User Comments - martyang
martyang
Posted on: The Red Spectrum of Meaning
March 01, 2010, 03:50 AMThanks, jjinfrance and bababardwan.
I'm sure hoping there's some hongli for me down the road as I continue my Chinese studies...
Posted on: The Red Spectrum of Meaning
February 28, 2010, 01:09 AMWould it be correct to use "hongli" in a sentence such as "Your hard work will pay great dividends" - that is, can hongli be used in a metaphorical sense? Thanks.
Posted on: Bad Cell Reception
March 04, 2009, 06:03 AMGreat lesson, Ken and Jenny. I find these lessons with idiomatic, collocational phrases to be especially valuable, as textbooks by and large ignore this type of language spoken on street.
Jenny, kudos to you for familiarity with Cool Hand Luke. A large majority of Americans of a certain age would recognize the "failure to communicate" quote, but somewhere along the way in China/Australia/Singapore you must have picked it up. Impressive!
Just to refresh your memory (one really has to have seen the movie for the scene to make much sense):
Posted on: Do you have a cold?
November 28, 2008, 07:10 AMThanks Pete, Henning and Ronk, may you live 100 years!
Posted on: Do you have a cold?
November 26, 2008, 05:02 AMWould anyone know if it is common in China to respond to a sneeze with the Chinese equivalent of "bless you" or "Gesundheit"?
Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise
November 03, 2008, 04:37 AMAmber -
Could you possibly supply the chinese characters which correspond to the phrases used in the podcast?
Here's my unofficial list:
ni zuijin zemmeyang?
ni shengyi zemmyang?
chou hao
hen bang
fei chang hao
ting hao de
man hao de
bu cuo
ma ma hu hu
bu shi hen hao
bu zemme hao
hai xing ba
hai ke ye
hai hao
yi ban ban
hen cha
Thank you!
Posted on: Shikumen vs. Hutongs and Chinese vs. Western School
October 24, 2008, 04:42 AMAmber -
With regards to the Xintiandi development in Shanghai, it was supposedly deconstructed brick-by-brick around the turn of the millenium by the the developer, the Shui On Group, then reassembled, with of course wide walkways in between the buildings to allow access and visability to the shops and restraurants. It was very groundbreaking (no pun intended) as until then the real estate development industry assumed Shanghai consumers preferred modern, enclosed, vertical retail centers, and Xintiandi did struggle for a while until it caught on.
Now every small city in China, it seems, has a "(fill in the blank)tiandi" that tries to emulate this mix of old and new/hip.
Thanks for the lesson.
Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 05, 2008, 01:49 AMThe background sound effects ARE a bit unusual - it sounds like the cat is in an air raid shelter! Incoming! By the way, has anyone seen a Chinese version of Dr. Suess in the kids' section of a Chinese bookstore? I've looked here in Shanghai and haven't seen any - maybe they don't translate well because of the English wordplay. As a general aside I gravitate to the kids' section of bookstores here in Shanghai because the books there are simple, super inexpensive, have lots of pictures and one can learn by the guessing the meaning of words from the context...
Posted on: Going Dutch
March 15, 2008, 06:18 AMBingge - apropos of nothing, I was born in Holland, Michigan and have fond memories of walking with wooden shoes in the Tulip Parade, and here I am in Shanghai. Small world, huh?
Posted on: City Districts in Shanghai
October 07, 2010, 01:08 AMBack when I lived in Minhang, I had to leave for work (my office was near People's Square in downtown Puxi) no later than 6:15am or so - at that hour, the trip in the car would take about 45 minutes. If I slept in and left home at 7:00am or later, I could be in stop-and-go traffic for up to 2 hours - generally not a great way to start the day, though then I had plenty of time to listen to my Chinesepod lessons...
Does anyone know how long it takes now on the new subway line from Minhang (by the international schools) to People's Square?
Jenny and John, thanks for another great lesson.