User Comments - cinnamonfern

Posted on: How to Protect the Environment

I think that America isn't too different from China in that most people need some economic benefit to choose to do things to help the environment.  如果乱丢垃圾,的话要付钱。 (ruguo luan diu laji, dehua yao fuqian.)  Hopefully what I just said is that if you litter, you have to pay money.  Is there a better way to say "pay a fine"?

In my homestate we also have a "bottle deposit" where stores will give you money ($0.10 each!) when you return your aluminum cans and plastic and glass bottles.  Of course...the reason it's called a "bottle deposit" is that you pay the extra amount when you buy these beverages. My fiance, who is from Canada, greatly resents the bottle deposit - but I feel like I'm getting money for nothing every time I take the bottles in.  :)

Posted on: Interested in Chinese Medicine

Thanks! I totally forgot about posting this. :D

Posted on: This Needs to be Dry Cleaned

Thank you! :)

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

Haha - the names tend to make sense, except for the poor saxophone, which I just looked up and apparently gets the fun name of 萨克斯风 (sàkèsīfēng).

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

Oh my gosh! Really? How long has that been there? I have been using the vocab list for 2-and-a-half years and have never noticed this! Shock and embarrassment! My life will never be the same. :D Thanks!

Posted on: This Needs to be Dry Cleaned

Can you buy a clothes dryer in China? 中国里你可以买烘干机吗？ (zhōngguólǐ nǐ kěyǐ mǎi hōnggānjī ma?) I have realized I don't practice with my grammar enough, so please correct me if this is terrible!  :) 

I know most of my friends who have come to the states don't use the dryers in the campus apartment laundromats; they still hang their clothes up to dry in their apartments. I have an all-in-one top-loading 洗衣机 (xīyījī) that is also a “clothes dryer", which basically means that the clothes are warm and a bit less wet when they come out. Then I have to hang them up and still wait a few days for them to dry completely.

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

Ha ha - I didn't realize it was you until I looked at your name...the pic isn't really of you is it? It doesn't look like you, but then my avatar doesn't look like me either. ;)

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

LOL! But really, that's totally true...nice to see it grew back though. :D

Posted on: Chinese names, Avatar and Meet-ups

Is this the character you mean? 如 (rú)? You can look up characters by drawing them on some Chinese dictionary websites. (I also have no idea how to look up characters via their radicals...) The website I generally use is: www.nciku.com

I've noticed that for this website the result you get is dependent on stroke order, so it is good to have a general idea of how the character should be written in Chinese.

I believe that the entire name would be Wáng Yùrú (王郁如).

Posted on: A Stroll through the Hutongs

I have a question about the 一边...一边... (yībiān...yībiān...) pattern.  In the dialogue, the subject is 我们 (wǒmen).  But could you use this for two different subjects doing something at the same time?  For example - the common North American scenario of a sofa getting stuck in the doorway.  I tell my friend "You push, and I'll pull.”  In Chinese can you say “你一边推，我一边拉." (nǐ yībiān tuī, wǒ yībiān lā.)?  Or is there a different way to say this?