User Comments - byronmeinerth

Posted on: License Plate Characters

有其它国际更有意思. 中国有很多会说中文的韩国人. 写的不对就给我批改.

Posted on: Asking Height and Weight

I should have caught that when I was writing them in simplified characters. Yes, 英镑 means pound, but just not the one we use in the States.

Posted on: Asking Height and Weight

如果有不能看得懂繁体字的人, 就简体字是看一下这些简体字:

acre 英亩,

ton/tonne 英吨 (发音也是dun1)

pound 英镑

Byron

句子有问题的话就给我指正.

Posted on: Asking Height and Weight

Your assumption is logical, but Canada and Australia smartened up at some point and realized the metric system is much easier and efficient. I had a conversation about weight with a Brit and an Aussie at one point (I'm American), and we were all struggling to convert from kilograms (or kilogrammes) to pounds to stone.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

I'd say it's a dangerous habit to think about collocations like 冰球, as "ice ball". If you ask a Chinese about what 球 can refer to (in collocations), he'd mention anything including balls used for sports, the Earth, charcoal briquettes, and yes, pucks. I think breaking these collocations down are excellent for remembering them, but not very useful for trying to use them the same way Chinese people would.

For example, if someone asked me how to translate 帽子, I could very easily say "hat", and say that Chinese have no other word for "hood". But I could also say that 帽子 means "hood" and the Chinese have no word for "hat", like we do in English. But both methods would ignore the fact that the Chinese don't differentiate the two like we do in English.

I really appreciated this lesson, as I play hockey in Changchun. Thanks as always!

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

The English words for our primary string instruments may not seem related at first, but with a little look, one can see some connections. First start with viola, which has connotations of being a string instrument played with a bow. Violin is the diminutive form of viola, so you can think of it as a small or little viola. Cello is originally from violincello, which would mean a large violin, or a large small viola. Bass or double bass comes from the idea of being a bass version of the previous instruments.

Perhaps this takes some of the romance out of the language, but this is how they conceived the names in Italian originally.

Posted on: Sign Language in China

Great explanation here. I'm currently reading Mair's "What is a Chinese Dialect/Topolect", and it's cleared up a lot of confusion.

Posted on: The Surname Code

沈阳 (shěnyáng), right?

Posted on: Treating and Foreigners on TV

Is Amber Canadian? I'm just wondering from her use of "holiday" as a verb. Whenever I tell people in China that I'm from North America, they always ask about 白求恩 and 大山. Unfortunately, I have to remind them that those two are from our neighbour up north, and that I'm from the US.

Posted on: Business Style

I just studied this and found the grammar to be difficult at first while listening. It's most definitely useful though and helps with learning more standard patterns.