User Comments - JasonSch

Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company

@gjeo

Nope, both 公里 and 千米 = 1 kilometer.

千米 is more mathematically specific though in that it describes it in terms of 千 = one thousand and 米 = meters, and so it sounds more 'academic'.

公里 seems to be the preferred term when speaking casually. 

Posted on: Are You Busy?

@gcarraro

有事吗？

Could be translated a number of ways depending on the context.

I think it helps to think of it literally, 

有 (to have) 事 (issue, problem) 吗 (?)

So, this construction isn't asking 'What do you need' specifically, but rather 'Do you need something' or, 'Do you have a problem'. (Which sounds a bit rude in English, but not in Chinese!)

If you want to ask specifically, 'What do you need' you can say:

你有什么事？'You have what issue?' or,

你需要什么？'You need what?'

Hope that helps!

Posted on: Love Tangle 2: A Lover Returns

@bababardwan, @changye

Yeah, you're both right about that! It's an easy mistake to make, given that 什么 can be translated as both 'any' and 'what'. 

'I hadn't gone through any suffering' and,

'What suffering hadn't I gone through?'

Pete could have translated it the way he did if it weren't for the context. It's a tricky difference. (Ah, the little things...)

Finally, I just asked Connie if you need to add question marks to rhetorical questions in Chinese and unlike English, you don't! How's that for tricky? 头疼！

Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company

在中国搬家公司多贵？我从来都没有用过。从南京搬家到上海来时候我就把我所有的东西寄到这边来了！很便宜。(I'm definitely not a pack-rat)

在美国很贵。我每次搬家时候就都会叫几个朋有开卡车过来了。然后我们自己搬。真是一种令人疲劳的过程，不过是免费！

Posted on: Being Seated in a Restaurant

@yingxiong

Very cool. I know the Wyoming/Bryon Center area somewhat, but not super well.

Yeah, I grew up only a few blocks from Yesterdog. Although ironically, I think I'd appreciate it more now that I'm omnivorous. I was veggie in my high school years, but I still did enjoy their veggie dogs. 

Anyway, nice to see another 老乡! Keep up the studies, man and let us know anytime you're in Shanghai!

Posted on: Being Seated in a Restaurant

@yingxiong

Yeah, you're right. The pronunciation of 齐 is in fact qí. Not sure what happened there! Many times, mistakes like this come about because the site's system for generating pinyin gets out of whack or uses the wrong reading. Sorry about the confusion.

Btw, I too am from Grand Rapids, MI! I grew up in Eastown.

I've already met one other user (xiaophil) from g-rap on here as well. Small world!

Posted on: Jet Lag

@billgloveruk

Yeah, you're right. There's nothing there to indicate that it's a question other than the tone of voice in the spoken statement and the question mark at the end of the sentence.

It it were: 

你一下飞机就来公司了。

It would just be, 'You came to the company right after getting off the plane'.

Posted on: Love Tangle 4: Baby Plans

@bababardwan

Actually, 朋友 can be either. If the speaker wants to be specific about the amount of people, they'll include a number or measure word in the statement. Like,

我跟个朋友一起吃饭了

Or, like you said:

我跟朋友们一起吃饭了 or,

我跟几个朋友一起吃放了 

for an unspecified amount of friends. 

So, yeah, she's just being vague! You're right though, it would seem pretty crucial. The problem is, when you translate it, you just have to pick one! (I wonder if that's why Pete did the dialog as 'friend' and the roll-over as 'friends'.) 

Posted on: Flexible, Not Reflexive

@dubb

You can think of this 的 as something like 'one'. So,

你是最棒的。

means, 'You're the greatest (one)'.

Or, 

她是最高的。

Would mean, 'She's the tallest one.'

If there isn't any context in which to figure out what the 的 may be indicating, you can also make it more specific by adding the noun at the end. Eg:

你是最棒的人。

Or,

她最高的学生。

Hope that helps

Posted on: Love Tangle 5: The Mistress

@matt

酸甜苦辣！I love this expression.