User Comments - JasonSch

Posted on: Security Check in the Subway

Yo!

You could say, 卡在包里, and it would mean the same thing as 卡放在包里.

This 卡放在包里 can be translated as both, 'Put the card in the bag', and 'The card is in the bag', depending on the tone and situation. If it were a command/suggestion, it would likely be followed by 吧, but not always. That's where context comes in. (That is: is someone is holding up a card, asking where to put it, or, are they looking for the card.)

I'm not sure about the grammatical reason for 放, but if it helps, it sounds to me more like a state or condition here, than an action.

Posted on: Wang Wei's Diary: Food and Girls

Hey xiaoliang,

I think this translation is a bit misleading, but there's some reasoning behind it. A direct translation would be:

"People can't be too proud. They should be a bit modest."

I imagine whoever translated it decided not to go with the direct translation b/c of the fact that 'can't be too proud', can mean, 'it's impossible to be too proud', or, 'there's no such thing as being too proud', and thus can carry a much different connotation in English. Also, the 不能 here implies, 'if you do, then it's bad', (rather than literally: 'unable to') and I think that's why the translator decided on, 'should'.

So, maybe the a clearer translation would be:

"People shouldn't be too proud; they should be a little modest".

I hope that clears things up! Let me know if you have any more questions.

Posted on: Li Yan's Diary: Love and Italian Food

Hey xiao_liang,

俩 is a fun one. Here, it's a shortened form of, 两个. In the above example, it would also be natural to say, 他们两个像双胞胎.

Although 俩 can be used with things other than people, it's used mostly with personal pronouns. 我们俩，你们俩, are both common as well.

There's also the less common, 仨 (sā) which acts the same way, but for 3.

Posted on: A Tour of Xi'an

I went to 西安 in the summer of '06. My favorite thing (other than the food of course!) was riding bikes around the city wall. It's fully connected and makes for a cool way to see the city.

As for the food, if you're in 上海 and looking for some pretty authentic 西安/陕西 dishes, there's a nice/cheap restaurant on 定西路 near 延安西路. There's also a couple good ones around the back gate area of 华东师范大学.

Posted on: Talking Numbers

When we talked about this lesson, 5/五/ ɦŋ was the first thing I thought of! Asking about yelling it is a great way to get a laugh out of a Shanghainese person. Of course, in all reality, it doesn't actually create any real communication problems, but it just seems so out of the ordinary for us non-native speakers!

Also, 鱼 is pronounced similarly. So, another good one is 五条鱼. Although, I can't seem to remember how to say 条 in Shanghainese. Maybe a native speaker could toss us the phonetics.

Posted on: Sina's Microblogs

I don't really use Twitter, but, it should be said that it has changed quite a bit. It's as much used for news, updates, links, and event planning as it is for talking about 'what you're doing'. More like a big info-sharing network. For better or worse!

Posted on: Insecticide

I've never actually listened to Robert's audio review recordings until now. I gotta say, you're right on! He reads with a very calming, book-on-tape feel. And yeah, it's almost 'noir-esque' listening to the sentence fragments like that. Good stuff! :D

Posted on: Insecticide

Hi Tal,

Thank you for pointing out the pronoun mistake in the first sentence. I'll have it fixed ASAP.

For the second one, you're talking about the audio review, no?

Posted on: Sina's Microblogs

Yeah, that's what I read. Don't get too excited though! If it's anything like Myspace's previous attempt at a Chinese version, it will be a completely different site. So, your account won't transfer over or anything.

Posted on: Sina's Microblogs

人人网/校内 is a Facebook-like social networking website, but it's not actually Facebook. Facebook is creating a Chinese version of their site tailored for the Chinese market. (complete with censorship restrictions I believe)