User Comments - changye

Posted on: Please Speak Chinese

Hi matt123

Let me supplement pete's explanation. As you expected, the term 普通话 implies that it's primarily a spoken language, just like Cantonese people call their dialect "白话". Chinese dialects are basically spoken languages, although it's technically possible to write down them.

By the same token, there are a lot of texts written in 普通话 in China, but please be noted that not all modern Chinese texts are written in 普通话. Some bookish (or academic) Chinese texts are more of 文言 (classical Chinese) than 普通话. Of course, there is no clear line between them. 

P/S. Chinese linguists/scholars commonly use the term 汉语 for their books, book titles, and theses. 

Posted on: Drinking Alone Under the Moon 月下独酌

This poem is classified into a style called 五言古诗 (five-character old poem), which does not have strict rules on rhymes (押韵), tone combinations (平仄), and the number of couplets (对句). It’s easy to understand why 李白 employed this "loose" style when making a "tipsy"poem, haha.   

花间一壶酒，

独酌无相亲。

举杯邀明月，

对影成三人。

月既不解饮，

影徒随我身。

暂伴月将影，

行乐须及春。

我歌月徘徊，

我舞影零乱。

醒时同交欢，

醉后各分散。

永结无情游，
相期邈云汉。

The same-colored characters rhyme with each other.  

Posted on: Mexico City

Hi everett

I believe that almost all the Chinese living in Mexico City usually use 墨城 in conversation, since all the Chinese guys there know 墨城 indicates Mexico City. On the other hand, probably not all people in mainland China know the abbreviation 墨城.

Posted on: Mexico City

Hi everett

There are a lot of 墨城 used as the abbreviation of 墨西哥城 on the Internet, however I think you should use 墨西哥城 at least once in your writing, and after that, you refer to Mexico City as 墨城. The abbreviation is used in the title of the following news article, but the first "Mexico City" appeared in the body of story is translated as 墨西哥城.

http://world.people.com.cn/GB/1031/6885901.html

Posted on: Health Check

Hi pete

I appreciate your attitude towards translating Chinese words, such as consulting with dictionaries and your native colleagues. However it's also important to preserve consistency in the whole lesson, including the vocab section and lesson dialogue. Otherwise, some poddies might get confused.

Posted on: Health Check

Hi pete,

Would you please ask Jenny about her own definition of "富贵病"? Judging from her comment on the word in the lesson, it's possible that ordinary Chinese people just regard 富贵病 as diseases caused by opulent eating habits, regardless of the definition in 现代汉语词典.

Posted on: 中国崛起

I've got the newest data of the BBC survey (although not comprehensive yet). In the latest survey carried out in December 2008, 92% Chinese people (in urban areas) show positive views of their own country (i.e. China has a good influence in the world), which is 2% higher than the one in the previous survey in 2007. The increase may be within the margin of error, but it's safe to say that the percentage is not decreasing, at least.

Posted on: Health Check

Hi bettine

"xie3" (血) is a colloquial pronunciation, and is usually used when the character 血 works "independently". For example, 我吐了一口血, 血的教训, or 出血 (bleed). In these phrases, 血 itself functions as a single word.

On the other hand, 血 is pronounced as "xue4" when used as a component character of a word, such as 血糖，血压，血管 and 血友病. In short, 血 used in a noun is pronounced as "xue4". It's easy to remember!

Having said that, even native people often mix them up. So, in reality, you can say both 出血 (chu1 xie3) and 出血 (chu1 xue4). Some local people, a doctor included, even say "chu1 xue3".

Theoretically, you have three options to pronounce "血管", i.e. "xue4 guan3", "xie3 guan3", and "xue3 guan3". The right one is "xue4 guan3", but don't worry, natives understand what you mean regardless of your "selection".

"xue3" in the PDD file is just a typo, at least dictionarywise.

Posted on: 中国崛起

Hi bababardwan

You are right. How the survey was carried out is very important. For China, they made phone calls to about 1,000 Chinese people who live in urban areas (18 large cities) including Beijing and Shanghai, and in Japan the survey was done on face-to-face basis all over the country.

In other words, Chinese farmers (or peasants?) are not included in this survey. I don't know if the Chinese authorities tapped these phone calls, or put police officers behind all the interviewees, haha.

The questionnaire is as follows,

Please tell me if you think each of the following countries are having a mainly positive or mainly negative influence in the world.

You can see the survey method in detail on pages 20, 21, and 56 of the report of the last year's survey. Here is a link to the website. I don't have the detailed data of the latest survey.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/02_04_08_globalview.pdf

I think that excluding Chinese farmers makes sense in this kind of survey. Conversely speaking, so called "national average" is sometime just nonsense especially in a country that has extreme regional differences like China.

In general, foreign people seldom have the opportunity to associate with farmers in China. So knowing the views of Chinese urban dwellers is more important to us than knowing those of farmers, unless you are a sociologist or a NPO volunteer.

After all, this kind of survery only shows a result something like "I like America, but don't like Japan". It only reflects people's impression towards other countries. How can you know if a country has a good influence in the world?

What is "good influence" in the first place? haha.

Posted on: Thoughts on Returning Home 回乡偶书

Hi korsbakken

Here are some good Chinese websites that show you old and middle Chinese sounds. They give you basic information about the ancient sounds of a Chinese character, including several slightly different reconstructed sounds. I usually use the sounds by 王力 (1900-1986), a very well-known Chinese linguist.

middle Chinese sounds (中古音)
http://www.eastling.org/tdfweb/midage.aspx

old Chinese sounds (上古音)
http://www.eastling.org/OC/oldage.aspx

And, this is a website that shows you modern southern dialect sounds of a Chinese character. Some southern dialects still preserve ancient readings and tones of hanzi. It's a Japanese website, but also has instructions in English.

http://homepage2.nifty.com/Gat_Tin/fangyin.htm

Lastly, here is a book 《汉字古今音表》(中华书局) that shows you not only 上古音，中古音，近代音，现代音, including detailed phonetic information about them, but also modern major southern dialect sounds for about 6,000 characters. This book is just amazing. Unfortunately, it's available only in China.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=8643132

Good luck!