User Comments - mikeinewshot

Posted on: Not So SIM-ple

Greg: You made a slip in the lesson and said that 台 was third tone.

Also you both said that 补 is to replace if the sim card is lost, whereas my dictionary and the vocabulary here says to repair.  This seem to me to be very different things.  If it can mean both of these, then how does one tell the difference?

Posted on: A Card Gets Swiped

Surely she says she is in the bathroom (在厕所） not using the toilet (上厕所）, so the translation is correct.

However shortly afterwards 这是怎么回事 is incorrectly translated as 'what do we do?' instead of 'what's going on?' - so I do agree with you that there are some (careless?) inaccuracies in translation.

Let's hope that they soon fill the vacancy for a translator!

Posted on: It's Written in the Stars - Part 1

I own up to being 处女座, and naturally lay claim to all the positive characteristics mentioned.

I certainly have experience of Chinese ladies consulting astrological tables in books to try to match make...

(By the way, I actually was able to use the edit function for the first time for ages! And it worked)

Posted on: Making the Move from China

rosamagliola - you say you were born in south china but you use fanti zi - how come?

Posted on: Toilet Time

My parents who were 'working class' used the word lavatory (or lav) all the time. Then the word toilet was the pretentious one.

Posted on: Toilet Time

My dictionary says that 坑 is first tone, but the vocab pdf gives it as second tone.

Posted on: Toilet Time

Of course as hinted in the podcast there are differences between usage in UK and America.   Americans seem to like to say bathroom or restroom but in my experience we usually say lavatory or toilet.  Tom seemed to say that Americans reserve lavatory just for toilets on planes. 

Also I don't think people actually say WC in England, but you will see it on signs.

There are also a number of words which are not so polite and are used usually in male only company.

Posted on: So Many Sayings!

interesting podcast.

I especially liked Vera's example of using 哑巴吃黄连.  It felt as though it was from her own personal experience!

Posted on: A Line Too Long

I would say that extrapolating from your sample of one is not too convincing

Posted on: Talking about Figure Skating

Well I liked 金妍儿 's performance better than 斯特尼克娃's.

Women's ice skating is so much better to watch than men's I think.  The sport lends itself to grace.  I am sad that the highest technical marks go to those that do the most turns in the jumps.  This means that the competition can be just one big jump after another.  Indeed some competitors seem to traverse half the ice winding up to the next jump - it is so much nicer when they can jump as if without preparation.