User Comments - kbergman
kbergman
Posted on: Two Tough Ladies
September 21, 2009 at 3:10 AMryanchild: the (traditional) character for jian4 is 賤. It means cheap; lowly; shameless. "Ni3 hen3 jian4" is a phrase I hear from my girlfriend almost daily and I've likened it to the expression "you're such a smart ass" or "you're such a jerk" usually said playfully.
Posted on: How Many Zeroes?
April 1, 2009 at 2:34 AMPearltowerpete, you wrote a million as 100,000. Maybe you should count the zeros! Quick, how many zeros in a million. ;)
Just like you, I also find it easier to think of a million as yi bai wan, and then add and subtract zeros from there.
Posted on: Going Dutch
January 9, 2009 at 9:25 PMMy girlfriend in Taiwan has never heard of the expression AAzhi. Is this strictly a mainland (and maybe cosmopolitan) expression? She says to use ge4 fu4 ge4 de, which sounds quite harsh to me.
Posted on: Chinatown Diary
February 15, 2011 at 3:35 AMI live in Taiwan and prefer the softness of the accent, too. But you're right that the initial sounds are inconsistent to say the least. I'll never forget the time I corrected a Taiwanese on her pronunciation of the word for intelligent. It isn't chongming, it's congming. When she realized that I was right and she was wrong, she got quite flustered and angry.