User Comments - karlovac
karlovac
Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls
January 02, 2013, 07:18 PMI noticed in the expansion section that there are two different measure words used for dog. This sentence uses tiáo:
他养了好多宠物，有两条狗，一只猫，还有一只乌龟
... but this sentence uses zhī:
我的鸡腿被那只狗抢走了
I'm just curious - does zhī imply that it's a small dog? In the podcast, John mentioned that zhī was the measure word for small animals. Or are they interchangeable?
Posted on: Amusement Park
September 13, 2012, 08:06 PMI had a technical problem with the exercises on this lesson. In the dictation section, all the answers were wrong because I entered them in pinyin format with tone marks (ā, á, ǎ, à) instead of the number format (a1, a2, a3, a4). Normally I always use the tone mark format, and the answers are always shown with tone marks too. In this lesson, however, the results were shown with number notation, and they were all marked as wrong.
e.g. I entered:
nán háizi xǐhuan wán cìjī yī diǎn de yóuxì
... but got that wrong, with the correction:
nan2hai2zi5 xi3huan5 wan2 ci4ji1 yi1dian3 de5 you2xi4
... which as far as I can tell is the same thing.
Posted on: Tea Tasting
February 06, 2012, 03:01 PMWhen I look at the exercises in this lesson, every other multiple choice question is blank. I can see the answers, but no question. I have pinyin set for the exercises.
Posted on: No Hot Water
December 22, 2011, 04:45 PMThanks RJ and Stephen! So I guess the English for 空调 would be a "reversible heat pump".
Posted on: We're lost
December 20, 2011, 10:04 PMThanks for the explanation, John.
Posted on: No Hot Water
December 20, 2011, 09:25 PMI'm curious about the air-conditioner expansion example:
空调坏了，冷死了。(The air conditioner is broken. It's freezing.)
Does "空调" mean both air conditioner and heater? The reason I ask is that in the US, if the air conditioner was broken, it would be hot, not cold. (i.e. the A/C was failing to cool the room). This is the second expansion example that I've seen that suggested a "空调" would heat the room. I don't recall which lesson it was, but I think it referred to the air conditioner being turned off (and consequently the room was cold). Just curious if a Chinese "空调" is exactly what we think of as A/C.
Posted on: Push and Pull
December 12, 2011, 11:29 PMThanks for the follow-up bababardwan. I guess my ears aren't fully tuned to Chinese tones ;)
Posted on: We're lost
December 12, 2011, 08:38 PMHi all,
In the expansion section, there's this example:
你一个人去，别迷路了。
The English translation ("go yourself. Don't get lost") sounds quite harsh - like you're telling someone to go away. When I first tried to translate it, I guessed it was "You're going alone. Don't get lost", which sounds more like you're concerned about them.
I assume that the harsh translation is intentional, because the Chinese is missing something like a "一下" or a "吧"?
If you wanted to sound concerned, would you say something like:
你一个人去，别迷路一下吧。
Thanks,
Antun
Posted on: Push and Pull
November 30, 2011, 10:12 PMThe expansion (and exercises section) contains this example:
míngtiān tiānqì yě bù hǎo.
I've listened to the audio version to it several times, and I cannot hear the "ye" at all.
Posted on: Hamsters, Snakes, and Owls
January 03, 2013, 09:45 PMThanks!