User Comments - mafanni

Profile picture

mafanni

Posted on: Upgrading Software
February 16, 2013 at 1:46 AM

A CHINESE HACKER'S IDENTITY UNMASKED

Cloaked by malware, aliases, and misspellings, computer spies are usually invisible. This one made a mistake. A special investigation

Cyb3rsleuth said he felt like he’d found the face of a ghost when he saw pictures on a blog linked to Zhang Changhe

Cyb3rsleuth said he felt like he’d found the face of a ghost when he saw pictures on a blog linked to Zhang Changhe

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-02-14/a-chinese-hackers-identity-unmasked

Posted on: Annual Meeting
February 15, 2013 at 10:40 PM

here is another use of hao le.

think of it as 'done-completed'

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/mothers-birthday#sthash.VkDPFHnh.dpbs

Posted on: Kindergarten
February 15, 2013 at 6:51 PM

班 is a very versatile word, from 班房 to 牙班.  but what are the meaning of  

慢班 & 快班?

Posted on: How Did New Year's Come About?
February 10, 2013 at 9:04 PM

not sure if a china IP can access this link.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/leaner-new-year-china-tones-down-celebrations

if not I can post the story.

打包 may become more like the US.  I wonder if 1/2 size portions also mean 1/2 the price?  If not, restuarants doubled their profits!

祝大家春节快乐。 恭喜发财!

Posted on: Where Are My Socks?
February 5, 2013 at 4:51 AM

When I meet new Chinese friends and the husband addresses his wife as 老婆, it reminds me of when I was a child and we called our great grandmother 婆婆. So I joke with them and asked 'so it's okay to you call your wife 'old granny'?  Of course they don't get it at first.

BTW, how about a Qingwen on phrases that are sarcastic in nature.  One example was used in your dialogue was 你自己找.  I heard another one 废话!

Posted on: The Riddle of Three Sons
January 28, 2013 at 2:36 AM

how about guessing what's xiao ming's father name? 

Posted on: Questioning a Child
January 23, 2013 at 6:45 PM

can you discuss the difference between  破 and 坏.

I was told 坏 is used for mechancial things and 破  for all other things.

比如， ‘我的手机坏了’ ‘我的杯子破了’。

错不错?

regarding this sentence on using 坏,  why does 坏东西 translate into 'nasty'?

老鼠真的是坏东西。  on first read, I thought it said 'rats' are broken things'

and does the Chinese culture generally do not make a distinction between 'rats' and 'mice'?

Posted on: Annual Meeting
January 23, 2013 at 6:29 PM

here is a lesson on using 'hao' - in this case 'hao' is being used as to mean 'completion' and not good. Will help you understanding 'ding hao' to mean completed booking.

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/getting-dressed#sthash.suXwZRU7.dpbs

Posted on: Annual Meeting
January 19, 2013 at 4:39 PM

is there a word for 'pizza parlor'? or only pi sa dian ?

long long time ago as kids we'd go to the 'pizza parlor'.

Posted on: Annual Meeting
January 15, 2013 at 12:12 AM

hao le is letting you know it is ready/done

like when you are asked ni hao le ma ? are you ready? are you done yet?

that's my interpretation. I would think you could also say it without 'hao' but a native speaker could tell you with 'hao' would be more natural.

and I think keyi / neng is pretty much interchangeable.