User Comments - mattwhyndham
mattwhyndham
Posted on: The Panda's Secret Wish
August 16, 2008 at 10:16 PMxiexie John and Changye. I've met the omnidirectional verb before. In Welsh "benthig" means borrow and lend, same as 借。
Posted on: Crosstalk and Labor Day Holiday
August 15, 2008 at 5:25 PMThe Two Ronnies were quite like Abott and Costello in some ways. They are hardly contemporary though. Most active in the 60s and 70s and early 80s and were exponents of the double entendre and many word games that seem to fit the description of crosstalk. Try this classic sketch: Mastermind quiz: specialist subject, answering the question before the last.
Posted on: Crosstalk and Labor Day Holiday
August 13, 2008 at 1:36 PMas usual, I'm grasping for English analogues, e.g. The Two Ronnies?
Posted on: The Panda's Secret Wish
August 13, 2008 at 1:26 PM(enough of the "great lesson" already, can't you guys just click the rating?)
So, serious question, "pai zhao pian" can mean to take a picture or (less usually) to have a picture taken of one, right? Same as in English, as in (of a not particularly photogenic person) "X doesn't always take a very good picture"?
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 2: Welcome to the Team
August 12, 2008 at 2:21 PMthe office politics seemed pretty obvious to me!
Posted on: Updating Old Lessons
May 28, 2008 at 8:33 AM> For more information on this project, see this thread and this thread.)
Those links don't work. Borked by the overall site upgrade?
Posted on: No Kidding
January 24, 2008 at 8:40 AMSo it's "duh", huh? I had problems with this lesson, because of the translation "No Kidding", which seems only mildly sardonic to me. Surely irony is used in standard English, and not just in (U.S.) colloquialisms? Also, I think this phrase is Sarcastic rather than Cynical, which also confused me initially. One can be optimistic yet a constant source of mocking irony! More ironic language please ... carefully.
Posted on: Getting Your Hair Done
January 19, 2008 at 10:59 AMNice lesson, despite its almost complete non-applicability to my own head. What happened to the graphic (chinesepod_C0761.jpg)? It's been replaced by the abandoned cell phone.
Posted on: Lost Cell Phone
January 15, 2008 at 6:23 PMThe zai4 locates the action (i.e. "wang le") in time as well as in space. _When_ I was in the taxi, I dropped my phone.
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 18, 2008 at 1:35 PM凹凸 ao1tu4 是什么意思的？
It's not in my dictionary! I read it as concave/convex, hence "flatness"?