User Comments - chris
chris
Posted on: Online Group Shopping
December 19, 2015 at 3:39 AMGwilym, I think you and Fiona were making a comment in the outro about online group buying being a cultural difference between China and the West. Now, admittedly I am a "gudairen" in these matters, but isn't this exactly what the Groupon website specialises in in the West?
Posted on: Online Group Shopping
December 19, 2015 at 3:37 AMI was a bit confused regarding the grammar of 组织拼团. I understand the "zuzhi" means "to organise" and the "pintuan" means "to form a group". Consequently, surely the "zuzhi" is redundant as the "pintuan" is already a verb meaning "to form" the group. Alternatively, if we keep the "zuzhi" then surely we need to drop the "pin" from "pintuan"??
Posted on: Who's That Over There?
December 19, 2015 at 2:20 AM哪 is the 'question' version of 那。I tend to loosely translate the former as "where?" and the latter as "that/there". For example, 他在哪里 = "where is he?" and 他在那里 = "he is there". Hope that helps.
Posted on: Who's That Over There?
December 19, 2015 at 2:18 AMInterestingly, my Samsung phone broke last week and I've been using my wife's old iPhone 5s pending getting a replacement Samsung. I was surprised firstly that the CPod app is quite different to the Android version I'm used to using and secondly that the Android version is significantly superior. That said, I did have issues downloading the app from the Apple Appstore, so I may have an older version (App store kept saying the App was not available, despite me flicking between US and UK stores).
Posted on: Right Ticket, Wrong Day
December 16, 2015 at 10:30 AMThanks Fiona. Crystal clear. A "penny drops" moment!
Posted on: Right Ticket, Wrong Day
December 13, 2015 at 1:15 PMFiona, excellent explanation of that troublesome 着 character. I have always struggled with it but your "action complete but situation remains" really helped me to get it at last. I was wondering - in your example about looking outside and seeing people wearing hats, holding umbrellas etc, I would've simply used 正在戴帽子. I assume this is still correct, but that using the 戴着帽子 structure would sound more natural to a native speaker?
Posted on: Official Receipt at a Work Lunch
December 13, 2015 at 6:16 AMIs 因此 just a formal way of saying 所以? Is there any other difference in meaning?
Posted on: Official Receipt at a Work Lunch
December 13, 2015 at 6:00 AMI was wondering exactly the same thing with regards to the implied negative history of the term "this time". Any thoughts native mandarin speakers?
Posted on: Long Distance Relationships
October 15, 2015 at 4:37 AMYes. I totally agree with podster. I was one of the culprits that got totally addicted to doing transcripts a few years ago (see the link above). By far the single one thing that has progressed my Chinese the most over the years. If you feel you've hit a wall just try doing a few full lesson transcripts at the appropriate level. Works a treat. Chris.
Posted on: Which Way to the Mall?
June 4, 2016 at 6:57 AMWith regards to the discussion about "sense of direction", how can one best say in Mandarin "you have no common sense"?