User Comments - agentchuck

Posted on: Two Tough Ladies

I laughed when Jenny said, "Grow a pair..."

Is there an expression like that in Chinese, too?  English has a lot of expressions like, "Grow a pair" "Man up" etc.

Posted on: Amusement Park

Zhenliang and Changye,

That Japanese roller coaster... Is that in the famous Asakusa Hanayashiki amusement park?  I hear that it's pretty scary not because it is so large, but because it's a little shaky and right next to a lot of buildings.

I didn't go to that one, but I did enjoy the 特大的摩天伦 in Odaiba.

Posted on: The Magic Word 把

I just listened to this lesson, too.  I'm really happy to get this information about when it is appropriate to use this construction.  I always thought that "ba3" was just used as a different way to write a sentence.  I didn't realize the importance of "changing a state" or otherwise affecting the direct object of the sentence.

I was trying to practice using "ba3" before I had listened to this QW.  So, I told my girlfriend, "把我(qing1)了“.  She kept laughing at me.  (As an aside, I don't know the right character for qing1/kiss here).  Anyway, I was puzzled about why it was so funny, but now it makes sense.

Posted on: Amusement Park

Just my off topic two cents...  I like how disgruntled John sounded due to the lack of "to ride" in Chinese.  Keep up the good work, John!  You'll wear them down eventually.

Actually, I share this feeling too.  I hear my g/f use "wan2/war2" (to play) for so many things.  It seems to be either "da3" or "wan2".  So, you can either hit or play.  But you can't ride.

One question that I have is about the "w" sound in Chinese.  The Chinese people I know are Beijing'ers and they tend to say the "w" sound like a "v".  Is that common?

Posted on: What Would You Say You Do Here?

I second jckeith on that.  When I saw the lesson title I just burst out laughing.  :^)  I wonder how the following conversation would go in Chinese...

"It says here you've been missing a lot of work..."
"Well... I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob."

For those that haven't seen the movie, here's the famous line:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKa68kWkP48&feature=related

Posted on: 《杜拉拉升职记》

Ok, so I can't understand any of this... which is fine.  But I'm just wondering about the picture for this lesson.  Either that shoe is on backwards, or her knee is bending backwards, or I'm seeing things...

Posted on: Sorry and Thank You

The most important part of this Qing Wen is that Chinese culture doesn't say "Thank You" very often.  My g/f and I had an adjustment period because I say it all the time and she felt that it was rude for me to say it to her.  It made her feel that our relationship was impersonal.  But when she didn't say it at all, I felt she didn't appreciate me.  Now I say it less and she says it more.

It's this kind of differentiation that I feel is important in Qing Wen.  We've all had cases where we want to say something and we look up how to translate it word-for-word from our native language.  But quite often there are a lot of ways to say the same word that all have different meanings.  There are a lot of ways to say something in any language, but most of them sound weird.  I'd like to see a variety of ways of saying the same thing.  Like the difference between 对不起 and 不好意思, etc。 What's business-like?  What's slangy?  What's normal?

Regarding Amber & Clay...  I did like Amber's personality in the show.  She was a strong leader,  and I miss her as well.  But she wasn't ChinesePod.  There are so many people that work very hard to make all the ChinesePod programs that it's borderline offensive to say that without her everything is falling apart.  And I, for one, am very happy to not have to listen to Amber & Clay's flirting anymore.  Honestly, it made me very uncomfortable.  Separately, they were both great.

I do agree that the latest incarnation of Qing Wen is still finding it's feet.  But, everything changes.  You can't expect that anyone on ChinesePod (even Ken and Jenny) will be there forever.  Let's give Pete, Jenny and Connie the support to keep improving Qing Wen for the future.

Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲

Thanks a lot Pete.  These lessons are interesting and you've made both the language and the context very accessible.

My girlfriend tells me that the last two lines in this poem are very famous ones.  I can imagine that they are used a lot when people make speeches at going-away events, right?

Posted on: What size?

Heh.  He got mei3you3'd.

Posted on: Caught in the Act

So, was the original intent of this dialog to have caught the two miscreants in a somewhat more compromising situation?

I did find the boss's phrase 对不起 interesting because of how she used the tone of her voice.  Because Chinese is already a tonal language, I don't know how to add inflections to words.  It's complicated to still make the right tones, but to add an additional inflection to what you're saying.  Can you do it in a similar way to English for incredulity, sarcasm, questioning, etc.?