User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Shopping in China

'not a monty python fan?'

Well, I am, but there must be degrees of fandom, missed that one, but thanks to the Internet got your reference. ..'When bicycles are threatened by International Communism... who do you turn to?' Right?

So, you link 支付宝 (Alipay) to your bank account (I didn't know you could also charge your account at the Post Office) and then Taobao uses Alipay. But you can't just put in your bank account number, you have to be set up for Internet banking by your bank. And I did have help, I'm not sure, I don't think I would have got there without help. I did get my logins myself OK at the bank, but actually registering on line was trickier than I expected; had to find and download special software, then follow the process for one of three different levels of security.

Posted on: 康熙来了

No, interesting. I wonder if she had the permission of her mother. :)

Posted on: Shopping in China

Hi bicycle-repairman (really?)

You need to set up your Internet banking at a Chinese bank first. Have you done that? Once that is done, go to the 支付宝 page to open an account linked to your bank account - have you tried already?

Posted on: Shopping in China

Interesting xiaophil, but don't feel guilty. To give this some perspective, I went to a bookshop* recently in Australia with a list of about 10 books and they had only one in stock. But the guy carefully wrote out all the ISBN numbers of the ones he didn't have for me; he said: 'so you can get them on Amazon'. It's a new service offered by bookshops struggling to compete.

Your wife should ask the bookshop 服务员 for help. :)

I should explain that due to some [blah blah] territory distribution laws, he could not actually supply these books even if I wanted to wait a few weeks for them to come in. I didn't really follow this - why don't they source them on Amazon themselves and put them on the shelves? Maybe they are prevented from doing this.

* This particular bookshop is one of a chain owned by Borders, or was until Borders went into administration. While Borders have closed all their Borders stores today, this other chain remains open and they are still looking for buyers.

Posted on: Introducing Kids to Each Other

Nice find zhenlijiang - your skills are approaching that of the master (Baba). You might have the edge on the ChinesePod site (里面的), he might have the edge in the Internet universe outside ChinesePod (外面的). I think, said with the right tone of voice, yours is the preferred expression.

Posted on: Introducing Kids to Each Other

已经明白了！

其实，我还不明白！ :)

Thanks for the reference to the other lesson - I'll take a peek.

But as for the 了 。。 我知道了 and 我知道 are both okay, 都可以说。 I think that in this context the change of state marker is not required. Not obligatory let's say. I think of it as substituting for 'okay', agreement. Interestingly, here people use 可以 in much the same way I think.

And on a tangent, John (particularly John) and Jason both say Ok, goddit? That's definitely what I hear. :)

Posted on: The Stepmother Role

这个故事是现代的代表在中国生活。

Posted on: Shopping in China

Borders is dead. A few American chains have tried Australia. Starbucks is on its knees - they were surprised to find that Australians follow their European traditions and drink something quite different to the Starbucks product. Krispy Kreme died, poisoned by too much sugar. But Borders is a different case altogether; it closed all shops today because Australians finally realised that they can get the same thing online for half the price. 

Chinese bookshops seem healthy, always busy, even though there is an active online market (eg. 当当网). Maybe it is because people go there to read for free; it's even cheaper than on-line. And maybe a profit is not critical in some industries in China. 

Posted on: Handsome Foreign Student

Both 澳大利亚 and 澳洲 are used even on the mainland but 澳大利亚 is more common in everyday speech. And I'm told 澳洲 is more common in non-mainland places where Chinese is spoken. My personal experience in Australia is that 澳大利亚 is more common. (Maybe your friends are from a particular place that uses the other term? Some older 广东人 may use 澳洲.) Both terms are I would think understood by most Chinese; both are used in the media in China and Australia. Try the taxi driver test in both China and Australia - I think you will find people understand both terms, unless they never watch the news or read a newspaper.

Some people may try to tell you that 澳大利亚 is the country and 澳洲 is the continent. :)

Posted on: Introducing Kids to Each Other

Actually cinnamonfern, I was just replaying Jason's comment in the lesson: he said that it is 'something like "Ok, got it"'. Which means "I understand now", granted. But the dialogue is 知道, not 知道了, so it doesn't have the change of state marker you refer to. I reckon I would be happy with it translated simply as 'okay', from my experience, but it does have that sense of 'ok, got it'. If you went from not knowing to knowing I would probably have the little boy saying 明白了。I think of 明白了 like a light bulb flashing on.