User Comments - chinesecatherine

Posted on: Writing Characters vs. Typing Characters

Thanks from me too!

Posted on: Writing Characters vs. Typing Characters

Thanks. I'm UK based, and sometimes we use English differently, in your example above the reply would be "I ordered 500", and we wouldn't add the word loaves. Maybe that's why I'm getting confused by it.

The previous lesson on candy was good as well, but again I had a 'UK disconnect'. We call them sweets, and chocolate is a separate thing. We wouldn't use the word sweets when describing chocolate, but I think Americans call them all candy?

Chinesepod - helping me to not only understand Chinese, but also American :)

Posted on: Writing Characters vs. Typing Characters

I may be wrong, but I thought 认识 translated as recognise, and 知道 translated as know. So I 认识 a person, but 知道 that the moon is made of green cheese (OK, it's not, but you get the point!) But I suspect it's much more subtle than that, and someone cleverer than I can probably give you a much better answer.

Posted on: Writing Characters vs. Typing Characters

Could I ask about the last sentance please?  It ends with 个 so a measure word.  I thought that you had to put a measure word in the middle, so you would do something like "10 [mw] books" or "500 [mw] characters".  This is "about 500 [mw]" - is the implication here that as we already know we are talking about characters, we don't have to say it explicitly?

Posted on: Time for a Holiday

Hmmm.... must be different time in China - Christmas Day and Valentines day are never the same day of the week :)

Posted on: Getting Ready for a Dinner Party

Cultural question if I may?  If I had an ayi, I'd want to give them more notice of guests for dinner than telling her on the day.  But I'm British, and we have different rules :)  Would it be usual in China to only give notice on the day?

Posted on: Rich and Poor

A 'studio flat' (in the UK) would be small, and usually have one room to 'live' in and a separate bathroom. I had one a long time ago where my bedroom and living room were the same room, but it had a separate kitchen and bathroom - this was a studio flat. A more recent flat had a bedroom, bathroom, then large living space which was kitchen, dining area, living room all in one - this was definately a flat (or apartment if you wanted to be posh) and is part of a trend in modern conversions. I suspect that what RJ calls 'efficiency apartments' are the same as 'studio flats'. It was small, but cheap, and it did for awhile!

Posted on: Rich and Poor

In the UK we talk about a 'flat' or an 'apartment'. I think there is a class distinction going on, in that working class people have a flat, upper class people have an apartment, but I'm not sure on that.

Houses are usually called houses - but there is a distinction sometimes between the type, so terrace (one of a row), semi (attached to only one other) detached. But there can also be a distinction between a house (with more than one storey) and a bungalow - but not always. So I'll talk about my house, which is actually a bungalow.... like most language, when you start digging into it, it's far more complicated than you'd expect! :)

Posted on: Japan Trip Itinerary

So, Beijing is north capital, Nanjing is south capital and Dongjing (or Tokyo) is east capital.  Is there a Xijing?

Posted on: Making a Dinner Reservation - Part 2

Is anyone else having trouble with writing practice?  I just get a blank bit of screen where Skritter should be?