User Comments - johnrash
johnrash
Posted on: Jaywalking
August 2, 2007 at 1:30 PMRon / Jenny If you ever listen to Judas Priest you would know it certainly should be "Breaking The Law". "Breaking The Rule" doesn't quite carry the same weight does it? ps. Jaywalking is against the law in the US, though seldom enforced these days.
Posted on: #10
August 1, 2007 at 3:06 PMSorry Amber, I've never heard anyone say "do up your seatbelt". However it does make the seatbelt sound like a fashion accessory.
Posted on: #9
July 25, 2007 at 3:21 PMFantastic scene. So many things are revealed here about the similarities of our two characters. So subtle and beautiful. Great film choice.
Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 17: It's Over (Again)
July 24, 2007 at 9:38 PMA few questions from this lesson: 1. In the sentence: "我觉得我们分手都是误会" why use 是 and not 有? Is it even possible to say 有误会 (have a misunderstanding)? Or is this just my english syntax trying to confuse the correct chinese structure? 2. 话说and 说话. Can you discuss the difference that happens when swapping the order of these two characters. 3. 妒忌 and 忌妒. John says in the lesson swapping the order here makes no difference. Is this sort of like a palindrome in Chinese? Is there an official term for this rare occurrence of characters being read backwards and forwards but having the same meaning? 4. In the lesson 冤枉 is said to mean "wrongfully accused" but in "the Fix" and the translation it's only said to mean "wronged"。 Ｗhich is correct? 谢谢.
Posted on: Snacks
July 20, 2007 at 5:29 AMAnother lesson where I'm a bit confused by the use of 来. In this lesson "B" says: 你也来一块? In the Baby Care lesson 来was used to replace 做, here is seems to function almost like 要. I really could use an episode of Qing Wen to sort out the times that 来 means something more than just "to come“. As for Chinese snacks, I love 小馒头(xiao man tou). In fact... this lesson made me miss this snack food so much I had to change my avatar!
Posted on: Baby Care
July 16, 2007 at 11:27 AMIn the conversation B says "可是有好多事情还得我自己来呀" but I'm confused here by the use of 来 in the place of 做. I'm a fairly new learner, but when I saw this compared to the translation it seemed that the word 做 should appear. Is it common to use the word 来 in this context? I realize that when in a room with other people and the phone rings, or someone knocks on the door etc, you can say "我要来“ to mean that you will take care of it. Is this a similar use of 来？ Or am I totally off base. Thanks for another great lesson. Even though I don't have kids the language is uber useful.
Posted on: Chinese Seasonings
July 16, 2007 at 11:20 AMIn the lesson it's explained that the sentence "还要什么吗" uses "吗" to make the question more polite and inquisitive. However, as someone only learning for about a year I find myself slipping up and using 吗 at the end of questions that are not yes-or-no questions. I always felt this was a bad habit I needed to eliminate from my speech, but here it seems it's not only OK but more natural. I'm curious now when is it absolutely not ok to use 吗 at the end of my question sentences, since my general thought before was to reserve this for yes or no questions only. (side note: yes no questions with "是不是 or 有没有" structure should absolutely never end with 吗. 对不对？）
Posted on: Going to the Museum
June 12, 2007 at 1:54 PMThis one didn't come through on my feed... I checked today and it seems an option to have the new "Qing Wen" show in the feed now. When CPOD adds features to the feed is it necessary to go back and resubscribe? I tried this and today's class came through fine....
Posted on: Returning an Item
June 7, 2007 at 12:44 AM@RonInDC. 发票 are EXTREMELY important in China. Here's a few places I found as a traveller that you must hold on to any paper you are given until your time there is finished: -Hotel. There is a deposit and then your regular 发票. If you show up without some part of this paperwork you will surely have a more difficult time checking out and reclaiming your deposit. -Train travel. Your ticket is used to get onto the train, and to exit the station at your arrival point. If it's an overnight train the trainworkers will come around and trade your ticket for a credit-card sized card for you to keep until the end of the night. The next morning the workers will return your original ticket in exchange for the card. -Subway travel. Many cities use point-to-point pay scale (like the Octopus card in Hong Kong) which is scanned at the point of entry and point of exit. Not like New York where you go in and can ride around all day and exit without any sort of Metro Card at all. ---------- Im sure there are many other instances of this. I've only been to China a few times, but learned to keep every scrap of paper I accumulated until the end of my trip. This has also been useful for return visits, helping to find interesting places that I visited the first time...
Posted on: All About 所有 (suǒyǒu) and 都 (dōu)
September 5, 2007 at 3:37 PMWhy is Qin Wen no longer in my feed?