User Comments - joschka

Posted on: Awkward Silence

Come on now! Can't you do any better than plagerizing my words? Tsk, tsk, tsk!

Posted on: Awkward Silence

Rodsrandomnumber: you are making the common mistake of translating a language word by word (character by character) and then claiming your translation is the 'real meaning.'

Even common expressions in English cannot be understood by looking at each word individually. When you cross languages, your argument becomes total nonsense.

Does 早上好 'really' mean 'early before good/like?' Of course it doesn't.

The only accurate determiner of meaning is what the native speakers of a language collectively mean and understand by the words. Extracting that meaning is the challenge of translation.

Posted on: Awkward Silence

There is almost always someone in/from America who insists on inserting political commentary into every discussion.

A different and possibly more relevant line of study would be the sociological studies on elevator behavior. In an elevator, people are forced to stand closer to strangers than the 'normal' inter-personal distance any culture prefers. This makes the elevator a vaguely erotic environment and that discourages any conversation other than between acknowledged lovers.

Posted on: I want to buy this one

I checked this same question with my Mandarin teacher here in Taipei and she confirmed that Chinesepod is presenting the wrong character. The correct character is 什, as you indicated. (But it is pronounced shi2) When this character is alone, it means "assorted, varied, miscellaneous, or ten as used when writing a check.)

That 'other' character is 甚is the one pronounced shen4. When this is alone it means "what, very, extremely, more than."

Posted on: Where are you from?

(Sorry about the double posting - I couldn't find the first one.)

The lesson uses 哪裡人 for 'where are you from' while here in Taiwan, I learned 哪國人 for the same thing.

Note: in the second example, the pronunciation of the first character is něi while in the first example it's nǎ.

Posted on: Where are you from?

Try pronouncing 人 like the s in Jesuit.

Posted on: Where are you from?

If you can say Jesuit, you can pronounce 人

Posted on: What's Your Name?

Occasionally, a syllable is pronounce rather oddly.

The downloadable pronunciation program is a good reference to compare against. It works as expected so I know this isn't my computer or my ears.