User Comments - kettle
kettle
Posted on: Night Cat
December 26, 2007, 03:43 PMdiegochen, Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to help with my sentences. You've given me some stuff to concentrate on. Thank you. I see some obvious errors that I should have caught myself (such as not using a timeframe, ie 每晚。。。两，三个小时), but there are also some interesting things I wouldn't have thought of ... for example, “现在的我“ seems like a useful phrase/construction, as does 谈不上. Is this second one a fairly common phrase with the general meaning of "not necessarily" or did it just fit here? Also seeing different words choices that are more natural is great. At any rate, thanks again for taking the time to correct those sentences. You've given me some good stuff to work on. Wish I could offer something in return.
Posted on: Night Cat
December 24, 2007, 08:29 PMdiegochen, I don't think that's impertinent at all. I think anything you have to offer will be greatly appreciated. I know that's how I feel.
Posted on: Night Cat
December 24, 2007, 08:23 PMluobinzhenmei, I definitely don't mind being laughed at. It's kind of given when trying to learn a language and like you said, it builds character. :) My wife and I are actually debating a move sometime in the near future, so I'm curious which state you're in with chances to speak. You could say, I don't find many opportunities to be properly "laughed at" unless I drive a few hours to Montreal, which has a great Chinatown ... Perhaps I'm not searching hard enough. I know I'm too shy to force the waiters at Chinese restaurants to put up with my poor skills. (That is if they don't speak Cantonese. That seems to be the most common here.) Still, I kind of like the idea of a list of the most commonly misused Chinese phrases/words/sentence patterns from non-native speakers, so we can all laugh at ourselves... :)
Posted on: Night Cat
December 24, 2007, 03:17 PMAlso, I second emberswift's question about 怎么 and 为什么... I keep finding myself tripping up on these gray areas between the dictionary and actual usage, not to mention English grammar rearing it's head in my Chinese. Whenever I try to make up a sentence I'm afraid it would sound odd to a native Chinese speaker, whether for word choice or grammar. When a Chinese speaker does that in English we call it Chin-glish. What would you call the opposite? "Engl-ese"? At any rate, here's a thought for a future lesson or a Qingwen: Top ten most commonly heard "Engl-ese"-isms. Think about it. I'm currently studying alone in a rural area of the least culturally diverse state in the US, so Chinesepod is my only hope. Help me Obi-wan, you're my only hope.
Posted on: Night Cat
December 24, 2007, 02:56 PMI just noticed that the grammar guide seems to be out of commission... bummer. I hope it returns soon. I was going to suggest making the guide more easy to search. I think the link with lessons is great, but it's been more difficult to use productively when just browsing or searching for something independent of a specific lesson. Just a thought.
Posted on: Night Cat
December 24, 2007, 02:51 PM真好的对话！ 也对我现在有点一样。 从来我总是一个夜猫子（不一定是喝酒的人）可是最近我不能睡觉，才睡觉两，三个小时。一直太累了，但是有很多空。 中文怎么说 insomnia/insomniac? This is a great lesson/dialogue, and it bears some resemblance to my life lately. I've always been a night owl, though not necessarily a 'party animal' (all right... that too sometimes). But recently I've only been able to sleep two or three hours a night. I'm always tired, but I have plenty of free time. How do you say insonmia/insomniac in Chinese? Were my Chinese sentences 还可以？Or has the lack of sleep (and not enough study during all that free time) made me incoherent?
Posted on: Just Say Yes
December 04, 2007, 10:58 PMI used to say “对对对“ quite a lot, and when I started studying again here on CPod I fell right back into it. Not long afterwards my wife pointed out that I was constantly responding "right, right right" in conversation. It quickly became a verbal tick in English that sounds very odd (even snooty...) to most people. The price of learning? Help, I can't stop!! :) At any rate, I'm very glad I can access 请问 again. It kept telling me I had to upgrade, but now it's back. I'm very very happy. Thanks. I missed it.
Posted on: Cold Will Kill You
November 09, 2007, 04:21 AMIn the expansion exercise sentence 大人不能骗小孩儿 the translation was something like 'Adults shouldn't deceive children.' I'm assuming you could use 应该 in this sentence, but would it sound less 'fluent'? ie 大人不应该骗小孩儿。 Thanks.
Posted on: Cold Will Kill You
November 09, 2007, 04:10 AMWow, this is quite a discussion. For some strange reason this lesson made me crave a luke warm Coke ... and a hot spicy boil of cilantro noodles like I used to get in Beijing. Never could get a cold soda in China, but no problem getting a cold beer, which was fine. Somehow I can't believe the luke warm soda was health related though.
Posted on: Night Cat
December 28, 2007, 05:01 PMAmber, Thanks for the definition on 谈不上 (tan2 bu shang4). luobinzhenmei, Your suggestions are great. I particularly like the "Chinese table" one. I may have overstated my cultural isolation and have revealed some of my laziness (or at least my reticence to disturb waitpeople with my linguistic ineptitude). I'm in rural northern Vermont, not far from the Canadian border. A very homogenous population, and the nearest colleges are an hour drive to Burlington, but still closer than Montreal. Vermont is typically one of the "whitest states in the union" but Burlington is actually pretty diverse for a small city, with an increasing number of immigrants from many countries. You've reminded me I'm really not that far from potential resources, I just need to make that extra time and effort to search them out. Middlebury College is too far away but I've heard the University of Vermont has an increasingly active Asian studies program, so I'll start there. I normally don't do New Year's resolutions, but this seems like a worthwhile one. Thanks for the motivation and the suggestions.