User Comments - mudphud
mudphud
Posted on: Are You Busy?
July 31, 2009 at 2:57 AMIt seems to me that xiang 想 is more polite and less demanding then yao 要. Is this correct? My daughter can be a 我要 broken record.
Posted on: Student or Teacher?
June 15, 2009 at 11:34 PMSpeaking of apologies, what do you say when you step on someone's toe or the like when out on the street?
Posted on: Student or Teacher?
June 15, 2009 at 11:32 PMSo, in a social faux-pas like this one, the correct manner of apology for the one who mistook the teacher for a student would be what exactly?
Posted on: Can You Use Chopsticks?
March 27, 2009 at 4:19 PMThis conversation occurs a lot in restaurants with my family:
Miss, could I have some chopsticks?
How many?
Just one pair.
Could someone help me with the translation?
Posted on: How Long?
March 22, 2009 at 1:24 AMCould we have some other responses to "How long to get from here to there?" 从这儿到那儿要多久?
20 minutes = ?
A quarter of an hour = ?
An hour = ?
About an hour = ?
Posted on: Sorry and Thank You
March 1, 2009 at 4:40 PMThese guys need to lighten up. If you want different Qing Wen topics, then you could ask for them. (Hence, Qing Wen!) Offering constructive criticism is OK but comments like "I liked Amber" is not constructive.
But back on topic...Could you write out the "Get better soon" response.
Most people here in the U.S., when they state that they have a "terrible head cold" are fishing for sympathetic responses. The "drink hot water" response is definitely not what they are looking for.
P.S. I like Jenny, Pete and Connie, too!
Posted on: I Miss Daddy!
March 1, 2009 at 2:47 AMFrom the expansion section of the lesson, we have the question, 你说什么？(Ni3 shou1 shen2 me What are you saying?). Isn't this also, "What did you say?" As in, I didn't you hear you whay you said, please repeat.
Or should one say something, like 你说什么 了? (Ni3 shou1 shen2 me le What did you say?) in the situation where you want the speaker to repeat?
Posted on: Expired!
February 22, 2009 at 1:14 PMOK, thanks for the explanation (and for the P/S).
I discovered something nifty. If one cuts and pastes the characters from the dialogue section into the text of these comments, then the ability to put the cursor over them and see the Pinyin and English meaning goes with it. For some reason, I can't get my computer at home "to do Chinese" so cutting and pasting is my only option. But you can hover the cursor over my characters versus yours, you can see the difference. Helpful for us, newbies/elies!
For the Chinese Pod technical gurus: Can you make it so that the entire site always allows you to hover over all characters and see the Pinyin and the English meaning? (I think that there is a program that will allow me to do this for all websites.)
My P.S. ChinesePod is fantastic.
Posted on: Expired!
February 22, 2009 at 6:12 AMAn elementary (and on topic!) question:
We have the statements,
我没买酸奶啊 (Wo3 mei2 mai3 suan1 nai3 a)
versus
我没买酸奶了(Wo3 mei2 mai3 suan1 nai3 le)
so what's the difference?
Posted on: It's My Birthday!
August 20, 2009 at 11:08 AMThe happy birthday song in Mandarin:
祝你生日快乐 zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè
祝你生日快乐 zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè
祝你生日快乐 zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè
祝你永远快乐 zhù nǐ yǒngyuǎn kuài lè
(The last line yǒngyuǎn is forever.) Here it is sung.