User Comments - kien
kien
Posted on: Pushy Insurance Salesman
August 28, 2007 at 12:30 PMIn English, "return" can mean "return on investment" (e.g., interest, dividends) or "return of investment" (e.g., share buy back). Is this the same with "huibao"? If so, is there a way to make it clear which type of "huibao" is intended? In English, "return on" vs "return of" seems to do this succinctly. BTW, I don't comment often and would like to take the opportunity to say how much I like ChinesePod including the recent innovations - particuarly QingWen, MovieMadness, the Grammar link. Also appreciate reading the discussions. Many of the "poddies" are very inspiring!
Posted on: Buddhism and Taoism
August 5, 2007 at 8:34 PMHi - in Expansion on "shuo lai hua chang", the second paragraph seems to have been misread. "Dang nian women lia" seems to have been read "Dan shi women lia".
Posted on: Free Association
August 3, 2007 at 8:35 AMJohn/Amber - thanks for your responses. In my view, if and only if I continue to listen to ChinesePod diligently, will my Chinese improve. :-) If you ever come across the Chinese equivalent for "if and only if", do let us know!
Posted on: Free Association
July 31, 2007 at 9:59 PMHi John - from what I've read about logic, there is a distinction between "necessary condition" and "sufficient condition". (Any logicians among the CPodders?) I think "zhi yao" refers to a "sufficient condition" - e.g., as long as A, then B; or A is a sufficient condition for B. While "zhi you" refers to a "necessary condition" - e.g., only if A, then B; or A is a necessary condition for B. My question to you: How do you say, "A is both a necessary and sufficient condition for B"? That is, "zhi yao A, jiu B; zhi you A, cai B".
Posted on: Social Networking
July 24, 2007 at 9:26 PMHi Amber - thanks for the phrases
Posted on: Social Networking
July 23, 2007 at 2:24 AMThanks Rich. Cheers.
Posted on: Social Networking
July 22, 2007 at 9:53 PMDear ChinesePod - is it true that there is no word for "privacy" or "private" in Chinese? How would I say: "That's a private matter" "Private and confidential" "Don't infringe my privacy" Does the word "yinsi" apply here? Thank you.
Posted on: Travel Itinerary
July 2, 2007 at 9:37 PMDear ChinesePod - is it common and appropriate to write "20 hao, 6 yue", rather than "er shi hao, jiu yue"? In English, it's seems more usual to write "20 June" rather than "twenty June". The numerals seem to be easier on the eye. Just wondering ...
Posted on: Where's the bus stop?
May 13, 2007 at 10:05 PMI too am puzzled about the rationale for separating the Greatest Saturday Show from ChinesePod. I thought that the GSS was part of the learning program, helping those outside China understand better developments in China. In addition, I thought the GSS also served as a useful platform for Ken to update the ChinesePod community about developments in ChinesePod. There does seem to be some synergies between ChinesePod and the GSS. By the way, the RSS feed for the Saturday Show doesn't seem to work. I can download each episode individually, but an RSS feed would be convenient. Also (reflecting my technical ignorance), I don't know how to transfer the individual episodes to my iPod. So I can't listen to the Saturday Show when I'm out and about. Is the ChinesePod technical team still responsible for the Saturday Show?
Posted on: Traveling and Chopsticks
September 23, 2007 at 9:13 AMI suspect it is possible for a mainland Chinese to tell whether a hua qiao speaking putonghua comes from Hong Kong or from Singapore (or perhaps even Taiwan). But it also probably depends on how fluent the putonghua speaker is.