User Comments - changye

Posted on: New Lessons, New President

Hi edward,

Haha, that's a good joke. Incidentally, I hear that his name is "Mark Ndesandjo", but not Edward. He lives in 深圳 (shen1 zhen4) now.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 4: Communication in the Office

Hi bodo,

There are some patterns for "I will do something/I'm going to do something". In the case of (B) and (C), "要" is optional. If you want mean "plan to do, going to do", you can use "打算" (da3 suan4) instead of "要".

(A) 我要做 ～。
(B) 明天我做 ～。
(C) 明天我要做 ～。

Posted on: The Artistic Little Brother

For the record,

画画儿 = 画 (draw, verb) + 画儿 (a picture, noun) = draw a picture

Posted on: 日本人的起源

Hi tvan,

The term “中国” was sometimes used in ancient China mainly to indicate “中原” (central plain around the middle and lower part of 黄河). And some ancient countries referred themselves to as “中国” (central country), besides their official names, to show that they were (self-proclaimed) the most authentic states in China (= in the world).

That said, Chinese people basically called their countries by the name of dynasties, such as “大清” or “清国”, up to the early twentieth century. Probably the use of the name “中国” started to gradually become popular after the establishment of “中华民国” in 1912. Most Japanese people regard “中国” as an abbreviation of 中华人民共和国.

P/S. The issue of 中国/支那 might be somewhat similar (?) to that of Holland/Dutch or Britain/England.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing

Hi martinku,

boustrophedon

I heard this somewhere before. I think that it might be a very rational way to write, from a standpoint of human dynamics, because you can write texts with minimum arm movement, haha!

Posted on: Agreement on Exclusive Representation

Hi davidtzau,

Baseball is not popular in China, so probably there is no word similar to the slang "closer". Instead, Chinese people, who love to play cards, often use "王牌" (wang2 pai2) in the sense of "ace, trump card", just like "他是我们公司的王牌推销员。" or "这是我的最后一张王牌。"

To tell you the truth, I don't know exactly the meaning of "closer", hehe. The literal translation of "closer" should be "王牌救援" or "王牌救援投手". I think that Chinese people understand what it means, but they don't usually use these words in conversation.

绝招 means "ace in the hole/trump card" too.

Posted on: 日本人的起源

The name 支那 itself is “innocent”, and the problem probably lies in people who have been degrading the traditional name. Interestingly enough, the URL of 新浪网, a major portal site in China, is sina.com, and of course the “sina” is a transliteration of 支那. I hear there was a controversy among Chinese people as to whether the URL is appropriate.

I personally hope that the status of 支那 will gradually improve both in China and in Japan as China strengthens and its people regain self-confidence. Young Chinese guys, who usually learn English at school, would find some words like sinology, sinophilia and Sino-US relation, which generally doesn’t connote negatively.

On the other hand, I worry about the fate of the name “China/中国”, which regrettably seems to have already degenerated into a kind of derogatory word in a given context, mainly due to food safety/crime problems outside China. As I said at the beginning, the name “China/中国” itself is innocent, but some unscrupulous people are degrading it now.

Posted on: Buying a Plasma TV

Hi John,

Thanks a lot for all the trouble, and I'm sorry for my insistent nitpicking, hehe. As you might know, 老人爱罗嗦啊！ Have a nice weekend, guys. Thank you again.

Posted on: Agreement on Exclusive Representation

翻一番 = 两倍.
翻两番 = 四倍.
翻三番 = 八倍.
翻四番 = 十六倍.
........
翻十番 = 1024倍.

Posted on: Agreement on Exclusive Representation

double = 翻一倍 = 增加一倍 = 增加到两倍
triple = 翻两倍 = 增加两倍 = 增加到三倍