User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Pinyin Section 4: R
July 19, 2009 at 1:36 AMHi rjberki
Thanks for the great info. I'm afraid I can't see the youtube video here in the PRC. Instead, I've found the three-page article about 周有光, the father of pinyin.
http://www1.chinaculture.org/chineseway/2009-04/17/content_326498.htm
Here are excerpts from the article. Just impressive.
Zhou is especially thankful his peers allowed him to base pinyin on the roman alphabet. "I met with great resistance from them over that issue," he says. "But I insisted on it. Perhaps it was due to my time overseas but I always envisaged pinyin being useful to foreigners, too. I still see it as a bridge between China and the rest of the world, a bridge between cultures."
It is not unreasonable to see pinyin's usefulness here and overseas as a death knell for Chinese characters but Zhou rejects the notion. "If you want to use pinyin to write Chinese, that's OK but it only exists as an aid for Chinese characters, not to replace them. If that were not official policy people would oppose its use altogether. Could the characters ever be cast aside? Not for a thousand years - or more."
Too many of his memories are now in his mind alone. "During the 'cultural revolution' (1966-76) I was sent to the countryside to be re-educated by the farmers," he says, without a hint of resentment. "During that time my house was occupied and all my photographs - with Mao, with my pinyin research colleagues - were destroyed ."
He is currently focused on Confucius, one of his favorite subjects. "He is still as relevant as he ever was - he (Confucius) was against violence, against killing, against capitalism, communism and against religious persecution," Zhou, says, taking out a copy of yesterday's transcript.
Is he proud of his life, I ask. "I am not proud," says this follower of Confucius. "But I am happy."
Posted on: Language is Music
July 19, 2009 at 12:41 AMHi sebire
It's Sunday morning here in the PRC. To me, the earlier the better!
Posted on: Big Bed
July 18, 2009 at 12:37 PMHi desluo919
You are very right. You have to select a right measure word for 房 to make its meaning clear. 一间房 is "a room", but 一所房 (or 一座房) indicates "a house". Please be noted that the measure word "座" implies that the house is large.
Anyway, 房 is a rather confusing character, and this is the very reason that two-character words, such as 房子 and 房间, are mainly used in modern Mandarin. On the one hand, you can see a lot of one-character words in classical Chinese.
P/S. In the case of two-character words, you can use the measure word "个" both for 一个房间 (a room) and for 一个房子 (a house) without making their meanings unclear.
Posted on: Blow out Your Candles
July 18, 2009 at 12:17 PMHi desluo919
Don't worry. The 是 is usually placed just after the subject. Conversely speaking, what you need to do is insert the left-out 是 after the subject to restore the "是～的" structure. Please be noted that you can leave 是 out, but not "的".
Posted on: Big Bed
July 18, 2009 at 11:57 AMhi desluo919
The character 房 means not only "house" but also "room". For example, the 房 in 厨房 (kitchen) and 书房 (a study) clearly means "room". On the other hand, the one in 房屋 and 房子 indicates "house".
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 13: Wang Meets the Big Boss
July 18, 2009 at 7:53 AMHi raygo and zhenlijiang
Your comments are too "artistic" to me, hehe. Actually you don't have many opportunities to see the word "抽象" in everyday life in China, instead, you often see other 抽-related words, such as 抽奖 and 老抽酱油/生抽酱油. I still can't tell the difference between 老抽 and 生抽 because these terms are rather 抽象 to me.
Posted on: That's enough tea
July 18, 2009 at 7:51 AMHi chris
I don't think that 真很漂亮 and 真非常漂亮 are natural Chinese. I don't know why, but perhaps two consecutive (similar) adverbs, 真+很 (or 真+非常), make it sound unnatural, and this might be the reason that "的" is inserted between them, like 真的很漂亮 and 真的非常漂亮.
Posted on: That's enough tea
July 18, 2009 at 6:57 AMHi chris
You can say 真的很漂亮 and 真的非常漂亮, for example. “真的” works as "really" in English, so 真的非常漂亮 means "really very beautiful".
Posted on: Bringing it All Back Home With 回去 and 回来
July 18, 2009 at 5:44 AMHi misterjess
Forgive my drivelish dumb answer, hehe. It seems that "drivel" has been the most popular key word here in the Chinesepod forum recently. Don't worry, your comment is much less "drivelish" than some comments posted here by rjberki and me today (rj, sorry!) .
Joking aside, 回娘家 is a neutral word, which simply means that a wife goes back to her parents' home. Having said that, in reality, probably you can see more cases of "an angry/dissatisfied wife voluntarily goes back to her parents" ......... as you may know.
Posted on: Bringing it All Back Home With 回去 and 回来
July 19, 2009 at 2:32 AMHi pchenery
You can say 我刚从美国回来，but not "我刚从回美国来". You have to place a noun directly after 从.