User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Why, why, why??
July 21, 2007 at 1:54 AM你怎么来了? ..........Why did you come? 你怎么来的? ...........How did you come? 你怎么不来? ........Why don’t you come? 你为什么不来? ......Why don’t you come? The last expression sometimes suggests that you should come. How confusing they are! If I am wrong, somebody please correct me.
Posted on: 军训
July 19, 2007 at 1:10 PMHi maxiewawa! Good job!! I enjoyed the video. Please keep on uploading.
Posted on: Studying Japanese
July 19, 2007 at 1:06 PMHi danjo! When some of my Chinese friends sometimes jokingly tell me Japanese are cruel, I kiddingly answer back this way, “ You are right. More precisely, Japanese are no less cruel than Chinese. At the same time, Japanese are just as good as Chinese people.” Then we all laugh.
Posted on: 军训
July 19, 2007 at 2:59 AM我来中国后才知道 学生都得接受军训。 前几天我看到一所 小学举行军训典礼。 所有孩子们都穿着 真正的绿色迷彩服。 一位教官拿着麦克 对学生们喊些什么。 如果日本也有这种 有趣的活动就好了。 锻炼身体保卫自己! 提高警惕保卫祖国!
Posted on: Chinese Seasonings
July 18, 2007 at 11:46 PMHi italiana! Thank you for noticing that. You are right. This sloping style is by design, which is a waste of space! My previous comment was too long to do so. Hi KennyK! Wikipedia offers "Lists of English words of international origin." They are great. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_English_words_of_international_origin
Posted on: Giving up a Seat
July 18, 2007 at 10:26 AMHi Chinesepod! Which is more polite 奶奶 or 大娘 / 爷爷 or 大爷 when you address an old person?
Posted on: Chinese Seasonings
July 18, 2007 at 3:30 AMHi kmkfr! Good job! Thank you for your posts about ketchup. I really enjoyed reading them. I love those kinds of discussion very much. Most Japanese people mistakingly believe that "ketchup" is a born and bred English word. Japanese language has some loanwords from Chinese southern dialects, for example, カンフー (功夫 gung1fu1), シューマイ (烧卖 siu1maai6), ワンタン (云吞 wan4tan1), and so on. These words came from Cantonese. English also has some words originated in Cantonese, Hong Kong (香港 Heung1gong2), kungfu (功夫 gung1fu1), bok-choy (白菜 baak6choi3), wonton (云吞 wan4tan1), chow mein (炒面? chaau2min6) , wok (鑊 wok6) etc. Even Mandarin Chinese(普通话) has borrowed some from Cantonese, 巴士(bus), 的士(taxi), 曲奇(cookie), 迪斯科(disco) , which were transliterated from English words. Why so many loanwords from Cantonese in other languages? Coastal regions in south China, especially Hong Kong, have long been known as windows into the world, and therefore not only commodities but also “words” have been imported and exported through those regions. Japanese language as well as Korean, Vietnamese and Thai owes more to ancient Chinese, mainly southern dialects, than to medieval and modern Chinese. So Japanese resembles those dialects in readings of Chinese characters. Modern Chinese dialects retain their ancient pronunciations well. For your reference, here’s a link to Database of Pronunciations of Chinese Dialects, which covers 北京话, 广东话, 上海话, 潮州话, 台湾话, 客家话, and Japanese. http://homepage2.nifty.com/Gat_Tin/fangyin.htm
Posted on: Snacks
July 17, 2007 at 7:25 AMThe king of Chinese snacks is definitely “瓜子儿”, which are very cheap and tasty. Eating them never make you feel full and should be the perfect way to kill time. Go get them ! The queen of Chinese drinks is without a doubt “apricot juice.” You can enjoy both hot and ice-cold apricot juice. My favorite brand is “露露”. Try a sip at least once in your life. Go get one!
Posted on: Snacks
July 17, 2007 at 5:27 AMHi trevelyan! I have found an explanation about "闲" and its variant forms. Chinese only, but it’s worth reading. 间間閒閑闲 “间”是第二、三两字的简化字。原本没有“間”字，后世写作“間”字的上古都写为 “閒”。后为区别，把读 ｊｉāｎ (夹缝 ) 的专用“間”字，读 ｘｉáｎ (空余) 的写为“閒”字。“閑”本义是栅栏。“閒”与“閑”一般不通，只有在“空閒”的意义上有时写为“閑”。简化时，“空閒”的“閒”与“閑”合用一个简化字“闲”。说来复杂，其实在书名、人名和地名中照录即可。 若把已简化的书名改回繁体，或把书名写为规范的繁体字，须谨慎辨析其含义。如《墨子闲诂 》的书名就简化错了，其原文是《墨子閒诂》，写成 《墨子間诂》亦可，却不能写成《墨子閑诂 》。
Posted on: Why, why, why??
July 21, 2007 at 4:22 AMHi DocMom! Thank you very much for your reply, which was just what I wanted. I couldn’t translate those Chinese sentences correctly with my poor/clumsy English. 你怎么来了? How come you came? 你怎么来的? How did you come? 你怎么不来? How come you are not coming? 你为什么不来? What is the reason you aren't coming? One of my dictionaries tells me 为什么不 is also used to mean 何不. In that case, 你为什么不来? sometimes could be translated into “why don’t you come?”