User Comments - Tal
Tal
Posted on: Language Exchange
July 16, 2009 at 9:33 AMYou thought a spouse would be 'an ideal language exchange partner'? I'd be interested to see the research you based your initial judgement on.
My Chongqing wife is just the same though, and when she speaks Chinese she'll pronounce an 'L' sound like an 'N' and vice versa.
Posted on: Are You Free?
July 16, 2009 at 5:45 AMOh sorry, I thought that was your name, my mistake. You're welcome by the way.
Posted on: April Fool's
July 16, 2009 at 4:48 AMHere the 快 serves to emphasize just how thirsty the speaker is, it's quite common to use 快 as a kind of 'intensifier' in Chinese.
Posted on: Are You Free?
July 16, 2009 at 4:45 AMHello again Bob, this question relates perhaps to the issue of can we translate Chinese into English literally, and the answer really is: no, we can't.
A Chinese learner has to accept that many ideas and concepts are expressed in a different way to that of their native language.
This is a good example. If we were to try and translate this sentence literally it might be something like: I have something to find him for/I have some reason to find him. But that would not express the true meaning, which is best expressed by the translation offered.
Posted on: Ordering Songs at Karaoke
July 16, 2009 at 3:03 AMI'm always with vinyl-lovers in spirit, but Dan, you never made the big leap to CD? ;-)
Posted on: Going to the Doctor
July 16, 2009 at 12:07 AMIn my opinion the proper way to say 看看 is kànkan, that is 4th tone for the first 看 and neutral/unstressed tone for the second.
The parts where a first tone is shown must surely be in error. Hope that helps!
Posted on: Language Exchange
July 15, 2009 at 6:35 AMFor a quick rule of thumb, you can safely say that "nǐ kěyǐ gēn wǒ [do] something" is a reliable pattern which can be adapted to different contexts and with different pronouns and subjects.
Actually I believe it's more correct to say: nǐ kěyǐ gēn wǒ zài yīqǐ [do] something.
I'm not certain regarding placing the gēn before the kěyǐ though, (I rather think not).
Posted on: Language Exchange
July 14, 2009 at 3:23 AMIf you want to learn English take a look here!
People come to Chinesepod to study Chinese, and most people here probably won't be open to 'Language Exchange', (that's funny in a thread like this really, 对吧？) 
Posted on: Lessons and Comment Policy
July 14, 2009 at 2:28 AMRe. the discussion on the 'Baby Photo' thread alluded to above, it should be very clear to anyone that the person to whom a CPod 'employee' gave a well-deserved put-down, is a mischief maker who obviously gets his kicks through dishonesty and manipulation. Time and time again said person has returned to these boards in different 'guises' solely for the purpose of inciting trouble and disharmony. (I am not aware of a single post this person has made that contributes one iota to the CPod learning experience or indeed to the true nature of the community.) In my opinion the mocking words offered to him by the CPod 'employee' were entirely appropriate.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 13: Wang Meets the Big Boss
July 17, 2009 at 1:55 AM"这个公司要支持我其它的公司。所以，赚钱、亏钱不是最重要的。"
Great sentence, are we learning the CPod ethos here?
Does Uncle Ken go to meet a bigger boss than him from time to time?