User Comments - changye

Posted on: Always in Chinese: 总是 (zǒngshì) and 老是 (lǎoshi)

Hi matt-c,

It seems that "尿C了" is a word used in some subdialects, such as 淮南方言，蚌埠方言 and 灵璧方言, used in Anhui province (安徽省).

The written form of the phrase is "尿尿了" and is pronounced "尿 (niao) 尿(sei) 了 (le)", and they say that the first 尿 is a verb, and the second one is a noun. Just interesting, but don't ask me why the second “尿” is "sei" !

If you twist my arm, let me (groundlessly) guess its etymology, haha. I suppose this phrase was originally "尿(niao)洒(sa3)了", where the first 尿 is a noun, and the second character is a verb.

The character "洒" means "sprinkle, spill" and has several readings including ancient ones, namely, "sai", "sei", "xi", and "sa", and the old reading "sei" is perhaps still preserved in northern Anhui, as is often the case with dialects.

It's plausible, but just a guess.

Posted on: The Person Component

John said replying to xiaohu that the elements you mentioned were all a deliberate part of the style.

Now I think I know what Chinesepod was aiming at in this video. They wanted to intentionally/deliberately make it look amateurish, in other words, they tried to make a parody of one of those typical amateur films.

I think the idea itself is not so bad. Actually, there is a very successful example in Japan. It’s the first episode of a famous Japanese anime “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ”, where you can see a lot of (intentional) amateurish mistakes, such as bad lighting and camera angles, clumsy cutaways, and car noises.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Melancholy_of_Haruhi_Suzumiya_(anime)

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=RcNkyPXYPc8

Posted on: Always in Chinese: 总是 (zǒngshì) and 老是 (lǎoshi)

Hi excalibur,

Thanks for your post. I've found a typo in it.

Pete:我老是要半夜的时候起床去撒尿。

Posted on: Always in Chinese: 总是 (zǒngshì) and 老是 (lǎoshi)

You sometimes see "总是" used in the sense of "after all" in Chinese. For example, you can say "小孩子总是小孩子", and this means "children will be children", just like the phrase "boys will be boys" in English. Please be noted that the 总是 is not one word, but is a phrase "总 (after all) + 是 (be)".

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

Hi mikenotinjubei,

Regardless of nations, people usually have much interest in past experiences as victims, but not anymore in those as victimizers. In this sense, Chinese young people naturally have more knowledge about their past, without knowing much about wrong acts of their own country, than Japanese young guys have.

P/S. Hachiko is a 好榜样 for my chubby dog!

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

Hi evasiege,

In this case, 偶像 (idol) and 榜样 (model) are not interchangeable. It seems that "学习XX好榜样" is a kind of a set phrase, which probably originated in the lyrics of this song.

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

There were a lot of so-called “national heroes” in Japan before the war, when Japan was a garrison state, although younger generations don’t care much about them anymore in modern Japan. Here are some Japanese “Lei Feng” heroes. Upper one, a faithful dog “Hachiko”, will be made into a movie “A Dog’s Story” in 2009, starring Richard Gere.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninomiya_Sontoku

Posted on: The Perfect Sandwich

Hi jacheung,

There is another Chinese word, "三文治" (san1 wen2 zhi4), that means "sandwich", of which sound is slightly closer to that of its English counterpart than 三明治 is.

Posted on: A Business Dinner with a Supplier

Hi desmondlee,

I think your sample sentence is correct. FYI, there are mainly three ways to say the same thing.

(a) 我们公司的样品，你满意吗？
(b) 你满意我们公司的样品吗？
(c) 你对我们公司的样品满意吗？

Posted on: Personal Trainer

Hi pete,

The etymology of "耐" is one of my favorites. The character consists of "而" and "寸", and they originally meant "beard" and "a hand" respectively. In ancient China, there was a punishment of cutting beard of a criminal. In short, you have to endure (耐) the punishment, though it's not so cruel.