User Comments - amber
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Posted on: Giving up a Seat
July 20, 2007 at 8:02 AMHi Andy, 月台 (yuètái) and 站台 (zhàntái) are the same. 站台 (zhàntái) is generally most often used in spoken Chinese.
Posted on: Stopping the Taxi
July 20, 2007 at 7:59 AMhi davelandis, Actually, they are both pronounced with an "sh" initial, but the character is different: 师父 (shīfu) tutor, master, teacher 师傅 (shīfu) term of address for driver, worker, etc. If you hear someone saying (sīfu) it is not correct, and may be due to a regional accent.
Posted on: Negating Verbs: When to Use 没有 (méiyǒu), When to Use 不 (bù)
July 20, 2007 at 6:38 AMHi Art! Yes, I think everyone guessed Movie Madness #7, it's a well-loved classic. Yes, you can be happy cause you have saved your win for when there's a prize you really want! And we're so very glad that you like Qing Wen. There will be a lot more to come :).
Posted on: #8
July 19, 2007 at 11:54 PMhi artkho, Yes...especially for you we have a new prize option for next week's Movie Madness, as the alternative choice to the free Practice Plan session. But we girls won't be singing any songs, I have to make that disclaimer, hehe!
Posted on: #8
July 18, 2007 at 9:56 AMEileen, Eileen, The Dave's Love™ is not for Lantian, (though it would have been nice as a consolation prize for losing the most frequent poster contest with John). It is, in fact, for TaiPan, the winner of last week's Movie Madness, who himself has already lain bare his manlove for Dave in verse (see Movie Madness #7's comments section)!
Posted on: #8
July 18, 2007 at 8:14 AMhi danjo and artkho, yes! the thing about the word for high maintenance in Chinese is that since it is slang, deriving from Shanghainese, there's not really a proper character for it. But when written, 作 (here pronounced with a first tone: zuō) is used.
Posted on: 了 (le): Something's About to Happen
July 18, 2007 at 7:00 AMhi wildyaks, We're so happy you liked it! There are a couple ways you could say that you're going to go and listen to it again straight away: 我要赶快再去听一遍。 (Wǒ yào gǎnkuài zài qù tīng yī biàn.) This one doesn't use the pattern from our lesson, but it is probably the most common way you would express your desire to listen again. 我马上就要去听第二遍了。 (Wǒ mǎshàng jiù yào qù tīng dì-èr biàn le.) This is how you could say the sentence using this le pattern!
Posted on: #8
July 18, 2007 at 6:01 AMMovie madness is out!! a la girls, this week!
Posted on: Giving up a Seat
July 18, 2007 at 4:59 AMHi user2628, The respectful form of address for an older man would be: 爷爷 (yéye) which also is the word for paternal grandfather.
Posted on: Giving up a Seat
July 20, 2007 at 8:10 AMmariama, As far as terms of address, a general rule of thumb you could follow is: 奶奶 (nǎinai) if she is around the same age as your own grandmother 阿姨 (āyí) if someone is the same age as your mother, aunt 姐姐 (jiějie) if they are around the age of an older sister to you 妹妹 (mèimei) if they are younger than you Someone the same age as you can call 小姐 (xiǎojie), it's not impolite.