User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: I'm gonna be Late

Hi sclim

Hey mate .. I'm sure that you have picked up from previous discussions that I am not an American; your discussion above makes some assumptions that are no doubt perfectly obvious to an American but not at all obvious to me. You've got to make allowances, and please don't assume that English speakers all over the world speak like Americans, we don't.

While heavily influenced by American media, I don't hear Australians saying 'gonna', except as a joke when adopting, and possibly exaggerating, an American intonation. How we say it is a little difficult to describe in writing here but it sounds more like 'ganna' and is sometimes written informally as 'gunna'. Not 'gonna'. So - gonna is not an expression that is generally accepted and passed into the lexicon of 'native English speakers'. Sorry to be the purveyor of bad news. :)

Posted on: I'm gonna be Late

'I think Dilu has a favourite English word.' 

'Pissed' means drunk, as in 'He's really pissed' (He has drunk too much and is making a fool of himself), and I think most people would agree that it is slang, not really impolite. It would be inappropriate in formal situations. 

On the other hand 'I'm gonna be late' is just wrong, isn't it? - I'm sure that 'gonna' should read 'ganna'. 

'gonna' means dead, as in 'She's a gonna'. 

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

'you're never going to say things how you're shown in the lesson.'

Interesting comment itsanthonyhere, can you give us a couple of examples of what you mean?

Or are you just speaking generally, that when you travelled in China you found that people did not use the language you had learned? Or people did not understand you when you spoke to them? (There are a number of possible interpretations of what you have said.)

I guess the most likely is that you came across language that is not in your text book. That's because the people you met did not learn Chinese from your text book. :) (Little joke.) Seriously, the language is so rich that there are always a number of ways of expressing yourself - it takes a long time to accumulate a number of different ways of expressing yourself in any given situation.

ChinesePod does a very good job of presenting language that is commonly used, but of course you will always hear something else 'on the street'. That doesn't mean that you cannot be understood.

Posted on: Cold Noodles

In my experience 蕃茄 is (easily) the most common spoken expression for tomato - perhaps because it is shorter than 西红柿.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

'flaming b52'

I liked flaming b52 best. :) Well you were sorta close but the answer is afogatto, whoops I think that is 'affogatto' (drowned in Italian). Foreign, and well known. And a really cute name, I think, so much cooler than those lame transliterations that go with this territory of foreign drinks. 一球冰淇淋 bobs around in the hot coffee like a tropical island in the Pacific.

The Chinese for various mixed drinks is an area worth my study now I am briefly on holidays. :) 螺丝刀 luósīdāo (screwdriver), 金汤力 jīntānglí (gin & tonic) and my current favourite 赛犬 sàiquǎn (greyhound).

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

Ha ha, nice word picture Baba - I can see you there in the heat in an Australian summer vainly trying to eat your ice-cream before it melts! Then you should like this word for really exciting all the senses - a certain drink at my local cafe is called 热带岛屿 - rèdàidǎoyǔ, my all time favourite and pertinent to this lesson. I know you like guessing games so I should let you guess the English name for the drink. It is not at all literal - you need to think laterally.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

麻烦你因为在这里是一节小学课应该把你的帖子写英语还是写中文拼音还有英语翻译。

mafan ni yinwei zai zheli1 shi yi jie xiaoxueke yingai ba ni de tiezi xie yingyu haishi xie zhongwen pinyin haiyou yingyu fanyi.

(Because this is an elementary lesson could you please write your message in English or better still in characters, pinyin and with an English translation.)

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

As ice-cream moves from luxury item to commodity the price falls.*

It has become a commodity for a variety of reasons, not least because of competition. When it first arrived on the scene the company could exploit the ignorance of the Chinese people on the subject of foreign ice cream; people bought it because of the brand name. Maybe they still do to some extent. But nowadays people are more aware that ice-cream is just fat and sugar and that there are lots of other ways to satisfy our urgings for these foods apart from Haagen Daaz.

* When you say 'the price is pretty much unchanged' I assume that you are not adjusting for inflation. The price seems to be unchanged but of course it falls in real terms, with inflation.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

I'm questioning that assertion ... :)

I enjoy a good transliteration but this one is in the 'why bother' category.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

Question whether these are transliterations of 'ice-cream' (strictly 'cream' since 'ice' is already represented by 冰 bīng), unless the name police had far too much baijiu at lunch. So how did we get these words for 'ice-cream'? Is the meaning behind each character a clue? 

冰激凌: bīngjīlíng 冰 (ice) 激 (arouse, excite, shock) 凌 (thick ice; to rise high)

或者 (or)

冰淇淋: bīngqílín 冰 (ice) 淇 (river) 淋 (to drip)

This variation in expressions for English words happens a lot I think, particularly with food, even within the same city.