User Comments - nial

Posted on: Tone Rule: Two Third Tones

Not a native speaker but I'll throw my 2 cents in.  The "我2想3 找2你3" is, of course, correct.  However, when I hear "我2想2找3你3" it sounds real awkward.  I don't hear any kind of emphasis on "you", but rather hear incorrect tones.

This is one of the fundamental hurtles us English speakers have to overcome when speaking Chinese -- inflection.  In English, SO much is communicated by the volume and tone of a word (see what I did there?).  However in Chinese, tone communicates meaning and disambiguates one 字 from another.  We have to suppress our urge to add inflection in spoken Chinese.  More often than not, attempts to do so hamper communication. 

So what's the solution?  Well, Chinese adds emphasis through a number of ways; end-of-sentence particles "吧，嘛，呗，啦，呀" etc. and through grammatical structures that emphasize key information.  Now don't get me wrong, spoken Chinese does use tone variations to emphasize, but it's very difficult for us English speakers.  It's a whole 'nother level of spoken Chinese (as a second language).  It's an area of spoken Chinese that is hard to teach and learn... but I'm trying!

Posted on: Swimming Pools and the Beijing Accent

When I began learning Chinese, the team of teachers that taught my class consisted of many different accents.  We had Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Taiwan, Ha'erBin etc.  Our curriculum taught the Beijing accent, but I was not fond of it.  I found it a little jarring and kinda disliked it.  So I picked the teacher whose accent I liked the most... turned out to be a teacher from Chengdu who also lived in Taiwan.  So, whenever people talk to me they seem to think I have a Taiwanese accent.  I don't have a problem pronouncing the beijing 儿, I just prefer not to.

An interesting aside.  I remember when we learned 哪儿.  I immediately asked how to get around that and the teacher replied "哪里".  A few other students also used it and inevitably the "哪儿里" came out.  At the time I thought that was incorrect... I've since heard it from a native speaker's mouth and I am still thrown by it.

(Keep in mind I've never been to Asia, let alone China or Beijing)

Posted on: Job Market for Laowai

Yeah I like the way he speaks.  I have a colleague who speaks similarly and just like this guy sounds, is always smiling when he talks, haha.

Posted on: Traditional Residences

This one is exhibiting the same problem with accessing the Microsoft word format button on the .pdf.

<Error>
<Code>AccessDenied</Code>
<Message>Access Denied</Message>
<RequestId>4C595C27600EA6D9</RequestId>
−
<HostId>
uK2X5Gh0vUblmAdefen/S92HD2RxDI7VlEPmnx8sB0rfONVOYWQ/J3kzmGRSNWxs
</HostId>
</Error>

I have a subscription and everything, so that's definitely not it.  This seems to be a common problem.

-Nial

Posted on: Missing Persons in Jizhou

这么快的回答!我明白了,谢谢:)

Posted on: Missing Persons in Jizhou

我想问一下.Jenny 根 John 解释的时候提到了"文涛哥"的翻译.John就问她"是不是他对她有感觉了" (我也是这么想的), Jenny 就笑得回答说"但是".我不太清楚她说的"但是"是什么意思。我以为有”(对了！)但是，…” 的意思.

(你看那个括号)

就是说，她虽然没有说“对了"但是还是有这个意思吗?

Posted on: Missing Persons in Jizhou

这么戏剧性，很像好莱坞的故事，应该把“别傻了“翻成“Don't be a fool!"说完之后就方恐怕音乐！

你们同意吗？ :)

-nial

Posted on: First Aid

Mike in Ewshott said:

体育 ti3 yu4 physical culture / physical training / sports

I kinda always interpreted this as "身体教育", or very simply, in English "Physical Education"。  Good ole' Phys-ed!

Posted on: First Aid

The text version on the PDF produces a broken link:

<Error>
<Code>AccessDenied</Code>
<Message>Access Denied</Message>
<RequestId>E61EF5B647EDE5D3</RequestId>
−
<HostId>
3WijJeTzUNIPumvXXRP2fajthdTXulzNW+pvCXxd75xuBiGGbDfqq1FnmRGtpgEd
</HostId>
</Error>

I'm logged in and have a paid subscription.  I cannot copy/paste from a .pdf, so I need the text version to be able to paste into a MS Word file.

Thanks!  Re-typing this using MS Pinyin IME will take a long time.  其实，这不是第一次发生的。你们高中级课程的pdf有好多会发这种的问题。希望能快快地解决！

-伟伦

Posted on: 撒娇

I would definitely translate it as sorta a flirty pout. I'm sorta with the male in the conversation... it's cute if a girl can do it... but not all the time, lol.