User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: 小太监进宫三
July 9, 2009 at 4:51 AMHi pete
如果家族中有一个人当高官，九族宗亲都能发财，占便宜，享受特权待遇。这就是现在还保留的中国“美好”传统之一。但是滥用特权也有风险，有时要付出惨痛的代价，所以“灭九族”这个做法在某种程度上不是没有道理的。从这个意义上说，中国共产党对贪官的九族亲戚很宽容厚道，不愧是高度重视人权的国家！
Posted on: Ordering Songs at Karaoke
July 9, 2009 at 2:52 AM据我妹妹说，现在很多日本初，高中学生自己去卡拉OK，就是为了偷偷练唱歌。有些学生这样做才能在朋友面前表演得精彩，“炫耀”自己的拿手歌，秀自己的唱歌本领。其实在日本白天去卡拉OK非常便宜，包厢最便宜的话，唱一个小时好像只要几块钱。汉语中的“卡拉OK”又称“练歌厅”，我想“练歌厅”这个词在日本用的时候才是名副其实的，哈哈。
Posted on: Traveling around China
July 9, 2009 at 1:47 AMHi dunderklumpen
Actually, asking hotel clearks to buy train tickets for you is a very good way. You have to ask them beforehand how much a handling charge is, like “手续费多少钱？”. I guess it would be 10 yuan or 20 yuan, perhaps. For the record, the price of your ticket is 111 yuan. (北京到秦皇岛，软座，单程, D27).
Here is the link to "train timetable (北京-秦皇岛)". Please be noted that train/flight timetables shown on the Chinese Internet are not so reliable. There are tons of "trash" timetables that have not been updated for a long time. Incidentally, the number of your train is D27.
http://www.huoche.biz/dz1753ac4e-e67987769b5c.aspx
There are mainly two kinds of ticket counters at a railway station in China. One is for buying today's ticket, and other is for tickets for tomorrow or later. As tvan said above, buying a train ticket yourself in China should be a "nice" experience, regardless whether it's successful or not, hehe.
Posted on: Ordering Songs at Karaoke
July 8, 2009 at 1:06 PM我以前很爱唱卡拉OK，特别是邓丽君和日本动漫主题歌。不过我最近很少去卡拉OK店，好像因为已经玩腻了，或者是我老了。说实在的，随着中国沿海地区经济的发展，越来越多的东北姑娘去南方找工作，结果东北小城市卡拉OK店的服务水平相对下降了！跟“过时的小姐”一起唱歌跳舞不能让我心情激动，哈哈。
Posted on: Traveling around China
July 8, 2009 at 12:26 PMHi dunderklumpen
It's a tough job for foreign guys to buy train tickets at a railway ticket counter in China. There is always a long line at every window, and the counter clerks are unbelievably unkind. So your clever tactics should be as follows,
(1) Ask your Chinese friends to buy tickets for you.
(2) Prepare papers with train numbers, destinations, 卧铺（上铺/中铺/下铺） or 硬座/软座, date written on them, and show them to a ticket cleark.
(3) Take a bus, although traveling by bus is uncomfortable and dangerous in China.
Posted on: Traveling around China
July 8, 2009 at 2:19 AMHi guys
Let me sum up. “的” (de) is more versatile than I thought before. It seems that 的 can be (officially?) used interchangeably with 得/地 (de) in many cases. In other words, 慢慢的 is not a typo of 慢慢地 anymore, and the same is true for 走得很快 and 走的很快.
慢慢地吃 = 慢慢的吃
吃得很快 = 吃的很快
高兴得很 = 高兴的很
Having said that, all of my Chinese grammar books clearly separate usages for 的/地/得. And I also think that the authentic usage is, for example, 慢慢地吃, but not 慢慢的吃. I don't know if HSK (汉语水平考试) agrees that “吃的很快” is a right answer.
Personally I don't like to use 的 in place of 地 and 得. I guess that "versatile 的" is probably a kind of 约定俗成 mainly caused by spelling/typing errors. I must say that "versatile 的" makes "already-obscure Chinese grammar" even more obscure!
Posted on: Traveling around China
July 8, 2009 at 1:11 AMHi guys
Let me show you another "a bit surprising" info about the usage of 的 I've found in 现代汉语词典, a kind of bible of modern Mandarin. The dictionary says that you can use 的 instead of 得, as calkins said above.
If you have the copy of the dictionary, please look at the bottom right side of page 284, where it says that “的 (de) 同“得” (de) ②③”. Here are examples for ② and ③ shown in 现代汉语词典. Is this another 约定俗成？
② 拿得动，办得到，回得来，过得去
③ 跑得喘不过气来，写得非常好，天气热得很
P/S In the case of ①（e.g. 他去得。He can go.）, you can't use 的 in place of 得.
Posted on: Traveling around China
July 7, 2009 at 11:47 AMHi guys
I'm sorry for making things more complicated, but I've just learned that Chinese people used the character 底 (de) to express the possessive form, like 我底母亲 (= 我的母亲, my mother), between 1910s and 1930s. There is a poetry book titled 《雨巷 我底记忆》 (1929) written by 戴望舒 (1905-1950).
Posted on: Traveling around China
July 7, 2009 at 6:36 AMHi pete, tvan and zhenlijiang
One of my Chinese-Japanese dictionaries, published in 1991, says that 的 (de) has been sometimes used instead of 地, like 慢慢的(= 慢慢地), because the two characters have the same sound, and (surprisingly) both 的 and 地 are now officially OK in Chinese. But I can't find the same explanation in other dictionaries and grammar books I have. Can anyone confirm this?
In any case, it seems that more and more Chinese people are using the 的 (de) in place of 地 (de), including typos.
Posted on: Seoul
July 10, 2009 at 2:31 AMHi howard97
There are other reasons why 首尔 (首爾) is not so popular in South Korea.
Firstly, you seldom see Chinese characters in modern Korean society, both in South and in North Korea. And therefore Korean people generally don't pay much attention to 首尔 anyway.
Secondly, the Korean pronunciatin of 首尔, "su-i (수이)", is very different from "Seoul (서울)", on the other hand, the Chinese pronunciation of 首尔, shou3er3, sounds a little like "Seoul".
"首尔" is not a Korean word, but merely a Chinese transliteration of "Seoul" that was invented (or imposed?) for Chinese people (but not for Korean people) by the South Korean government.
Ordinary Korean people, except for guys who learn Chinese, have no need/chance to use/see 首尔 in everyday life.