User Comments - JasonSch

Posted on: Hot Pot Chitchat

@waiguoren

Yes, I love that 花生酱 (peanut sauce). What I usually do though, is combine 香辣酱 (fragrant and spicy sauce) and 芝麻酱 (sesame sauce) then throw in a bit of 香菜 (cilantro/coriander). Okay, I'm getting hungry now...

I think all 自助餐 are all you can eat, but yeah, the word doesn't necessarily imply that.

To say 'all-you-can-eat' you can say 随便吃 and/or 随便喝. 

I love those places... :)

Posted on: The North Has Central Heating

@jinyan26

Hey there. Good question.

The speaker is from the north, so he's saying 'Our north is better, we have central heating'.

Saying it this way, rather than just, 'haishi beifang hao a', is a way for the speaker to include the fact that they're from 'beifang'. 

You can do this with whatever country you are from as well. For example:

wǒmen měiguǒ...

wǒmen yīngguǒ...

Posted on: Voucher Promotion at the Mall

@calicartel

Hey there. 月光族 breaks down like this:

The 月 refers to 'every month'. (Chines salaries are usually paid monthly.)

The 光 indicates the 'spending all' of the money. You can put 光 after some verbs to indicate 'all up', or something along those lines. (i.e. 都吃光了, 钱花光了）

The 族 means something like group, or tribe here.

So, 月光族 are people who 'spend away their salary every month'.

Hope that helps. :)

Posted on: I Want a Thick Blanket

Let me say a bit about the whole '被子/blanket/doona/duvet/quilt/comforter' issue.

Personally, I grew up calling a 被子 a 'comforter'. Thing is, not all the native English speakers in the office were familiar with or agreed upon the meaning of said word. Same issue with 'duvet'. Some were familiar with it, some weren't. 'Doona', is exclusively Australian English as far as I know (had never heard it until now).

Finally, a 'quilt' is actually a specific type of 'blanket/comforter/被子/etc' and made in a particular way. You can google image search 被子 and 'quilt' to get a picture of the difference. (Although, I think the word may be used quite liberally in some places. My mom makes quilts though, so not around my house.)

In the end there was a decision to just go with 'blanket' the idea being that it was a general term that could encompass all the things above. Maybe for some people, that's not the case though.

Anyway, in the end, I think a term like this will inevitiabley create some confusion/disagreement when you try to find an exact equivalent in English. It's a good thing we have the boards to discuss it though. It gives us the opportunity to flesh out what 被子 implies, rather than relying on a single English word.

Cheers.

Posted on: I Want a Thick Blanket

@zhong_bide

Yeah, you're right.  A bit of a pronoun-dyslexia there. 

Will change it tomorrow. Thanks. 

Posted on: The Surname Code

@tarsi

Given the feel of the name, unsurprisingly, I got it from one of my Chinese Philosophy professors. He teaches and lives in the U.S. now, but leads philosophy programs in China during the summers at 华东师范大学. He didn't know me at the time, however, so the meaning doesn't necessarily have much connection to my personality.

Rather, the 舒 is from 'Schuurman'的'Schuu', which he assumed was pronounced 'Shu'. (It's actually, 'sker-man' in my name) And the 介生 from Jason. 

Glad you like it! It's grown on me over the years. 

Posted on: The Surname Code

Woops! Thanks, Connie.

我姓舒！

Btw, 刚发现我还不知道你姓什么！I've known you for months now and only used your English name. I want a the low-down when I get to the office!

Posted on: The Surname Code

我性舒。舒服的舒。:)

我中文名字叫舒介生.

Posted on: Picking Up a Friend at the Airport

@architpol

Hey there.

I'm a little late to the discussion, but that's a good question.

Actually, 今天幸苦你们了 is, like @changye says, mostly just a set expression. It means something like, 'thanks for your hard work today'. I could have translated it that way, and maybe I should have?, but that would also bring about some confusion in it's own way, so I went a more literal route.

The subject, as was said above, is implied and would likely be the speaker. This expression though, 幸苦你了, is said in thanks for service or doing something for someone else. That's where the 'made you' came from. In this way, it's different than simply saying 谢谢你, and I wanted to maintain that in the translation.

Looking back, it may have been wiser to go with the 'Thanks for your hard work today', as that avoids adding a subject and maybe expresses the meaning a bit more clearly.

Anyway, hope it makes more sense now!

Oh, and thanks for the help @changye. 辛苦你啦！;)

Posted on: Skiing, Not Ice Skating

@vann000

这么 can be translated as both 'so' and 'that' or 'this' when, it's indicating the degree of something. 这么 + adj.

When it's before a verb, (like 这么做) it carries a bit fo a different meaning, but is still translated the same. (Like this, like that, like so, like such)

The reason we keep it 'so' in the vocab is because to simply use 'this' would confuse it with 这个. The translations, however, can provide some contexts in which it might be translated differently.

Hope that helps.