User Comments - byronmeinerth
byronmeinerth
Posted on: All About 所有 (suǒyǒu) and 都 (dōu)
January 1, 2012 at 8:43 AMAt 2:15, it sounds like Connie says the following: 而且放在那个否定词不得前面还要. Is she just clarifying that 不, for example, cannot go before 都, in these situations?
Posted on: All About 所有 (suǒyǒu) and 都 (dōu)
January 1, 2012 at 8:31 AMAs someone of relatively ambiguous ethnicity, I'd like to ask if Amber really is part Mongolian. Just wondering.
Posted on: Scheduling a Time
December 30, 2011 at 4:57 AMThis is a comment about something Jenny accurately said in English, but I think it's important for native speakers to think about their own language too when studying another one. I can't remember the exact quote, but it was something like, "if a boss wants to talk with his or her employee."
Nowadays, at least with other Americans, I always hear the equivalent: "if a boss wants to talk with their employee." In other languages, like Spanish, French, or Chinese, mixing up the noun and its respective pronoun would be unforgivable, but this seems to happen in English a lot now.
Perhaps some users older than I (I'm 24 years old) remember a time when this wasn't so. I've read that part of this started from the impact of feminism on language, which is not something that I think is necessarily negative. Before, people would only say "his", which is not as stilted as "his or her", but not all encompassing.
I personally only say "her" when the subject is singular, in order to be both grammatically correct and politically correct.
Posted on: Expressing Location with 边 and 面
December 30, 2011 at 4:02 AMThe use of 路边摊 in the lesson was perfect. Learning related words at the same time can be extremely helpful and really cuts down on the learning time needed for picking up relatively simple concepts.
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 28, 2011 at 5:27 PMThere are lots of things that don't exist in China, like alpacas, coati, and bagged pickles (or gherkins), but we can still say them in Chinese. I'm sure there has to be a name for Boxing Day that expat Chinese use, definitely in Cantonese, and presumably in Mandarin.
The word that I've found is 节礼日, and judging by the search results, it seems reliable.
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
December 28, 2011 at 5:08 PMI've wondered the same.
Posted on: What to Expect
December 28, 2011 at 7:20 AMI'm now two years into having spent time in China and would have found this extremely helpful when I first arrived. Unfortunately, I didn't really know that much about ChinesePod back then.
Posted on: What to Expect
December 28, 2011 at 7:08 AM". . .chances are Mandarin is going to get you the farthest." I like that John said the correct form "farthest" here, rather than "furthest". Impressive Mandarin as well as English.
Posted on: Getting an Official Receipt
December 23, 2011 at 4:25 PM也可以说开一张支票，对吗？
We can also use 开 when talking about writing checks, right?
Posted on: Christmas in Chinese
January 1, 2012 at 8:53 AMI like these lessons for the fact that they not only point out interesting differences between certain places, like China and the U.S., but also between other countries that also celebrate Christmas, like the U.K., Canada, Australia, et cetera. Still, those are all English-speaking and share certain similarities that would be different than traditions in, say, Latin America. or Eastern Europe.