User Comments - ma_tai

Posted on: An Unplanned Tan

Well maybe Bodawei was a bit harsh, but I don't think you'll be hearing much "on accident" outside of America.

Whatever, you can talk how you like... though you won't convince me that it is actually grammatically correct. Isn't the phrase based on a thing happening "by way of an accident", so to say something happened "on an accident" just seems wrong. Rather than the rule changing, isn't it just people speaking incorrectly?

Personally, I prefer maintaining some standards of written English.

Anyway...

Posted on: Progress Tracking and Grammar Guide

The progress tracker seems to be going on those lessons which are in your achive rather than those marked as studied. Mine shows 134 intermediate lessons, but I have only actually marked 84 of those as studied.

But actually... I only have 44 active Int lessons, so 44+84 = 128, so does 134 include the lessons which I removed from my lesson list?

Also, my Ele category shows 638 lessons studied, which is impressive, considering there aren't that many lessons.

As to the recommended number of lessons. I'd have to question whether doing 80 Ele lessons is enough to progress to Intermediate level. Especially if Cpod is your only source of learning material. Has anyone actually done that? I've studied 304 Ele lessons (fairly thoroughly, listening to nearly all twice & reviewing new vocab) plus I have completed 2.5 textbooks in that time, and the only Int lessons I am comfortable with at the moment are the latest ones. There are heaps of them in the backlog that are way too hard (and many which, I personally think, should be re-categorised as Upp Int).

But... that's just me. However, I don't reckon I'm alone...

Posted on: Progress Tracking and Grammar Guide

That Daily Show video was hilarious. As we say in Australia (and maybe in a lot of other places), "only in America".

Posted on: Going to the Gym

Re: 女孩子很适合练瑜伽

Is it possible to put this sentence around the other way? In English the order in reversed. Yoga is suitable for girls, not girls are suited for yoga. So the Chinese order here seemed slightly strange.

Are you allowed to say 练瑜伽很适合女孩子?

Posted on: A New Jug for the Water Cooler

Yeah they have those water machines in Xiamen as well. I couldn't find cheaper water anywhere. I drank it for four weeks while I was there last time and didn't suffer ill effects. The only problem was finding unworn 1 RMB coins to make the machine work.

Posted on: Complaining to the Waiter

I was just listening to the lesson "Int - Here She Comes" and Jenny said that in that 对 is often for more abstract things, like 'she must be interested in me', 他应该对我有意思。 But she was comparing it to something like sending someone a text message, which would instead be 给。

I suppose Jen, in the examples you list above, these are all kind of one-way actions. Like you salute to someone, you explain to someone, and in the lesson, he complain to the waiter.

... compared to 对话 which two-way conversation. I don't know... am I imagining this difference?

Posted on: Complaining to the Waiter

To any of the team members floating around...

In this sentence, is 向 interchangeable with 对? Do they have the same meaning and emphasis?

"所以我向服务员投诉"

Thanks

Posted on: Monopoly, Uno, or Twister?

Yeah I played Chinese scrabble too. I found that it was a lot easier to get a much higher score than with English words (if you had enough vowels) because of all the q, z and x words!

I think they would have to rearrange the points system and the quantities of letters for a real Pinyin Scrabble.

Posted on: Monopoly, Uno, or Twister?

nciku says that 片子 for "movies" is pronounced piān zi, and "card" is piàn zi. Is this right?

Posted on: Stop Speeding!

Wow! I've never heard of the word "sedulous" before, but it is actually a word and seems you used in right.