User Comments - babyeggplant

Posted on: Addressing Women

This is basically what I did for the year I lived there. It was a very old apartment and everyone except me shared the kitchen on the first floor, so I would see my neighbors almost every day. The other neighbors were much older, so everyone was 叔叔 and 阿姨。With the younger woman, I greeted her with 嗨，你好 or 嗯，你好 and felt more like a foreigner every day I said it.

Posted on: Addressing Women

You're right about that! I have gotten quite a few 阿姨's from other kids. Thankfully no 奶奶's yet.

Posted on: Addressing Women

I've been wondering about 大姐. I haven't heard it much in Shanghai. Is it always used to address people who are older than you? I was once walking down the street and an odd looking woman (probably in her 40's) swiftly walked up to me, grabbed my arm and addressed me as 大姐. She then started rambling on about something and how she was American too, in Chinese of course. I was quite startled and tried to make a quick get away, after which she hit me in the side! I ran over to some nearby luxury apartments and the security guards let me escape inside, after informing me that yes, that woman's mind is not quite right.

Posted on: Addressing Women

I'm a 26 year old 很土很俗气的姑娘. My previous neighbor had a 5 year old daughter and I guess the neighbor was mid to late 30's. She had her daughter call me 姐姐, and I think I slipped out an 阿姨 towards the woman a time or two. After that, I felt a bit weird calling her 阿姨，so I stopped calling her anything. What should I be calling people who are 10-15 years older than me? I know kids will often call people in this age range 姐姐，but I guess I haven't heard adults using this. Also, What should I call strangers who are around my age or a bit younger?

Posted on: Chinese Rock Music

Who knew that there were so many musically inclined people at ChinesePod? I'm a bit bummed that I'll likely never get to see JC's hair and outfits again. Michael really put out some great content, too. A bit late, but good luck to both of you!

Posted on: Hair Salon Card

我也觉得这些小理发店有点不靠普。我男朋友家楼下有个理发店。这两三年，那个店的老板已经换过3次了。他们每次都会在门上贴一张纸， 写什么本店在装修中之类的。After this, you know you'll never see them again.

At another place, I pay 19 yuan for each cut with my card. This is for wash, cut, blow dry, and style. It's such a good deal that I feel a bit of guilt after paying.

Posted on: Issues with Flavor

If you're going purely by number of hits on the google searches, make sure you type the phrase in quotes so it isn't giving you a bunch of random results. Good luck!

Posted on: Issues with Flavor

Just saw your comment now. Just a tip that in the future, if you reply to a specific person's post (the reply button is at the end of their message) it makes it easier for us to see your comment. Right now you're replying to yourself, so it doesn't come up on my dashboard comments.

As for the search, I think I ended up searching 味道太浓了 and 蛋糕. 味道太浓了 alone was giving me stuff related to 商业, so I put in a food word there. I was basically looking for natural language using 浓。Sometimes if you're wondering if you could say things a certain way, you can try googling the phrase. If you get a lot of results (Like millions), then you know it's probably ok. This is also helpful if you want more examples on how to use a phrase correctly or if you're trying to figure out subtle difference between similar vocab.

I think it's common to want to translate something directly from English into Chinese. I guess I took the backwards approach and simply tried to learn as much Chinese language as possible, without thinking too much about "how can I say this" in Chinese. What really helps me is just being around native speakers and passively soaking in everything they say. I try to mimic them as best I can and even to some extent, when I speak Chinese it's almost like I'm a different person. I end up saying things in Chinese that I wouldn't really express in English, just because that's how I hear Chinese people talking.

Anyways, be patient and everything will come in time!

Posted on: Issues with Flavor

Yeah, I know what you mean. Like I said, I have only heard people say desserts are 太甜了 or 太油了。But that doesn't mean they won't use 浓。If you do a google search, you can see what ways 浓 is used. Usually it's (some type of flavor)味太浓了。 For example: 鸡蛋味太浓了，巧克力味太浓了。

Here's a convo I just had with my "go to" Chinese guy

香奈尔 18:40:20

If you had cheesecake and you thought the flavor was a bit too strong, like very sweet and very fatty, how would you say that?

晶晶 18:42:06

太甜了

香奈尔 18:42:17

不会说味太浓了吗？

香奈尔 18:43:17

Like we use a word, "rich" that we would use to describe cheesecake and that chocolate cake we had at beibei's. Just means very sweet and fatty kind of.

晶晶 18:43:31

if it's some other food too hot or too salty you can say 太浓了 or 味道太重了

晶晶 18:43:54

but I don't think we would say too sweet as 太浓了

Posted on: Issues with Flavor

太甜了 － too sweet

太咸了 -- too salty

味道太重了 - flavor is too strong

太淡了 - flavor is too bland

I haven't really heard Chinese people say something is too rich. They usually either say too sweet or too oily (太油了）