User Comments - chris
chris
Posted on: Messing Up The Date
September 24, 2017, 03:51 AMThe use of "yao" to mean "one" is a strange one. I'm coincidentally sat at Pudong International airport at the moment and one of the flights just called is VS251. I was expecting them to say "VS er wu yao" but they actually say "VS er wu yi" - and I might add that the "yi" is barely determinable at the speed of the announcement. I guess it's all about tuning your ear, but had I not known it was 251 I would have thought the announcement had simply said VS25.
Posted on: Winning Money on the Lottery
September 24, 2017, 03:14 AMInteresting alternative meaning for 中奖. I must confess I've never come across that before but will be more careful in future usage! Do you think it's a more prevalent double usage in Taiwan than the mainland?
Another great intermediate lesson - short, punchy and great vocab together with a couple of useful grammar points such as the "既然。。。就“ and “才。。。就” patterns.
Posted on: What's in Your Handbag?
September 24, 2017, 12:27 AMManfred, it will come with practice. The “Shi.....de” pattern is one of many many patterns in mandarin that seem daunting at first but quickly become second nature. The one point I’d add to Gwilym’s above is that the shì is commonly dropped in colloquial speech (at least on the mainland) as in the example above. If it had been present it would most naturally have come immediately after the wǒ .
As an aside, whilst it’s true that mandarin is much simpler than say English in terms of core grammar, they do have lots of structure/patterns that us learners have to get our heads around!
Posted on: How to Say Hello
September 24, 2017, 12:13 AMHǎo also has the meaning of hěn / “very”, ie it’s an intensifier. For example, hǎo duō means very many or lots and hǎo chǎng means very long. But more commonly it simply means good. If you’re into characters, the bit on the left of the hǎo character means woman and the bit on the right means child. The combination of woman and child = good!
Posted on: Is Buying Better Than Renting?
September 23, 2017, 12:53 PMI've been using CPod since 2006 - quite heavily during the 2007-2013 period but to be fair barely at all the last few years and I've largely missed the transition from the original SH crew to the new Taiwan setup. I am trying to get back into my learning and just wanted to say that if this lesson is anything to go by, Fiona and Gwilym have nailed the Intermediate level. Perfect focus on a couple of key grammar points, good amount of Chinese from Fiona and sensible interjections from Gwilym. I remember back in the day Cpod struggled massively with the bridge from Elementary to Intermediate until John and Jenny found the magic formula and based on this lesson F and G have kept that formula and if anything enhanced it. Thank you guys and I look forward to reengaging much more with the site again!
Posted on: Is Buying Better Than Renting?
September 23, 2017, 12:47 PMAgreed, it is certainly gǎnjǐn.
Posted on: Holding a Meeting
September 22, 2017, 04:04 PMI appreciate this is more than 10 years after the lesson, but I don't think your analysis is correct. It's important to note that whilst "yicheng" means "agenda" it also means an "agenda item" and it's this second meaning that is being used in this sentence. Also, it is not the event (huodong) that is the last one, it is the agenda item on the event's agenda that is the last one. Hope that clarifies if anyone else got confused by that expansion sentence (as did I on first reading!).
Posted on: Ways to say "Otherwise": 否則 (fǒuzé) 不然 (bùrán) 要不 (yào bù)
September 10, 2017, 04:58 PMI always thought yaobu simply meant "how about....". So I'd say "yaobu women qu maidongxi " for how about we go shopping. Etc. I had no idea it was linked to the concept of otherwise! At least i was using it as a suggestion which seems to be correct .
Posted on: What Do You Want To Ask?
August 31, 2017, 09:39 PMVery very fast dialogue although I appreciated it is natural native speed
Posted on: Girly Talk
December 21, 2017, 10:35 AMHi gomanly. Sadly I very rarely frequent the site these days - i had a brief burst earlier this year again with a half-hearted attempt to re-engage with the transcripts. During that period, I didn't see any of the old gang (in fact, the comment boards are very quiet more generally compared to the old days). Still plugging away at Mandarin (been based in China for almost 12 years now) but pretty much stuck at the plateau i reached within the first 3 years or so!
Chris