User Comments - JasonSch

Posted on: Learning English in China

Hi cny,

Maybe a native speaker could comment on it's origin, but the expression, 天下没有免费的午饭, is at least common in written Chinese (361,000 hits on a Baidu search). I figured it was from English, but after a quick search, I couldn't find any direct evidence online.

As for the 靠 in 要靠喊的：

靠 here means, 'to rely', or 'to depend'. So, 要靠喊 would literally be something like, 'have to rely on yelling'. The 学 here is implied (要靠喊学的)

A similar example would be something like, 他钱不多，要靠父母买房。

Posted on: A Tour of the Office

应该的！

That's definitely true of the expansion sentences. They can actually be the hardest to understand/translate of all the material here at C-Pod, simply given the lack of context. (Sometimes even the writer doesn't know exactly what situation they were imagining!)

But hey, that's the challenge, right? :)

Posted on: Daddy Changes a Diaper

Hey, guys. Sorry for coming a bit late to this discussion here!

This is an interesting sentence. When I first read it, I was confused myself and asked about it. I can't recall the conversation now, but I ended up going with (as you can see) the 'hug' interpretation.

Looking at it now though, I think that although you could argue 'hug', 'hold', or 'carry' is probably a better translation given the discussion and Changye's link.

I suppose my gut reaction had to do with my Western background (tons of hugs!), or maybe my personal familiarity with 抱 as 'to embrace' (拥抱的抱 can also be shortened to 抱), before as to 'hold' a baby. (At least that means I'm doing things in the right order!)

Posted on: A Tour of the Office

All of your suggestions are better translations. I did in fact translate this one. Looking at it now, I think what I was likely going for was 'until work is finished'. You're also right about avoiding adding a subject. (Chinese provides an interesting challenge this way. Particularly when you're translating a single sentence with very little contex!)

Thanks for the heads up and the good suggestions.

Posted on: Beyond Or: Another Use of 还是 (háishi)

I don't have the time to listen right now, bit I'm assuming it's about the use of 还是 that goes something like this:

看电影的人太多了，我们还是先吃饭再去看吧.

So 还是 here doesn't really mean 'or', but indicates that an option, or a suggestion is better than the alternative.

还是___好, also comes up, which has a similar meaning. For example, 还是学美式英语好 ;)

Posted on: Haggling Like a Local

A note about the characters chosen:

The characters are meant as a pronunciation guide using Chinese characters, similar to what can be found in Shanghainese textbooks for Chinese speakers. (The few that there are...) They aren't meant to be based on a standard for written Shanghainese, or Wu in general. They were chosen by a native Shanghainese speaker. Maybe they can elaborate as to specific choices, but my guess would be that these are the simply characters they would use if they wanted to communicate the idea in writing/typing.

I agree that the putonghua transcripts could be helpful. Maybe when the next lesson comes out (this Friday) someone can throw up the puntonghua transcript in the comments.

Posted on: Fog or Smog?

The problem with adding officer is that an 'officer' is a specific type of person in the navy. (海军军官). That is, not everyone in the navy is an officer.

While 'navy man' works, I felt that 'in the navy' was a more natural way of expressing it in English.

As for the pop-up, I left it 'navy' intentionally so that people wouldn't confuse the word 海军 with 'person in the navy', and could see through the sentence level translation that 一名海军 means 'someone in the navy' or, 'sailor [in the navy]'.

Posted on: Fog or Smog?

The measure word 名 here indicates a person. So, a direct (albeit a bit unnatural) translation of 我爷爷以 前是一名海 军 would be "My grandfather used to be a sailor/officer [in the navy]."

Posted on: Let's Just Be Friends

Hi podfree,

让 here means something like 'to make [someone feel/do something]'. You could also say, '他让我做 something', or 让我感觉很 something'.

Hope that helps!

Posted on: Simple Electrical Stuff

Hi Ruyide,

I think he (and Jiaojie) meant that it's more common to say it that way.

You can also say: 'wǒ tīngdedǒng zhōngwén' and express the same thing. Both are OK.