User Comments - mudphud

Posted on: Where is the Supermarket?

Some things about 前面 qiánmiàn from my exploring MDBG. It means "before" and "the side of", respectively, i.e., the side of you that is before you is in front of you. To remember the tones, think of a mountain in front of you: it goes up then down (second then fourth).

Lots of words arise from miàn:

后面 hòumiàn － behind

里面 lǐmiàn － inside of

左面 zuǒmian － left side (though 左边 zuǒbian seems more common)

右面 yòumiàn － right side (though 右边 yòubian seems more common)

C-podders: Are 面 miàn and 边 biān interchangeable?

Posted on: Where is the Supermarket?

Is  "Where?" expressed as 在哪儿 （zài nǎ'r）? a Beijing term more than 在哪里 （zài nǎlǐ）?

Posted on: Where is the Supermarket?

This is pretty close to the first dialogues in most of my texts. Places, numbers, and time are usually in the first few lessons. But C-pod is a "lexical chunk" teacher not the method of teaching different subjects in numbing details like having a chapter teaching all numbers from one to a 1000, or a chapter with all possibilities of time and date, all direction words (north, south,..., forward, backward, right, left), etc.

This is a feature of C-pod not a bug.

Posted on: Not Cooked Enough

Thanks, AY.

From zhongwen.com:

dài lái 带来: to bring

Sometimes MDBG is better is a more helpful dictionary, sometimes zhongwen.com is better. I definitely have both bookmarked.

I think that this might be example of "laziness" of everyday speech that makes the language even more difficult. Another example (perhaps?) is péng 朋 and péng yǒu 朋友 both mean friend but the later is preferred.

Posted on: Not Cooked Enough

Wikipedia talks about this leading to a parasite infection by the lung fluke called, Paragonimiasis which is apparently endemic in the area. An emedicine article is here. I don't think that I will be partaking anytime soon.

Posted on: Away on Business

I am now using the writing practice. Definitely recommend it for newbies and ellies! It exposes big gaps in my knowledge. I thought I knew how to write that character or it's tone but...

I am travelling to China in 6 weeks. Am getting panicky. Must study day and night. No rest, no rest, no rest...

Posted on: It's Stopped Raining

OK, I am a nerd and I like to read dictionaries, or in this case, it is fun to explore random paths in the online dictionary MDBG for some of the vocabulary from the lesson. Some pearls that I found for yǔ:

春雨 chūn yǔ means "Spring rain" (as opposed to 秋雨 qiū yǔ which is Autumn rain) but it also means "gift from above" which is a very pleasing thought.

Can explore 雨 yǔ here.

Posted on: Hiking

OK, I live by mnemonics. Here is one:

Claw （zhuǎ 爪 = claw） + bā 巴 = pá 爬

The hard part is climbing up, i.e., second tone.

Posted on: Going to the Pharmacy

For Chinese input on Ubuntu, go to System menu then Administration, then Language Support. Select Chinese with all options checked. Log out then log back in. Hit "control" and the space bar. There should be a keyboard icon in the upper right. One wants to select Chinese Simplified but not erbi, wubi, etc. Rather the one with Chinese characters. That's the pinyin input. Type "h" or "ha" or "hao" to get lists of selection. Was reading on wubi. Supposedly it requires a lot of memorization but if one does one's homework, then you can type 160 wpm. Not for newbies or elies, I imagine.

Posted on: Tone Change Rule: Yi '一'

yi plus neutral stays first tone, yes?

e.g., 一个人 yi1 ge ren2.