User Comments - chris

Posted on: A Special Christmas Gift

In English I will often say either "good idea" or "good plan".  With respect to the latter, I consequently often say 好计划 (hǎo jìhuà) in Chinese.  Is this correct, or should I stick with 好主意 (hǎo zhǔyi)?  Thanks, Chris

Posted on: A Special Christmas Gift

Could have been husband and wife, I think. I know that with my better half we always refer to each other's parents simply as mum and dad (in fact, it amazed me how quickly my wife switched to calling my parents "mum" and "dad" - has taken me a while to get used to referring to hers like that!). Usually, the context makes it obvious whose "mum" or "dad" we are referring to.

Posted on: This Needs to be Dry Cleaned

My guess is that he means: "Around my way, the dry-cleaning shop is run by some Koreans"

Posted on: End of the Year Bonus Surprise

Excellent stuff, thanks Jason.

Posted on: End of the Year Bonus Surprise

This point was touched on in the lesson banter, but it comes up again in Expansion sentence 1b:

jin1tian1 fa1 gong1zi1 le, wo3 qing3ke4.

I got my salary today. I'm paying.

The use of "fa1" feels really strange to me.  Could we substitute "fa1" with "shou1dao4 (to receive)" or possible "de2dao4 (to get/obtain)"?  Or would this then be poor grammar?

Thanks, Chris.

Posted on: Discussing Contract Renewal

I was a bit thrown by Expansion sentence 3c:-

你能为这个团队贡献多大力量?

nǐ néng wèi zhè ge tuánduì gòngxiàn duō dà lìliang?

How much can you contribute to this team?

It is the "lìliang (power)" that threw me, since as with English I thought this word would be redundant in the Chinese.  For example, can we simply say:-

你能为这个团队做多大的贡献？

nǐ néng wèi zhè ge tuánduì zuò duō dà de gòngxiàn?

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Discussing Contract Renewal

Since installing the Lingoes "pop-up" translator, where you just need to hover the mouse over the characters and the various potential meanings of the character just pop-up, I've never looked back. Great tool. I believe there are various others on the market, but Lingoes appears to be free.

Posted on: Discussing Contract Renewal

good sub-thread. I recall this construct was discussed in a QW or Ele lesson a few years back (where I think I'm right in saying the hosts said not to worry about it too much and just learn the pattern). It's something i've just learnt to say now without thinking about it when I'm leaving a gathering while others are remaining. But the above exchanges were interesting!

Posted on: Considering an iPad

I think there is still only the iPhone App for CPod, rather than a specific App for iPad. The App still runs on the iPad, it just looks a bit small (same size as an iPhone screen). You can increase the screen size, but the fonts and images lose definition. Do we know if CPod will release an iPad-specific app?

Posted on: Interested in Chinese Medicine

just using the xmas/ny break to try and catch up on 3-4 months of CPod lessons that I've not had time for due to work. I agree a good first lesson from Jason - just out of interest, is Jason/Jennie a permanent Ele fixture going forward? I don't recall an announcement on this, but maybe it's in the backlog of N&F that I also need to work through! Thanks, Chris.