User Comments - changbiyuan

Posted on: Swimming Pools and the Beijing Accent

yang_yi, I had a friend who got frustrated at saying 公园 about five times to a driver who gave a blank stare for a while but eventually clued in and said 啊，公园儿！

One other word I remember being told there was an actual difference in meaning based on the "r" was 宝贝(儿) bǎo bèi (r). My teacher said without the "r" it refers to a precious item and with the "r" it means "baby" (in both the literal and term of endearment senses).

Interesting to hear about the variety of pool phenomena in China. Sounds like the only universal one is the cap rule. And they don't even seem to know why the rule is there—I had a friend who was bald who wasn't let into a pool for this.

I saw two outdoor pools while I was in China (one at my university in Hohhot) and both were devoid of water... I guess that speaks to their general popularity.

Hotels are a good place to find quiet pools but if you go without the gear (like caps) they'll charge about ten times the regular price for it.

Posted on: Often: Using 常常，经常，通常 (chángcháng, jīngcháng, tōngcháng)

The word I've learned for general(ly) is 一般. Is 通常 at all interchangeable with that?

Thanks.

Posted on: The Person Component

陈博士您好！您说的两次当然对。我们（可以说吗？）很高兴您不想跟我们吵架。对那个照片，我们没有长臂猿的，还有我真喜欢这个熊猫。

Posted on: The Person Component

Fair enough, calkins; touché. (Though I'd say most of my vocalness has been in, um, yeasaying.) wchan, thanks for throwing in some educational content. (No need to hold back on the rude version though!) To clarify my prior comment (since you are accentuating the "we" now), I was not making an "unnecessary outburst" and I understood perfectly well that the reason was some manner of Chinese polite form. I just found it amusing, because it sounds odd in English. I think using "we" for "I" might translate poorly and possibly even have the opposite to the intended effect.

Thank you last three for typing full thoughts and not just pointless jabs like urbandweller (and possibly millionnairenow...? Not sure if he's speaking about the episode itself or not...).

Posted on: Mobile Repairmen and AZERDocMom

I finally dug up the recording that I thought I'd lost of one of the multiple guys who would go past my window twice or thrice daily. Here it is. I challenge anyone to figure out what's being said.

Posted on: Ending Your Sentence with 吧 (ba)

As far as I know and can tell from quick Google research, they have the same meaning.

Posted on: The Person Component

Actually calkins, no I don't. Overly vocal, perhaps. But I'm not naysaying; I think this show should keep going. People seem to have taken a liking to vilifying me though, so my vote probably counts for -1 by now.

Posted on: The Person Component

Great analogy, mickeytoon. I love Marmite. Though if overly vocal naysayers like the ones on this thread had their way the world over, it would have been off the shelves ages ago.

God forbid them just not eating the stuff, and keeping their thoughts to themselves on how gross they might think it is.

Posted on: Chinglish in Reverse and University Culture

One restaurant expression that is so much more concise than its English equivalents is 打包 （dǎ bāo), literally something like "hit the package" but meaning "pack up," for when you want a doggie bag. I find myself using this even since I left China (in a line like, "Let's 打包 this and get out of here...") and finding myself frustrated I can't use the line with the waiter (at least not at most restaurants I go to).

Posted on: The Person Component

I beg your pardon, leeht? My last post was meant to be a light-hearted chuckle about wchan apparently using the Royal We.

I don't see how I could have been read as "beating people to death." You might do well to keep your bitter negativity to yourself. Perhaps you've heard a saying, "If you don't have anything nice to say..."

Maybe an addition to the Comments Policy below would be in order: "We recommend against writing anything at all subtle because someone will undoubtedly misinterpret it and attack you for it."