User Comments - apocgenesis
apocgenesis
Posted on: Politely Declining an Invitation
August 24, 2010, 03:59 AMFrom the sounds of it, it sounds like a term of respect rather than a"You're old now" kind of term. I bet that theres some kind of prestigious event that goes along with it, like your kids coming of age or getting a high position at a job or something like that.
Posted on: Politely Declining an Invitation
August 24, 2010, 03:57 AMVery interesting lesson. About Jenny's point that regardless of how 小周 feels about being invited or his actual plans he would have said the same thing; how do you tell the difference between genuinity and courtesy politeness in Chinese culture? Or is the whole point to not be able to tell them apart?
That may be a broad question, but I'm wondering if theres a cue to pick up on.
Posted on: Separable Verbs
August 14, 2010, 09:48 PMI can kind of see the verb-object agreement in the weird words. Then again, I also have a Chinese-English dictionary on my phone so it helps =P
For example (Havn't figured out how to type Chinese characters just yet)
To sleep-- Shui jiao means to sleep a sleep
But....
Jiao jie-- to intersect/join/come together ones eyelashes (i.e. close ones eyes)
I think jiao, in the sense of joining or coming together, wether its joining together eyelashes (or perhaps people =P) is the originial meaning that eventually corrupted into "shui jiao" as sleep
A testament to the poetry of Chinese =)
Posted on: Welcome to ChinesePod
August 12, 2010, 02:03 AMThanks for the warm welcome and good wishes Suxiaoya! Any leg up in my studies will be quite welcome hahaha!
Posted on: Welcome to ChinesePod
August 11, 2010, 04:08 PMYou have no idea how happy I am to find ChinesePod! I've been trying to learn Chinese for a year now, and from the few lessons I've heard so far I'm hooked
I'm studying abroad in Shanghai for 4+ months in September, so I can't wait. XieXie!!
Posted on: Politely Declining an Invitation
August 24, 2010, 09:59 PMSo it sounds really knowing the relationship between people is the best way to know about sincerity, that's important to know! Thank you Jenny!!
And I think you are right, I know that at least in my age group sincerity is often put aside for politeness and do avoid causing drama, even though afterwards all sides complain about how awkward it is to do so. Some things never change I guess hahaha!
And I'm checking out that lesson now Rods, thanks for the heads up!