User Comments - nicklyth

Posted on: Finding a Taxi

I was always told by friends that 飞机场 was the generic "airport". If you wanted to be specific (such as Shanghai with more than one airport) you needed the name + 机场...not name + 飞机场

Certainly I always ask for 浦东机场...and I seem to get there!

Posted on: You Must Listen to this Episode - 非...不可 (fēi...bù kě)

so whilst I appreciate the difference between 非。。。。不可 and  不得不， is there any difference between  非。。。。不可 and  必须？

Posted on: The Dice Game

There are 3 main "dice shaking" techniques for this game: 1) Put dice on table, put cup over dice, shake....for amateurs 2) Put dice on table, put cup over dice, slide cup off table, turning it hrough 180 degrees to catch dice before they fall, then slam cup back down on the table......i have reached this level after many evenings at the coal face of shai zi 3) As 2, but then you wave it around in the air without dropping any dice....only to be attepted by KTV girls and drunken westerners..invariably leads to dice flying across the bar

Posted on: Ordering Chinese Take-out

mistake, should be ..."C2 什么什么"....

Posted on: Ordering Chinese Take-out

When the girl asks for the address, why no 什么? Is it comparable with someone saying "and the address is....??" and waiting for your answer? Is this the more common form?- it seems a little softer than adding the 什么 Also, when I was living in Shezhen I had to give my address for exactly this reason. I lived in apartment building C2 and was told by friends not to call it "C2 楼". There was an older word that should be used "C2 什么森么" at least in the South. But I can't remember it and my dictionary doesn't have it. Any ideas?

Posted on: Touring a Factory

Hi I'm confused by the use of 可是 in the phrase现在我们可是国内规模最大的工具生产商之一。 My understanding is that it is a simple "but" or "however", but it is performing a "certainly" function here that I haven't seen before None of my dictionaries refer to this meaning, so what's going on?

Posted on: A Business Dinner with a Supplier

I am trying to catch up with the business lessons having joined recently. I had a chat with some Chinese business friends and they say you should NEVER use the phrases A and B use in greeting each other unless you want to sound like someone teleported from the Qing dynasty They are just really old fasioned and never used in modern Chinese business. I have clarified the standard business initial greetings with them: For first time meeting, not having been in contact previously: wo(3) hen(3) gao(1) xing(4) ren(4) shi(4) ni(3) If you have previoulsly talked to the individual,but are meeting face to face for the first time you just swap the ren(4) shi(4) for jian(4) dao(4)

Posted on: Basic Shapes

can you clarify something regarding rectangular please. I wanted to chat with my Chinese colleagues about this and they said that 方(fang1) cannot exist independently and must attach to 长 (chang2) to make 长方 which they say is a rectangle. There is some logic to this as 长 is, of course, "long" and, checking my dictionary, 方 is a "quadrilateral". The logic further extends in my colleagues calling a "square" a 正方, literally a straight, upright quadrilateral

Posted on: Yang Jie's Diary: Everyone Is Dating

There was a newbie lesson that introduced 难看 for "ugly". Now we get 丑. Yet another (sigh) interchangeable? Roll on the next instalment, will we get some 眉来眼去? (mei2 lai2 yan3 qu4 = eyebrow come, eye go = eye contact)

Posted on: Dumb Joke

Hi, a couple of questions pertaining to the lesson: 1. Under what circumstances is 告诉 or 给听 appropriate? I naturally use 给听 for "tell" but is it inappropriate when "telling" a joke? 2. Having already learned 玩笑 for "joke" my heart sank when I heard 笑话. Are they interchangeable or is there some subtle difference?