User Comments - mark

Posted on: Sobriety Check

因为在中国我不敢开车，就可以轻松地喝，地铁和出租车没有测查吧。其实我要多喝才敢坐车。

Posted on: Superstitions and Urban Legends

That's not the method of going blind that I have previously heard of, and sleeping with wet hair doesn't have a lot of appeal, in any case.

Posted on: You Smell Terrible!

I believe 下 and 上 are sort of algebraic in connection with units of time, meaning that you can add as many as is convenient for your listener to count, if you must, and can be used quite flexibly with months, weeks, minutes, hours ...

However, for days and years there are some specialized words that are more commonly used: 去年，明年， 前天，昨天，明天，后天。

Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 7: A Guy's Advice on Women

I, like tingyun, have gone through the intermediate lessons as they came out. They have always varied in difficulty, but probably less so in the last two or three years.

That said, I didn't find the Lili and Zhangliang story that difficult at the time. There is a lot of specialized vocabulary for the love-lorn, but the situations depicted are pretty straight-forward, and easy to understand. You can catch the drift of each dialog, and dig into the unfamiliar words and phrases later. It is probably good practice in that regard. (I often find that I don't catch every word, and have to interpolate. It is a good skill to develop.)

Posted on: 汽车限购

It sounds like Guangdong decided to surprise everyone with a limit on the number of cars that could be bought, and many people queued up through the night to get the limitted number of purchase permits that were available.  Also, a lot of would-be car owners are disappointed.

Part of me thinks this is wise policy, and part of me sympathizes with those who are affected and feel this is unfair.

This hasn't made the news in the US, even though we all feel having a car is a birthright, but occasionally fret about our carbon footprint.

很有趣！中文博客加油！

Posted on: 鸿富锦诉讼

After studying this story some more, and discussing it with a others, my understanding is somewhat improved. The company in question is Foxconn. So, the news story probably didn't lead to any real reform. The only fault that was explicitly mentioned about the reporting was a somewhat rhetorical description of a Foxconn employee's life, "Worked harder than a mule, fed worse than a pig, up earlier than a chicken, off work later than a prostitute, more faithful than the Monkey King, seemingly a better person than anyone else, but will be prematurely aged in five years." Not exactly factual reporting, but...

In the lesson banter Jenny mentioned she thought this episode revealed problems with Chinese journalism, as well as, manufacturing practices, but she didn't give details to support this statement.

Everyone I have asked about the motivation for the change of heart about the law suit, has had a different speculation, ranging from not wanting more bad publicity, to various possible behind the scenes actors exerting pressure.

There is still a lot of room for wonder, but no answers easily available. It has a feel that many things were deliberately left unsaid; a very tantalizing peek into the workings of the Chinese legal system, but more of a mystery than an explanation.

Posted on: Money Laundering Operation

I seldom post in Chinese here, because when I do, I very seldom get a response. Although, to TGIF's point, I have been an occasional contributor of grammatically awkward, uncorrected Chinese. Conversely, I too, have benefited from exchanging my malformed constructions to Chinese friends over IM.

Posted on: Money Laundering Operation

I believe the word you want is, 有种。

Posted on: Learning about Levels

在中文博客上发短信就是我们中文学生的闲时爱好吧！（我希望我有资格来说我是中文学生。其实都是自学，上大学的时候我浪费了我的青春。我估计发中文减小回复的可能性。咱们走着朝。）

Posted on: Random and Reckless

The translation below sounds unnatural to me.

别挑了，随便买点吧。
Don't choose, just buy something at random.

Would a better translation be:

Don't be so picky!  Just buy a little bit.

(Imagined scene:  We are on our way somewhere and need some sunscreen. 老伴儿 is comparing small bottles, big bottles, reading the labels of all the different brands, trying to find the absolute best deal.  I want her to just get enough for today, and not worry if it is the best.)