User Comments - changye

Posted on: 北京人上海人眼中的中国地图

Hi alearnerandeducator

我知道中国当然也有好人。

Posted on: 中国崛起

一个平平凡凡的课题却引起了大家的关注，让论坛更加活跃，太好了！

Posted on: 户籍制度

Hi dunderklumpen,

Very good point. Your comment really makes sense. For instance, 四 (si) and 士 (shi) differ in putonghua pronunciation, but have the same sound (without "h" in it) in 闽南语, a southern dialect in China.

Conversely speaking, it may be said that the difference between the two "i" (si" and shi) is generated by the existence of "h".

In other words, the consonants generated by raising the tongue tip (翘舌音, sh, ch, zh) make the trailing vowel "i" sound a little differently from the "i" located after the consonants "s, c, z".

In this sense, bopomofo (注音符号) is very clever. The sound for hanyu pinyin "shi" is represented by one symbol "ㄕ" in bopomofo. In a sense, the "i" in "shi" is something like an appendix.

I've just found that a Wiki article says, if you pronounce the consonant "sh" properly, the "i" automatically (or unconsciously) follows. The same holds for "zhi" and "chi".

P/S. I envy you for having a good ear for languages!

Posted on: 中国崛起

Pete刚才用的「粪青」这个词语比较常见，用词也恰当，好像是故意的吧，哈哈！

Posted on: 中国崛起

（A） 妈，你知道吗？今天老师说，中国崛起了！太好了！
（B） 别胡说！那么你爸为什么失业了？中国崛起跟我们家没关系！

Posted on: 户籍制度

Hi miantiao,

Hanyu pinyin symbols are somewhat like English words, because both lack consistency in spelling and pronunciation. In short, the same "symbol" doesn't always represent the same sound. For example, the "en" in pinyin "gen" is different from "en" in "geng", just like "dentist" and "garden" in English.

In this sense, native English speakers might be more compatible with Chinese pinyin system than native German speakers are! Joking aside, Hanyu pinyin should be more a Romanization system than a phonetic symbols system in a strict sense. Maybe bomopofo more deserved to be called "phonetic symbols".

mainland chinese children also learn bopomofo.they learn the pronunciation but not the symbols.

Your argument is rather tricky, haha. In a sense, it may be said that mainland children are learning bopomofo too, but, in fact, what they are learning is "proper pronunciations", but not "bopomofo". For native speakers, (correct) sounds come before symbols, not the other way around. It's difficult for us foreign learners to do so, unfortunately.

To me, the "i" in pinyin "shi" is slightly different from that in "si". Yeah, it's a subtle difference, but, at least, I myself always try to pronounce them a bit differently, regardless of whether or not I can notice the slight difference between them when I hear local people speak Chinese, haha. I readily admit I'm a guy who has a very poor listening comprehension. 

Posted on: Talking with Numbers

Hi 陈博士

你为什么不早点告诉我呢？你说的那个"初二(狗的生日)"，很可惜，我家小胖狗错过了。不过今天是初七，祝贺"人的生日"还来得及！

Posted on: February Update

Hi monica5,

A modem is translated as 调制调节器 (tiao2zhi4tiao2jie2qi4) in Chinese. For me, it's just sort of 绕口令 (rao4kou3ling4, tongue twister). And most native people just call it "猫" (mao1) as its sound is somewhat similar to "modem", and a modem also "cries" just like a cat.

简易咨询聚合 or 聚合内容 might be slightly less tongue-twisting, but I don't think that native people usually use the "official" Chinese translation. It's too long! Probably RSS would be the most popular way to refer to the term in China.

Posted on: Talking with Numbers

Seriously, my home telephone number was "xxxx -xxx - 5174" before, which was always laughed at by my Chinese friends, since it sounded just like "我要气死！" (wo3 yao4 qi4 si3, Damn it!). I didn't know this at all when I selected the number at a telephone office. 真是气死我了！

P/S. That said, the number was very easy to remember.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 7: A Firing Afoot?

Hi meiguo_ben-dan

The tone of 不 (bu4) always changes to second tone when it's located before fourth tone, irrespective of the meaning, just like 不要 (bu2yao4)，不是 (bu2shi4)，不对 (bu2dui4)，不去 (bu2qu4) and so on.

P/S Your ID is just hilarious!