User Comments - amber

Posted on: Language Power Struggle

hi iphonetrial,

哎哟  (Āiyō) is kind of equivalent to the English 'yikes'... sort of an exclamatory word.

Posted on: Describing Travels

hi putneyswope,

Yes, 古迹 (gǔjì) is pronounced (gǔjī) by some speakers of Mandarin.

Posted on: Beijing Olympics: Opening Ceremony

hi marcdevincentis,

The difference in the formats for the two 才 (cái) is just a font difference.  In some font styles, some characters will appear slightly different.

Posted on: On Location at the Beijing 2008 Olympics

haha bazza,

It's just my 'luan' Chinese.  I was in the back of a speeding taxi... forgive me hehe.

Posted on: Badminton

hi markc,

In Chinese, it's kind of one and the same action, the use the same word to mean both receive and return a shot.

Posted on: On Location at the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Here is the conversation with the Beijing cab driver, transcribed for everybody:

司机：你好，你好
Sījī：Nǐhǎo, nǐhǎo

Amber: 你是北京的一个出租车司机，对吗？
Nǐ shì Běijīng de yī ge chūzūchē sījī, duì ma？

司机：对，对，我是北京出租车司机。我是北京出租车司机。
Duì, duì, wǒ shì Běijīng chūzūchē sījī. Wǒ shì Běijīng chūzūchē sījī.

Amber: 那太好了！那听你的口音，哇，好可怕，我是上海人。那，司机啊，你有没有在这个北京奥运会有没有给很多外国人开车？(amber says ma by accident hehe oops)
Nà tài hǎole！nà tīng nǐ de kǒuyin，wa，hǎo kěpà，wǒ shì Shànghǎi rén. Nà，sījī a，nǐ yǒu méiyǒu zài zhège Běijīng Àoyùnhuì yǒu méiyǒu gěi hěn duō wàiguórén kāichē?

司机：我送了几位外国朋友，呃.
Wǒ sòng le jǐ wèi wàiguó péngyou, è.

Amber: 那你对外国人有什么感觉？你要说真话。
Nà nǐ duìwài guórén yǒu shénme gǎnjué?  Nǐ yào shuō zhēnhuà.

司机：挺好的，没有别的。
Tǐnghǎo de, méiyǒu bié de.

Amber: 那你能… (哦! 差一点儿撞倒人!)…那你能不能沟通啊？有沟通的问题吗？
Nà nǐ néng … (o! chāyīdiǎnr zhuàngdǎo rén!)… nà nǐ néng bù néng gōutōng a？yǒu gōutōng de wèntí ma？

司机：我的…外语不太好。
Wǒ de … wàiyǔ bùtài hǎo.

Amber: 所以一个外国人进来他不会说中文，你们怎么沟通？
Suǒyǐ yī ge wàiguórén jìnlai tā bù huì shuōzhòng wén, nǐmen zěnme gōutōng？

司机：因为外宾一般坐车都拿一个纸条，上面写着中国的地址。知道么，一般我都看那个地址。
Yīnwèi wàibīn yībān zuòchē dōu ná yī ge zhǐtiáo，shàngmian xiě zhe Zhōngguó de dìzhǐ. Zhīdao me, yībān wǒ dōu kàn nàge dìzhǐ.

Amber: 所以你会建议那个外国人要把地址写下来？
Suǒyǐ nǐ huì jiànyì nàge wàiguórén yào bǎ dìzhǐ xiě xiàlái？

司机：写出在什么地方儿，我们一看就明白了。知道么？这样就能直接把他送那地方儿了。
Xiěchū zài shénme dìfangr，wǒmen yī kàn jiù míngbai le. Zhīdao me？zhèyàng jiù néng zhíjiē bǎ tā sòng nà dìfangr le.

Amber: 那你觉得这个奥运会在北京开很麻烦吗？
Nà nǐ juéde zhège Àoyùnhuì zài Běijīng kāi hěn máfan ma？

司机：不不不，挺好的 、挺好的。在北京开挺好的，我们感到挺光荣的。我一般看篮球，羽毛球儿、乒乓球儿
Bù bù bù, tǐnghǎo de, tǐnghǎo de. Zài Běijīng kāi tǐnghǎo de, wǒmen gǎndào tǐng guāngróng de. Wǒ yībān kàn lánqiú，yǔmáoqiúr, Pīngpāngqiúr

Amber: 那你看姚明，你觉得他表现得怎么样？
Nà nǐ kàn Yáo Míng，nǐ juéde tā biǎoxiàn de zěnmeyàng？

司机：我挺喜欢他的，我觉得他表现得不错。
Wǒ tǐng xǐhuan tā de，wǒ juéde tā biǎoxiàn de bùcuò.

Amber: 觉得他打得不错，那他们会拿那个金牌吗？
Juéde tā dǎ de bùcuò, nà tāmen huì ná nàge jīnpái ma？

司机：金牌…金牌金牌恐怕拿不了。只要咱正常发挥，在球场上努力了，咱就大家伙儿就这个，不是说咱就非得拿金牌知道么。
Jīnpái … jīnpái jīnpái kǒngpà nábuliǎo. Zhǐyào zán zhèngcháng fāhuī, zài qiúchǎng shang nǔlì le, zán jiù dàjiāhuǒr jiù zhège, bù shì shuō zán jiù fēiděi ná jīnpái zhīdao me.

Amber: 对，金牌不是最重要的。
Duì, jīnpái bù shì zuì zhòngyào de.

司机：对，咱主要是看他们在场上打得…精彩程度知道么.
Duì, zán zhǔyào shì kàn tāmen zàichǎng shang dǎ de … jīngcǎi chéngdu zhīdao me.

Amber: 那好，我很开心，那我们以后可以做朋友，司机。
Nà hǎo, wǒ hěn kāixīn, nà wǒmen yǐhòu kěyǐ zuò péngyou, sījī.

司机：好，那谢谢谢谢！
Hǎo, nà xièxie xièxie！

Posted on: Caught in the Act

hi mikenotinjubei,

Yes,

這個句子對不對?
Zhège jùzi duì bù duì?

is also correct!

Posted on: Caught in the Act

hi mikenotinjubei,

你可以改正这个错误吗？
Nǐ kěyǐ gǎizhèng zhège cuòwù ma？
Can you correct this mistake?

Sorry... the other part... you kinda lost me in the correct/uncorrect discussion!  not sure what you meant.

Posted on: Caught in the Act

hi qingdao,

Yes, you can use 尴尬 (gāngà) for people:
他很尴尬。
Tā hěn gāngà.
He feels very awkward.

and situations:

大家都不说话，很尴尬。
Dàjiā dōu bù shuōhuà, hěn gāngà. 
No one is speaking, it's very awkward.

他不知道该怎么做，很尴尬。
Tā bùzhīdào gāi zěnme zuò, hěn gāngà.
He doesn't know what he should do, he feels very awkward.

It's not really used to describe places in Chinese.

Posted on: Please speak slowly

hi jim,

说得慢一点
Shuō de màn yīdiǎn

is a verb/adj.+得+complement structure in Chinese.  What comes after the 得 (de) expresses an evaluation, judgment or description related to the verb or adj. that is being complemented.