spam

Hi Helios,

文件夹 is (wénjiànjiā) is 'folder' is in both the physical world, and on your computer. So, spam folder would be 垃圾邮件文件夹 (lājī yóujiàn wénjiànjiā). I think you can also shorten it to simply, 垃圾文件夹.

As for 'to be sent to accidentally as opposed to directly', I think 转到 (zhuǎndào) would work well here. (I found it quite a bit on the web also just to make sure). 转到 literally means to 'transfer to', but gives the feeling of something that changed direction as well.

I'm not sure about how to say the specific type of program your referring to. We'll have to ask a teacher on Monday when they're back in the office! Hope that helps for now.