User Comments - jen_not_jenny
jen_not_jenny
Posted on: Nearby Tea House
May 19, 2010 at 2:14 AMCoffee vocabulary: http://hi.baidu.com/starbucks/blog/item/dfff1àc4dc3def9d72afcb7.html
One concentrated area of coffeeshops and sidewalk cafes in Shanghai is Tiánzǐfāng田子坊。I'm not sure if they have any teahouses though...perhaps Jenny can tell us if there are any on her map!
Posted on: Food Flavors, Shanghai Style
May 19, 2010 at 1:45 AMI know, right? We try to keep an open mind...
Posted on: What's your (animal) sign?
May 18, 2010 at 9:56 AMJust realize I inadvertently changed the baby's gender...oops!
Posted on: Complaining to the Waiter
May 18, 2010 at 8:25 AMI vaguely remember learning that 对and 向 are not often interchangeable. A glossary search of 向 turns up some interesting sample sentences...the 向 + object + verb formula seems to only work with certain verbs.
I found sentences using 向 + object + the following verbs:
敬礼salute
鞠躬bow
道歉apologize
解释explain
求婚propose
递交submit
These seem to be very formal, proper sorts of verbs...and substituting 向 with 对with these verbs feels sort of...rude? presumptuous?
Connie, can you shed some light?
Posted on: Learning English in China
May 18, 2010 at 4:16 AMI enjoyed Jenny and John's discussions of English place names in this lesson, Oxford 牛津 and Cambridge 剑桥 specifically. Jenny's explanation that 剑桥 is a partially phonetic translation makes perfect sense, especially when you consider the Cantonese pronunciation of 剑/劍:gim. Since the first major wave of Chinese immigration was largely Cantonese, a lot of Chinese names for foreign cities sound a little better in Cantonese than they do in Mandarin...or at least I think so! ;)
Cities like Los Angeles actually have separate Canto and Mandarin names: 羅省 lo4 saang2 in Canto and 洛杉磯 luóshānjī in Mandarin
Posted on: What's your (animal) sign?
May 18, 2010 at 1:45 AMConnie, correct me if I'm wrong...Another way you can use 大 to discuss age...if you see a toddler, or a baby, and want to ask the proud mother how old her child is, 她几岁？doesn't really work because at that stage most parents count their child's age in months. Instead, you can ask, 他多大？
Posted on: Shanghai Expo Pavilions
May 17, 2010 at 9:33 AMYes, that's the info I see online, too... Actually, now that I think about it, the local TV station lists the peak dates pretty often, and I think the only dates I saw in October were the 1st through the 3rd....I'm not confident in my memory, but I wonder if perhaps they've changed what constitutes a Peak Day because of the aforementioned "low" attendance??
In that case, you might be in luck, xiao_liang...
Posted on: Shanghai Expo Pavilions
May 17, 2010 at 8:34 AMYes, there are special tickets for "peak attendance days" and the last few days of the expo run are included in those. I believe those tickets are sold out...
Posted on: A Tour of the Office
May 17, 2010 at 2:10 AMHi Orangina,
我来自某某地方 and 我从某某地方来 are your best options, I think. 从来=always.
Posted on: Getting Where You Need to Go
May 22, 2010 at 2:38 PMHi dpinskey,
I wonder if your browser is allowing you to see the "funny" IPA (international phonetic alphabet) characters used to transcribe Shanghainese...the word for 好 should appear as an 'h' and a symbol that looks like a backwards 'c,' whereas the word for 静 should look like a funny 'z' with a loopy tail, followed by 'in.'