User Comments - chris

Posted on: Instant Noodles

Dear all,

I've had a problem with the Chinese for "English (ying1wen2)" for a while and one of the expansion sentences for this lesson reminded me of it.

Why is the pinying for the first character "ying1" but when it's spoken it sounds more like a "yong1"?  I've listened back to the expansion sentence audio over and over again, and it definitely sounds like "yong1" to me.

Is it an error in the audio, or am I simply just not getting it?!

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Making Negative Comparisons

Great lesson team,

I never knew of this structure before.  Rather I would always use the "....bi3.....adjective" structure.

So, for example, to say my Chinese is not as good as Amber's I would simply say:

"wo3 de zhong1wen2 bi3 Amber de hen3 cha4"

I presume that for any sentence one might say using the "mei2you3" structure, there will always be another sentence of the same meaning using the "bi3" structure but just with the opposite adjective (hao3 vs cha4, for example)?

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Keys, Wallet, Phone

Amber,

Regarding "wo3 zai4 chu1zu1che1 shang", could we also say "wo3 zuo4 chu1zu1che1" for the same meaning?  Or does my sentence more strictly mean "I am travelling by taxi"?

thanks, Chris

Posted on: Keys, Wallet, Phone

Missworldtraveler

I've noticed this from my textbooks too.  I believe that all of the place words can use "....bian" e.g. hou4bian (behind), qian2bian (in front of), "you4bian" (on the right).

I believe that for most of the place words you can also substitute the "bian" with "tou" without changing the meaning.

However, I do not believe you can use "tou" with left and right, e.g. "you4tou" is not correct for "on the right".  It would have to be either "you4bian" or "you4mian".

My usual caveat that I'm not a native Chinese speaker, so maybe one of the cpod team can confirm.

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Street Argument

Thanks Amber, that's cleared something up that's been bugging me for a long time!

Chris

Posted on: Street Argument

Hi Light487,

Your second sentence above is a structure I often struggle with.  I know that when we say "I'm good" we simply say "Wo3 hen3 hao3".  That is, there is no need for "shi4".

So, I think that "They are very silly" might actually simply be "Ta3men hao3 ben4" rather than "Ta1men shi4 hao3 ben4".

Perhaps one of the cpod team or native speakers could clarify this area?

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Street Argument

Quick technical suggestion for the exercises - I'm starting to make the transition to doing the exercises with the simple characters rather than Pinyin.  However, I still have to resort to the pinyin version from time to time.  I've noticed that where there are two different characters used in the exercises, but with the same pinyin notation, or in the case of this lesson, two identical characters with same pinyin (kan4), the exercises don't allow mixing them up. 

Classic example in this lesson is the first exercise where you have to link the character/pinyin to the meaning.  Kan4 means both "to see" and "to look" but the lesson forces you to link one of the "kan4" to "to see" and the other to "to look".

Obviously not a major issue, just wanted to bring it to cpod's attention.

thanks, chris

Posted on: Best Friends

Bababardwan,

Yes, Tsingtao and Qingdao are the same beer.  I believe the former spelling is under the old Wades-Giles romanisation system, whereas the latter is pinyin.

Qingdao beer is available everywhere in Shanghai (and from my experiences elsewhere in China too).  The hilarious thing about it is listening to foreigners who have never studied Chinese/pinyin trying to order it!!

Chris

Posted on: Best Friends

Changye,

There are vast differences in prices of draft beers here in Shanghai.  Most of the expat places (I won't mention names in case it's against CPod's advertising rules) will happily take 40 kuai off me for a draft pint of Tiger (omnipresent in Shanghai!).  I'm also a big fan of guinness but have been asked for 65 kuai for a draft pint from a number of establishments - and I stress these are not 5 star hotels, but simply bars.

Happy hours are more reasonable - pints of lager are usually around 25 kuai, or you get a buy one get one free deal.  However, the local restaurants/bars that I frequent charge only a fraction of these prices.

The overly-expensive expat places flourish because there will always be enough people willing to pay the inflated prices.  The places will charge however much the market will bear!

Chris

Posted on: Bangkok

Hi all,

Interesting comments above, thanks.  I've got a somewhat less interesting question, but hopefully useful grammatically.  Can anyone explain to me the purpose of "yi1dian3" in the following expansion sentence:

"Zhe4ge she4ji4 yi1dian3 te4se4 dou1 mei2you3"

"There is nothing special about this design at all".

If I resort to literal translation (this often helps me to understand the grammar), I get:

"This design a little characteristics all not have".

I guess another way of translating it could be "This design does not even have a little character" - which would explain the "yi1dian3".

But if we're simply saying the design has nothing special about it at all, couldn't we just omit the "yidian" in the expansion sentence and achieve the same meaning?  Or is the "yi1dian3........dou1 mei2you3" a formal grammatical construct?

Thanks, Chris