User Comments - Tal

Posted on: Washing the Sheets

嗯, you've chosen some excellent examples and made me think about this. I guess when I said 'human involvement' I was really just considering the sentences in your original post. toianw's 'rule of thumb' is a good one though I think, as is the suggestion that we learn by doing/experiencing. I hope no one will take the hump if I say that Chinese generally doesn't have strict 'rules' of grammar, and that trying to construct them is generally a counter-productive activity. Ken used to go on about 'lexical chunks' didn't he? My approach on the whole is to swallow them all down, let them digest, then go out in the field and open my mouth. The authentic daily-life kind of Chinese we learn in these lessons is certainly great help with that.

Posted on: Where Have All the Videos Gone?

Ah, I get it! Thanks. ;-)

Posted on: Washing the Sheets

被 (bèi) indicates human involvement, a person's action.

厨房打扫了吗？(Chúfáng dǎsǎo le ma?) = Has the kitchen been cleaned?

厨房被(人)打扫了吗？(Chúfáng bèi (rén) dǎsǎo le ma?) = Did someone clean the kitchen?

The second version of the question, whilst not incorrect, is just not how Chinese people would usually express the question, unnecessary words are customarily just omitted.

Talking about the theft of a cell phone in 手机被(人)偷了 (shǒujī bèi (rén) tōule) is a little different, as clearly the phone was stolen by someone, and in this type of sentence 被 (bèi) is usually included, whilst 人 (rén) may be omitted.

Posted on: Where Have All the Videos Gone?

I'm rather curious how you watch British TV with your VPN, care to share? :-)

Posted on: The Mysterious Metric System (Part 2)

You think Al Gore would like to see a restoration of the British empire? Sounds good to me. I think they should start letting non-Americans vote/stand in US elections, then you'd get some good leaders.

a solution for rising temperatures

Posted on: The Mysterious Metric System (Part 2)

I feel sure the Metric system is linked to global warming somehow. If only we'd gone imperial we wouldn't be in this mess. Downfall of the British empire = downfall of civilization. There's a Pulitzer waiting for some bright spark brave enough to commit heresy.

Posted on: 8 Types of Chinese Cuisine

A Bite of China is a 7-part documentary from CCTV about food production and preparation in China (in English). “Thirty of the country's most respected filmmakers worked for more than a year filming the seven 50-minute episodes. They shot throughout the country, from the frozen lakes of the north-east and the bamboo forests of Liuzhou to the frenetic chaoses of Beijing and Hong Kong.”

Posted on: Doomsday

That's the aliens' secret plan, get the apemen complacent, then nab them when they'll never go for an end of the world prophecy again. I say stay vigilant people, don't take your eye off the ball. My money's still on Saint Malachy.

Posted on: No TP

Excuses can be trite, but they can also be elaborate or disingenuous, and these are easy to come by in China too. Some westerners might positively revel in the 'hog's heaven' that the relative absence of hygiene in China's "WCs" and hospitals offers. Donning the rose colored-specs helps perhaps, China's brittle nationalism is hard to digest, especially after too much seafood.

Anyway let me tell ya it's not just the TP. Washing and drying the hands is also lots of fun, though I find my shoulder muscles more flexible these days, no doubt due to the constant necessity of 'windmilling' the arms after restroom visits.

Posted on: Leaving a Tip

呵呵, yo, it's generally the places that want to be 'classy' that put the staff in monkey-suits. Come to think of it, I don't recall my bags ever being carried to my hotel room in such fashion again, so either my own choice of accommodation is way down-market or this was some kind of special 'rite of passage' that fate had arranged for me.