User Comments - chris

Posted on: Moving

Hi,

Expansion sentence 1b: "xia4wu3 wo3 yao4 xue2xi2"......Why is there no "le" at the end?  In the dialogue a "le" was necessary and also in Expansion sentence 1a a "le" was necessary (ming2nian2 wo3 yao4 qu4 zhong1guo2 le).

Posted on: Please Speak Chinese

I find the biggest issue here, particularly at the lower intermediate level, is that even if you get past the first few exchanges, very quickly you'll get to a point where the other party is using too many words that you don't know, or grammar patterns that you don't know and personally, I think it is rude to expect them to keep repeating things or rephrasing things just so you can practice your Chinese.  If their English is better than your Chinese, then it is a simple matter of politeness to allow them to use English.

Of course, the situation may be reversed in which case I would expect the other party to use Chinese.

My biggest single frustration at the moment is that my speaking is still so much further ahead of my listening ability - so whenever I do have a chinese conversation with someone, I'm forever trying to do all the talking and not letting the other person get a word in edgeways for fear of not understanding what they're saying!

Posted on: Going to the Museum

Expansion sentence 1(c):

Ni3 qu4 na3li5 (Where did you go?)

Why is the translation not "where are you going?"?

I would expect the translation of "where did you go?" to be "ni3 qu4 le na3li5?" or "ni3 qu4 na3li5 le?"

Or, for "where are you going?" do we need the verb suffix "zhe" to show the verb is currently continuing?  For example "ni3 qu4zhe na3li5?"

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Heading Home

My take on laopo and laogong (and I have a chinese wife) is that they are equivalent to when married couples in the West, well the UK at least, use "honey", "love", "sweetheart", "darling", etc.  They're simply words acceptable to use in public to express deeper affection than simple friendship.  I rarely use my wife's actual name, except in an argument or if shouting for her attention in a crowd.

Posted on: Power Outage

Thanks Pete, got it.

Posted on: Power Outage

Expansion sentence 1a:

 你们别吃了 (ni3men bie2 chi1 le)

You've given the translation as "you guys, don't eat".

I thought this translation would be correct if there is no "le" at the end.  However, because there is a "le", doesn't this mean we're suggesting a 'change of state', i.e. the guys are already eating but you're telling them to stop.  So, I would translate it as "you guys, stop eating".

Have I got this right?

Thanks, Chris 

Posted on: Excuses for Being Late

reigau,

What a fantastic tool (the MDBG mouse-over thingy) that you linked to above.  I can't believe I haven't discovered this before!  Gives pinyin, english and even identifies when the character you hover over colocates with the following character(s).  Brilliant.

I'm registered for the 15 day free trial.  Is it pricey to purchase afterwards?

Thanks again, Chris.

Posted on: Excuses for Being Late

Hi Zhangdawei, I think you meant to address your post above to Matt C rather than me?  But no worries mate.

Reigau, thanks again for another transcript.  You should definitely start charging royalties!  (and if you could add the pinyin, you'd instantly become the best thing since sliced bread!)

Chris

Posted on: Excuses for Being Late

I don't normally comment on the quality of lessons (because to me, a user of coming up to 3 years now, they've been consistently great), but I thought I would speak out for this one.  Comfortably one of the best in my view, particularly for getting in some grammar guidance on the elusive "le" and in a way that truly clicked for me.  I know the standard approach for CPod is not to get into the grammar in the podcasts, but doing it in a non-obtrusive way as in this lesson was simply fantastic (for those of us that crave some grammar guidance from time to time!) and I do hope the team give serious thought to continuing with this for other trickier areas of grammar.

thanks, Chris

Posted on: Simple Toasts

Is there any difference in meaning between "sui2bian4" and "sui2yi4"?

thanks, Chris