User Comments - Tal
Tal
Posted on: Chinese for Trekkies
September 6, 2009 at 12:46 PMCan't wait! *speechless*
That's Trekkers though. :]
Posted on: Going Dutch
September 6, 2009 at 12:44 PMI'm guessing it's when you transfer the fork from your left hand to to your right moments after cutting a suitably sized piece of food, which you then pick up with the fork in your right hand, (the knife's in your left hand by now.) And repeat. Oh you have to eat the food. Or maybe it's a magic trick. If it is I wanna learn it.
Posted on: Going Dutch
September 5, 2009 at 12:08 PMThe Dutch brought the world sperm!? Oh boy that upsets the 'out of Africa' theory! I'm glad I can blame you for bacteria and err... Australia as well though!
No offence Chanelle, you should know I'm a kidder by now! But if I ever make it back, I'll certainly take you up on those 2 offers!
Actually I've only ever been to Holland once for 5 days, (Amsterdam 3 years ago, where all the above happened to me! Ha ha!)
Posted on: Chinese Idol
September 5, 2009 at 1:48 AMCertainly I would never address a taxi driver as 老师, (they would almost certainly laugh if you did!) But it's quite natural and pleasingly polite to call a taxi driver 师傅.
In fact as mentioned elsewhere you can call just about any tradesperson or minor functionary 师傅 and it's cool.
In my school (like John's) all the office staff get called 老师. Even the guy who just goes round unlocking the classroom doors seems to get called 老师.
真，到时候你在电视里面唱什么歌，我一定为你加油!
Posted on: Going Dutch
September 5, 2009 at 1:35 AMHow about "double Dutch", a mocking term for a strange and/or incomprehensible language (鸟语 niǎoyǔ), or maybe just for jargon/tech talk not accessible to laymen?
哈哈, a (Chinese) student of mine once tried to show off his knowledge of the Dutch. "They're so mean," he told us, "that when you buy tea in a restaurant, they won't refill your cup with hot water unless you pay for another cup." (Err... this is true, actually.)
"And if you need to use the toilet, and go into a nearby bar or cafe and ask politely to use the toilet, the owner will say yes. In return for half a Euro." (Err... also true.)
"And if you don't understand what someone is saying in English, you can say they're talking two times Dutch." (Here I put my teacher's hat on, corrected the mistake, and burbled something about people being the same everywhere, cultural differences, etc.)
Ah yes, the Dutch won't provide tea-making things in your hotel room either, (unless you pay extra for 'business class'.)
Posted on: Chinese Idol
September 4, 2009 at 9:24 AM老实说我不喜欢这种比赛，但是我不能抗拒讲讲的 Britain's Got Talent.
不久以前，在英国而且在世界上的热门话题就是Susan Boyle, 一位中年苏格兰女人。可惜这位女人不漂亮，非常丰满，也许最坏的事就是她好像没有气质。她在Britain's Got Talent出现的时候，评委，听众都没有礼貌的笑了。怎么这么又普通又没素质的人敢做歌手？真不可思议！
然后呢，她唱得像天使，一首比较漂亮的来自流行歌剧Les Miserables的流行歌曲
然后突然大家都很快就改变主意了，评委表扬她，看她好了。总之，很有意思，表示人性。
最后我觉得Susan Boyle不是冠军，而且我听说她变成了一点神经病，可是老实说我不太清楚。
Posted on: Formal Introduction
September 4, 2009 at 4:13 AMIt's true, but actually it all depends on the context, (as so many things in Chinese do.)
小姐 can have a 'negative connotation', but in fact you'll hear the term used widely in formal situations in China, for example by service personnel to address female customers.
As with many English words and phrases, the tone of voice, the context, the way language is used, all these things can affect the meaning understood by others.
Posted on: Grammar Lesson
September 4, 2009 at 3:33 AMbaba, I know about CTRL+ to enlarge web pages of course, but in this case I still think that if the 汉字 could just be made a little bigger and clearer in the first place it would be nice. Using CTRL+ now and then to read some tiny text on a webpage is bearable, but when it's something that you use a lot every day it's just annoying and inconvenient to have to constantly increase and decrease the size of the browser window.
Posted on: Grammar Lesson
September 4, 2009 at 12:52 AMBut now I don't know how you'd say "We're going to like it."
Good point, joe. You've put your finger on a point which often confuses me: when does 要 mean 'going to' or 'should', (or even just 'want' - lol).
I think "We're going to like it" would be 我们肯定喜欢它 (Wǒmen kěndìng xǐhuan tā), but I'm not entirely sure why!
Hmm... I think I agree that it would be nice to have the 汉字 a bit bigger in the exercises.
Posted on: Chinese for Trekkies
September 7, 2009 at 2:25 AM@orangina - shouldn't that be 七的九？ ;)
And you didn't find T'Pol (the female Vulcan first officer from Enterprise) interesting? 怎么会呢？:)
Perhaps I just prefer Trekker because Trekkie has that 'ie' 'diminutive' ending which may carry the suggestion of a condescending tone in English, 是不是？
Captains? Hmm... Kirk was the original, and for all his faults he was pretty great, and there's no getting away from that. Picard was simply great, and there's no getting away from that. Sisko was also a wonderful character and a great captain. Deep Space Nine had some fantastic stuff going on. Far Beyond the Stars will always be my favorite Star Trek episode of all time!