User Comments - erikalee
erikalee
Posted on: Please Speak Chinese
June 24, 2007, 04:32 AMHey changye, maybe because it's in simplified and I can't read that as well, I'm not totally getting the second sentence.. qing zai da dian ???, hao ma? The first one is "Can you please speak a little slower?" The last one is "Can you please say it again?" Hao bu hao?
Posted on: The Old Man Who Moved a Mountain
June 22, 2007, 05:25 AMIs the guy speaking in this dialog (especially the last sentence) using a bit of (what my husband calls) "old chinese man" speak? My husband does that sometimes.. he drags out some words (especially tone 2s), stacatto's others (especially tone 4s), and it's all very dramatic.
Posted on: Booking a Plane Ticket
June 20, 2007, 01:29 PMThanks Amber! This helps a lot.. does the "yi xia" trick to make something politer work in other cases too?
Posted on: Sweet Watermelon
June 18, 2007, 02:51 PMIn that PBS series "Sa-Gua" about the Chinese cats, they're all named for different melons.. xigua (watermelon), donggua (winter melon) and sagua (silly melon). And yes, melons are fruits, but like tomatoes, which are also biologically fruits, we use some of them like vegetables.
Posted on: Reduplication of Verbs
June 17, 2007, 11:29 PMOkay.. I want to know about "dao" since I'm obviously confused (see my question from earlier today). I also want to know about basic things that I sometimes wonder if I use correctly.. like "yue lai yue" and "you.. you..." and my husband tells me that my confusion in the recent Intermediate "Buying a Ticket" script about the use of "yi ge" is that Chinese people can say "local a factory" or "a local factory" and both work. I just can't say it the former way in English. Oh and I have a TON of trouble figuring out how to say things like "nothing" "something" "stuff" "some time" "some day".. where you don't use a specific noun. Those would probably be pretty easy to cover. I can go on.. and on about things you could cover here. I'm at that point where I need to understand structure and grammar patterns well enough to use them, not just understand them. I think that's the tricky part and perhaps why folks trying to move from elementary to intermediate run into trouble? Thanks for creating this section.
Posted on: Booking a Plane Ticket
June 17, 2007, 02:57 PMAnother grammar question.. related to my earlier question. I think my problem is that I don't think I understand how "dao" works. You use "gai dao" to mean "change to" and then in the expansion set (3rd sentence) you use "shenme shihou... dao" which I think is a grammar pattern. But I don't really understand how and when that word comes into play. It doesn't make me not understand the sentence, but I could have recreated the sentences that it's in. Can you all give me more insight into how "dao" works? Thanks!
Posted on: Booking a Plane Ticket
June 17, 2007, 05:49 AMSorry to ask so many questions.. usually my husband answers them for me, but he's distracted by his video game tonight. Can you all explain "gai yixia" and "gaidao".. both listed as "to change" in the dialogue.. I'm guessing it's "gaidao" but in the first iterance he shortens it and says "change a bit" because he's embarrassed and wants to soften the request?? Maybe?
Posted on: Booking a Plane Ticket
June 17, 2007, 05:39 AMI have another question.. and maybe it's obvious, but I'm still lower intermediate. In the sentence: 不用了,我是去参观当地的一个工厂的。 Why is it "当地的一个工厂的" (local a factory) and not "一个当地的工厂的" (a local factory)? I understand that the "de" at the end comes from the "shi..de" usage (which would make a good extra in your grammar section, btw), but I'm not sure I see why the "yi ge" is where it is.
Posted on: Booking a Plane Ticket
June 17, 2007, 05:24 AMWhat about asking for a window seat? We now know aisle and middle seats..
Posted on: Studying Japanese
June 25, 2007, 04:08 AMHey LeeInEngland, To respond to your comment about what do Chinese people think about studying Japanese.. I can't directly comment, but I imagine it has to do with where you are, your age and upbringing. Story 1: (I'm not up on my history, so forgive me if I seem at all insensitive.) My husband's grandma "Ama" speaks Japanese because she lived in Taiwan when the Japanese took over there and forced everyone to learn it. As a result, his mom also speaks Japanese, but not quite as well. I think his mom (if Simon took up Japanese) would think studying Japanese is fine, even good, but his grandma would likely be unhappy. She resents having to learn it. Simon would like to learn Japanese because it would allow him to watch more anime.. If we lived in China it would be different of course, but there you have it. Story Two: I have a friend who is a famous comic book artist. He's Korean-American. His mom apparently spent years complaining about the Japanese and telling her sons how terrible everything and everyone Japanese is. Then a few years ago, she surprised everyone by saying she was getting remarried... to a Japanese man. I know this doesn't answer your question, but I thought you might find my little stories interesting or amusing. BTW, sorry to hear about the Cutty Sark burning a few weeks ago.. I'd been there several times when I lived in London. Very sad news.