User Comments - changye

Posted on: 户籍制度

韩国人对子女教育非常热心，就是朝鲜民族的传统美德之一。

主要为了提高英语运用能力，很多韩国家长不惜掏钱把孩子送到海外读书，而且不少母亲去陪读。韩国媒体说，留学高潮的部分原因是韩国人对自己国家教育质量的评价很低。

无论是小学生还是博士生，现在大量的韩国年轻人到西方国家留学，最近甚至去菲律宾，马来西亚等英语学习环境比较良好的亚洲国家。这些国家和西方国家相比留学签证更好办，费用当然更便宜。

澳大利亚有一所学校很愿意接受韩国留学生。可笑的是有的班一半以上的学生都是韩国人，自然就很少有机会用英语沟通。”海外留学”的意义究竟在哪？

韩国家长送不了孩子出国的时候，国内还有别的途径可以提高孩子的英语水平，就是说把孩子送进“国际学校”。 这类学校一般只接纳外籍学生或者是海归子女。可是韩国父母很顽强，到了黄河也不死心。

他们想出来的一个妙计确实让人出乎意料。首先家长和孩子一起到一个非洲国家用钱“买”绿卡，然后赶紧回国办入学手续。根据国家规定，韩国孩子只要有外国绿卡就能容易进国际学校。

据说，因为这种假冒“海归”越来越多，在韩外国人进国际学校越来越难。前不久韩国政府终于给这个漏洞打了一个补丁。但是，大家不用太担心，我相信不屈不挠的韩国家长肯定会再想出个绝招让孩子进理想的学校。

中国俗话说得好，“上有政策，下有对策。”

Posted on: Stopped at the Gate

Relating to 小区，

There is the word “社区” (she4 qi1) in Chinese. I don’t know how to properly translate it into English, but it’s probably something like a community, a block association, or a neighboring association. This is an official subordinate organization of a municipal government. My apartment, of course, belongs to one of them.

The character “社” originally meant “a local festival for honoring gods and spirits”, and it later obtained another meaning “an organization” perhaps derived from its original one, which also led to the invention of the words such as 社会 (she4 hui4, society), 社稷 (she4 ji4, a state), 公社 (gong1 she4, people's commune), and 结社 (jie2 she4, form an association).

Posted on: 还是 háishi OR 或者 huòzhě

As a matter of fact, I'm not so sure about that. Would you please ask your wife to give us a convincing theory on how to use 或者 properly?

Posted on: 还是 háishi OR 或者 huòzhě

Hi tvan,

Thank you very much for the encouraging comment. I always welcome opinions that make me feel happy and comfortable, hehe! Joking aside, I must admit that it's somewhat difficult for us foreigners to learn the proper usage of 或者，或者是，或，and 或是.

The point is that 或者 is not frequently used in questions in everyday conversation, and native speakers cleverly express what they mean without using this word, as beautifully demonstrated by zyfjcty in his comments. That is not an easy job for a textbook/dictionary supuremacist just like me, hehe.

I believe that 或者 can also be used in interrogative sentences under certain conditions, but anyway, the word mainly appear in written Chinese, which should be the reason why zyfjcty found my examples unnatural. Lastly, please give my best wishes to your 老婆！Thank you again!

P/S. You can find a lot of "或者 in an interrogative" on the Internet, whether they are correct/natural or not.

Posted on: My Foreign teacher

Hi M.ooka,

I recommend you get 中日辞典/日中辞典 published by 小学館 in Japan. They show you not only tons of grammatical, historical and cultural tips, but also how to properly use synonyms. Fortunately, 中日辞典 (小学館) is available here in China, because it was edited in collaboration with 商务印书馆. It’s Chinese title is 新汉日词典, and of course, it’s much less expensive than that sold in Japan. I hear that ones published by 講談社 (Japan) are very good too.

http://www.bookschina.com/1075098.htm

As for 说文解字 and 康熙字典, I recommend the followings to you. They are not photocopies of original dictionaries, but are all put into print. They are very easy to read and find characters.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=8987273

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20171683

Correction: ○ 宁波，× 宁破

Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise

Hi zyfjcty,

Haha, it's a bit ironic that young Chinese guys don't frequently use "马虎", just like "你好" and "再见", while it's probably one of the favorite Chinese words among learners of Mandarin. Actually, 马虎 is a word that is very easy to memorize for learners!

I live in northeast China and sometimes hear local people say 马虎, but I don't know if young guys also usually use the word, since my Chinese friends are not young anymore. They are all 老头, me included, hehe.

I've just found an etymology of 马虎 on the Internet. There was a mediocre painter in the era of Song dynasty (宋朝). He drew a picture of a horse (马), but the client mistook it for a tiger (虎), which created the word 马虎 that means "sloppy (job)". It's very plausible, but I don't know if it's true.

Anyway, it seems to me that 马虎/马马虎虎 are words that have a relatively long history. Conversely speaking, this might be one of the reasons that young guys don't like to use it. In short, 马虎 could be a musty word for young people.

Just an aside, there is the word "まあまあ" (ma-a-ma-a) in Japanese, which means "so so, not so bad, 还可以", and some Japanese learners of Mandarin tend to often use 马马虎虎 in the sense of "还可以" because ot the similarity of sound and meaning.

Posted on: My Foreign teacher

Hi M.ooka,

我一直以为你是日本人，可没想到竟然是法国人。哈哈，我上当了！可惜又少了一个“日本同胞”!! I thought you would be one of the few Japanese who post a comment here in the forum! I'm very impressed with your excellent Japanese.

You can easily get 新华字典 and 现代汉语词典 at a bookstore in China. I believe there is a large bookstore in 宁破, where you can get a copy of ancient dictionaries such as 说文解字 and 康熙字典. If not, please visit an online shop.

http://home.dangdang.com/

P/S. これからもよろしくお願いします！

Posted on: My Foreign teacher

Hi ooka-san,

Thanks for raising an intriguing question. You have good eyesight. According to the latest Chinese orthography, for example, “睛”, “婧”, “蜻” are authentic characters, and you can find them both in 新华字典 and in 现代汉语词典, but “睛”, “婧”, “蜻” are not listed in these state-sponsored dictionaries.

The original form of the character “青” was “生” (upper part) + “丹” (lower part), and it later changed into the shape like “靑”, and then finally changed into “青”. For the record, all the characters that have the radical “qing” in an ancient dictionary “说文解字” (around 100 A.D.) only use “靑”, but not “青”.

Interestingly, “睛”, “婧”, “蜻” are still used in modern Japanese, as you know. I guess that they were also used in China before the advent of simplified characters in 1950s, perhaps. Furthermore, old characters sometimes sneak into modern texts, as is often the case, just like the “眼睛” in the vocabulary.

Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise

Hi guys,

"马马虎虎" is the long (and emphasized) version of "马虎" (careless, sloppy), just like the relation between "干干净净" and "干净" (clean)。 And "马马虎虎" has another meaning similar to "一般", but I don't think that "马马虎虎" and "一般" are always interchangeable semantically.

My take is that "马马虎虎" still conveys a little negative connotation, on the other hand, "一般" is relatively neutral. To my surprise, some online Chinese-English dictionaries define "马马虎虎" as "not so bad", which I think conveys somewhat positive connotation (Am I right?).

I might be influenced by the original meaning of "马虎" (sloppy, careless), but anyway, I think that foreign learners need to be a bit careful about using "马马虎虎", although it's difficult not to use such an interesing word, hehe. I would appreciate other people's opinions. Thanks.

Posted on: 还是 háishi OR 或者 huòzhě

Hi cassie 老师，

Would you please "butt in" our discussion on "或者"？