User Comments - chris

Posted on: Post-Graduation Plans

Thanks Auntie68, as informative and knowledgeable as ever! ;-)

Chris

Posted on: Post-Graduation Plans

Hi all,

I have a grammar question (as always, since it's an area I struggle with but also find interesting).

In the expansion, there is the following part of one of the sentences:

他在医院实习时

Ta1 zai4 yi1yuan4 shi2xi2 shi2

"When he interned at the hospital....."

From other lessons, I always thought that to say "when...X..." you had to put "....de shi2hou4" at the end of whatever the "X" was.

So in the above sentence, I expected to see:

Ta1 zai4 yi1yuan4 shi2xi2 de shi2hou4

Can anybody tell me whether the expansion sentence is simply a shorthand way of saying the longer version that I expected to see above?  That is, is it acceptable to just omit the "de" and the "hou4"?

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Wake-up Call

Hi,

Why is the "de" needed at the end of the following expansion sentence:

这个服务是免费的

Zhe4 ge fu2wu4 shi4 mian3fei4 de

I don't think it's the infamous "shi......de" structure and I don't think the "de" is acting as a possessive.  The only thing I could think is that perhaps a more complete version of the sentence may be to add "fu2wu4" or "kuai qian2" at the end?

For example:

Zhe4 ge fu2wu4 shi4 mian3fei4 de fu2wu3/kuai qian2

??

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Moscow

I think "li4hai5" can also be used to describe a person that gets angry and upset easily.

I was trying to pay my other half a compliment by saying "ni3 hen3 li4hai5" ("You're amazing") - but I got punched for saying it!

Perhaps same pronunciation but different characters?

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Language Power Struggle

marcuche,

I so hear you.  I have exactly the same experience with my Chinese teacher - and she physically takes my text book away from me to prevent me from reading the characters as she reads out loud!!

It has to be done otherwise all you're doing is practicing your reading skills and not your listening skills at all.  And I'm also the same as you regarding picturing the words as I'm speaking - I will actually visualise the pinyin and tones in my head as I'm speaking Chinese which I find a really effective and speedy method.  The trouble is I try to adopt the same approach when trying to comprehend people speaking to me.  But because each word being spoken could have many different meanings, I'm too busy trying to figure out which meaning the person meant, by which time they've finished what it was they're saying.

Oh well, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again.

Posted on: What size?

Thanks Amber and Baillies - got it now!

Posted on: What size?

Hi all,

I have a grammar question that is probably above Newbie level (apologies) but it is in an area I still struggle to grasp.

Is the "de" at the end of the first sentence part of the "shi4.......de" pattern - just with the initial "shi4" omitted?  Or is it a possessive particle, i.e. indicating the "size of something" (the something being clear from the context as being shoes).  So, could we also say:

"ni3 chuan1 duo1da4 de xie2zi"?

Thanks, Chris

Posted on: Language Power Struggle

The situation in this lesson is EXACTLY why my spoken Chinese is 10 times better than my listening.  Practically all my Chinese conversations take this format - the native Chinese speaker talking English to me and me talking Chinese to the native speaker......

The trouble is, I simply can not crack the listening comprehension.  I learn and learn and learn lots of vocab, grammar, sentence structure, etc.  But I still can't "hear" properly.  I can actually "speak" chinese to a relatively decent level now - but even some of the Ele lessons I struggle to translate when listening.

Anyone have any advice on this?  Having spoken to lots of people already I am definitely in the minority - i.e. for most Chinese learners their listening comprehension is well ahead of their spoken Chinese.  Strange....

Posted on: What will it be?

wjeffreys - thanks for that online dictionary link!  I've seen various links given in other comment threads to various online dictionaries, but I've never bothered investigating.  However, for some reason I decided to give it a go today and I can't believe I haven't before.  Incredibly useful!!  Is there anywhere on CPod that helps to explain how best to use the online dictionaries?  I particularly liked the pop-ups to show you how to draw the characters and the brush-strokes - this is something that, as far as I'm aware, is missing on Cpod - so thanks for the great resource recommendation!  Now, both CPod and mdbg are in my favourites!

thanks, Chris

Posted on: Sound Check

Are there any exercises for this lesson?  The "exercises" tab is missing for me.

Thanks, Chris