User Comments - mark
mark
Posted on: Dormitory Drama - Part 9
December 3, 2014 at 3:37 AMNine seems to be not a record for a Chinesepod series. I think the series with 张亮 and 丽丽 lasted longer, and there was one about a couple that went travelling and got lured into a hotel where people dissappeared, that might have, too. It looks like Cpod's search no longer supports full content search. So, I couldn't find these series, and check, though.
David did a few horror and mystery series that I liked, but I think they didn't have that many episodes.
Posted on: Fall is here!
November 22, 2014 at 7:15 PMverb + 成 indicates a completed transformation. In this case the geese line up *to form* an inverted V shape, 人。
Posted on: China's Sex Museum
November 12, 2014 at 5:13 AMI went to 同理， but my wife wasn't very interested to see this museum. So, I thought it best to follow her lead.
Posted on: DIY With Electronics
November 11, 2014 at 5:31 AMMore advanced lesson: how to put a 拆开的iPhone back together.
Posted on: Do I Need To Learn Chinese Characters?
November 5, 2014 at 4:54 AMI started studying characters as soon as I started studying Chinese, and I am glad I did. Disabiguating homophones is one reason. The other is that I think it is very helpful to be able to read written material in the language I am studying. I've learned a lot from exchanging email and text messages with Chinese people. It is also helpful to be able to access native resources. For example， to look up a word I can't find in a dictionary on baidu, register on Chinese social platforms, read news articles and blog posts. My own style of study is to look for materials that have both a transcript and voice recording. Reading and listening by turns seems to be an effective way to learn, for me.
Pinyin materials are very limited. I also find that pinyin is harder to read than characters (the homophone problem, again), and not very useful for communicating with Chinese people.
The first time I was in an environment where Chinese characters were ubiquitous was actually when I was in Japan. It made me feel very illiterate and easy to get lost to not even be able to read basic signs. Since I have learned to read Chinese characters, I feel much more at ease travelling in Asia. I've even been able to communicate to Japanese people by writing characters, even though I don't know a word of Japanese.
汉字非常厉害！
Posted on: Using "avoid": 省得 (shěngdé) vs 以免 (yǐmiǎn)
October 11, 2014 at 5:14 PMI am not young, but I'm not 100 either, and I occasionally use, lest. The most common way to express 省得/免得/以免 in American English is probably a pattern: ..., so *object of concern* don't /doesn't/won't...
If I want to draw extra attention to the sentence, or give it a formal flavor, I will use "lest", precisely because it is less commonly used.
In general, I think English, especially American English, is a victim of its own success. Over time, I think we are dropping colorful but specialized vocabulary in favor of simpler expressions composed of basic words.
I'll hazard a guess that 普通话 is probably under similar influence.
Posted on: To carry out: 推行 (tuīxíng) vs 实施 (shíshī)
October 4, 2014 at 4:49 AM因为我作为程序工程师，我推行势力不多，但是有一点的实施的势力。
Posted on: 吧 (ba) and 要不 (yào bù)
September 27, 2014 at 4:17 PMI like the qing wen shows. I listen to them when they come out and always seem to learn something. I think there would need to be about a billion of them to cover all of the subtle points about the Chinese language, but random tidbits are cool.
Posted on: “停用死囚器官”的伦理与法治进步
December 26, 2014 at 6:05 AMJenny and David,
再见。我真会想您们，每一个你的作品我都很喜欢。我祝您们很好的未来，希望我们会有机会再一次联系。
保重，
老马