User Comments - chris

Posted on: No Walking on the Grass

I would have placed the expansion speaker as someone from south china.  Frequently, he dropped the "h" from "sh" and "zh", e.g. shu1 (book) in sentence 5c and pai1zhao4 (to take a picture) in sentence 3a.

Living in Shanghai, I didn't have too much problem understanding him but would be interested if anyone else noticed this (I checked the comments above and no one seems to have mentioned it).

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Fortunate Cookies

A somewhat delayed response to jiarenlun 's query of 12 June 2008 above.....

I had the same thought.  I think all that happened is that in the podcast Jenny included the word "neng" (able to) between "ken3ding4" and "zhuan4qian2", but the "neng2" is not included in the PDF or the dialogue.

Doesn't impact the meaning as far as I'm aware.

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Yang Jie's Diary: The Final Episode

Hi all,

I downloaded that Karen Mok album from itunes and have taken a stab at translating the lyrics for "ta1 bu4 ai4 wo3" below.  I'm pretty sure i've managed to find the correct characters in my dictionary, but i've struggled in places with the translations.  Would really appreciate if any poddies could take a look and offer some suggestions/corrections!

他不爱我

He doesn’t love me

牵手的时候太冷清

When we hold hands it’s too cold

拥抱的时候不够靠近

When we hug it’s not close enough

他不爱我

He doesn’t love me

说话的时候不认真

When we speak it is not earnest

沉默的时候又太用心

When it’s silent, once again it’s too attentive (?)

我知道他不爱我

I know he doesn’t love me

他的眼神说出他的心

The emotion in his eyes speaks out for his heart

我看透了他的心

I saw through his heart

还有别人逗留的背影

Other people also stay at the back (?)

他的回忆清楚的不够干净

His clear recollection is not clean(?) enough

我看到了他的心

I’ve seen his heart

演的全是他和他的电影

To act the whole in his and her movie

他不爱我

He doesn’t love me

尽管如此

Nevertheless

他还是赢走了我的心

He’s still won my heart

Thanks,

Chris

Posted on: One-on-One Basketball

Hi

Can someone explain what the "bei" 被 is doing in the following expansion sentence.  Something to do with the passive? 

如果红队再犯规，就要被取消成绩。

thanks

chris

Posted on: Pinyin Section 15

Hi Lechuan, it was quite a few years ago, before I relocated to Shanghai. I actually went back to my "alma mater", London School of Economics, for a crash course of a few weeks' lessons just before I moved to SH (discount because I'd studied there a decade earlier!).  Despite the university's name, it also had a pretty good modern languages dept.  Admittedly, in only a few weeks I didn't learn much, but I did at least get a decent grounding in pinyin and pronunciation.

Chris

Posted on: Pinyin Section 15

Haven't listened to the podcast yet, but I'll never forget the suggestion given to me by my first Mandarin teacher.  Basically, make a continuous "ee" sounds as in "tree".  Then, without stopping the sound, and keeping it as an "ee", shape your mouth as if you were going to whistle.

It's great isn't it?!  The change in shape of your mouth, combined with the continuous "ee" sound that you're making, turns the sound into a magnificent Mandarin "ü" sound!!

Chris

Posted on: Days of the week

Just learn "xia4" as "next" (not as under or below, etc).  This makes its use in time expressions very easy to remember.  "Shang4" is then, by elimination, earlier periods of time.

Chris

Posted on: SKRITTER!!!

I currently use the nciku.com drawing functionality, but always a pain switching between cpod and nciku, so will be great to have this functionaility embedded in the cpod website!  Great work.

Posted on: I Have Class

I'm English, but I totally understand CPod's slant in the translations throughout the site to Americanisms and am not put out by it at all (if anything, I enjoy seeing how our cousins across the pond say and phrase things!).

Simple economics for Cpod really, isn't it - i.e. where is their biggest target market.......

Chris

Posted on: Valentine's Day

I personally love the phrase "deep pockets, short arms" to describe a "xiao3qi4gui3".......gets the point across brilliantly!

chris