User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Before Noon, After Noon
January 2, 2008 at 9:09 AM午(wu3, a horse or noon) is one of the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals, and it represents the two-hour period between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm in each day. Please note that 午 (wu3) is a horse, but 牛 (niu2) is a cow/bull/ox. And 马 (ma3, a horse) is normally used when referring to a horse in modern Chinese. 上午 (shang4 wu3, before 午) morning 下午 (xia4 wu3, after 午) afternoon 中午 (zhong1 wu3, in 午) around noon 正午 (zheng4 wu3, just 午) noon.
Posted on: Ordering Chinese Take-out
January 2, 2008 at 7:43 AMHi lunetta! The three languages seem to be much more alike than I thought. As you said, the taxonomy of languages strongly reflects politics. For example, Cantonese is being categorized into “Chinese dialects” despite of the fact that almost most of 北京人 are completely at a loss if they attend a meeting where only the dialect is spoken. Hi aert! I am always intrigued by your comments on etymologies, and thanks to you, I have been attracted by Indo-European historical/comparative linguistics recently. Of course, it is completely beyond my competence, but I could not resist buying a few ABC books about that study, written in Japanese, at an online bookshop last week. Hi user28949! Thank you for your supplement. I didn’t know that Bulgarian also used Cyrillic alphabet. Actually, I tried and failed to memorize them a few times before. I still remember that your left-right reversal “N” is pronounced something like “yi”, and “P” is “r”, “H” is “n”, and that’s all. My memory seems to be only enough for Latin alphabet! Hi excuter! ……or, executer? I narrowly failed a German exam at college many years ago. The problem was that I could not memorize cases in your language. Learning English is also not so easy for me, but it is a very “human-friendly” language AT LEAST in term of cases! Alas, I really think if only I had studied German hard when I was young. It is too late now. Hi auntie68! When I wrote the word “invented” in that comment, I also felt somewhat uncomfortable with it, but I was not diligent enough to look up a dictionary then. And, to tell you the truth, I half expected a correction or further interesting information about Indonesian/Malay from you! Thanks to you, I guessed it right! According to a Wiki article, Afrikaans, one of South Africa’s official tongues, had been influenced by several languages, one of which was Malay. I could not easily believe that yesterday, simply because the Malay peninsula is so distant from Africa! But your post has clarified the reason beautifully. The keys were trade and commerce. Indonesian made a wise choice. I think Bahasa Indonesia is a rational and economic language, which is very appropriate especially for a country that has a lot of ethnic groups and dialects. China made a good choice too. If Cantonese had been established as 普通话, I would never have tried to learn it. Cantonese has NINE tones, or six at least……!
Posted on: Ordering Chinese Take-out
January 1, 2008 at 1:20 PMHi lunetta, Wow, the three of them really resemble each other! They must be in the same language family. I also found that Dutch is similar to German. Can you manage to communicate without an interpreter? One more thing, I hear that Indonesian was invented based on Malay. Henning, You are just GREAT!!
Posted on: Ordering Chinese Take-out
January 1, 2008 at 12:10 PMHi lunetta! Thanks a lot for your supplement, and I am sorry that the list is far from completion. Anyone knows how to say that in Klingon and Alkon? Hi ingmar! Come on, you kidding? I can read only a few of them! BTW, do you happen to know Klingon?
Posted on: Ordering Chinese Take-out
January 1, 2008 at 5:08 AM新年快乐大家愉快！ 好好学习天天向上！ 工作顺利恭喜发财！ 吃好喝好健康长寿！ Afrikaans: Voorspoedige nuwe jaar Arabic: Kul 'am wa antum bikhair Basque: Urte Berri on Bengali: Shuvo noboborsho Chinese: 新年快乐 Czech: Stastny Novy Rok Dutch: Gelukkig nieuwjaar English: Happy New Year Esperanto: Bonan Novjaron Finnish: Onnellista uutta vuotta French: Bonne annee German: Ein gluckliches neues Jahr Greek: Eutychismenos o kainourgios chronos Hawaiian: Hauoli Makahiki hou Hungarian: Boldog uj evet Indonesian: (Bahasa) Selamat Tahun Baru Italian: Felice Anno Nuovo or Buon anno Japanese: あけましておめでとうございます。 Korean: 새해 복 많이 받으세요. Laotian: (Hmong) Nyob Zoo Xyoo Tshiab Latin: Felix sit annus novus Malay: Selamat Tahun Baru. Nigerian: (Hausa) Barka da sabuwar shekara Norwegian: Godt Nytt Ar Philippines: (Tagalog) Manigong Bagong Taon Polish: Szczesliwego Nowego Roku Russian: Поздравляю вас с Новым годом Samoan: Ia manuia le Tausaga Fou Serbo-Croatian: Srecna Nova Godina Spanish: Feliz ano nuevo Swahili: Heri za Mwaka Mpya Swedish: Gott Nytt Ar Vietnamese: Chuc mung nam moi Welsh: Blwyddyn Newydd Dda
Posted on: New Year's Song
December 31, 2007 at 10:38 AMHi aert, My chubby dog “Patty” is happy to contribute something on the Internet, but she still does not understand why her nose is sometimes itchy. We wish you a Happy New Year!!
Posted on: New Year's Song
December 31, 2007 at 2:33 AMHi wildyaks, Actually, having two New Year’s Days in a year might not be a bad thing for me after all. Drinking two bottles Bud is definitely better than one.
Posted on: New Year's Song
December 31, 2007 at 2:11 AMIn Japan, “元旦” is the most important holiday of year, but NOT here in China, therefore I am the only guy who gets excited in my office in this season every year. I would like to thank all the Chinesepod staff and posters for giving me opportunites to learn Chinese and English very efficiently. I wish you 学习进步, 工作顺利, 健康快乐, 鼠到成功！！
Posted on: Dorm Life: Late For Class
December 31, 2007 at 1:08 AMHi sparechange, Thank you for a good question. I thought 卧室 was the same as 寝室, but actually not. 寝室 is a dormitory room. In other word, 寝室 is a room in 宿舍 (dormitory).
Posted on: 八卦周刊：窃听门事件
January 3, 2008 at 7:56 AM我住的城市里到处都有电话亭。 每个电话亭都卖各种报刊杂志。 我每天领着小狗狗散步的时候 都走马看花浏览主要报纸头条。 特别引人注目的是大部分都是 有关军事或者外国威胁的报道， 简直充满着像世界上所有国家 一直伺机侵略中国那样的气氛。 鉴于中国曾经被日本欧洲侵略 过的历史我很能理解这种国情。 天天看这些新闻让人产生不安， 同时百姓不知不觉地提高警惕， 再说有刺激性的报纸还是好卖。 这样做才能叫一举两得的战略。 但我有时搞不懂到底是八卦化 的新闻有救还是煽动化更有救。