User Comments - pretzelllogic36

Posted on: Switching Seats on a Plane

Thank you very much. As I suspected láng means something very close to

an aisle, namely a corridor. I once worked as an extra in a movie in Bombay

and I had to walk down a set where I was supposedly an English colonial

official walking down a government office building's corridor. Not much to do with this lesson but it brings back nice happy memories for me and so I

am glad to share it with you for whatever it's worth.

Posted on: Movie Theater Seats

Are 'zhè' and 'nà' like nouns in that they both can be singular, as well as plural without adding 'xiē' for the plural?

Posted on: Switching Seats on a Plane

Is 'ge' a measure word for wèizi, and, if not, what is the measure word for

wèizi? Secondly, what is the literal meaning of 'láng' in 'zǒuláng'? Xièxie nǐ.

Posted on: Where's the soap?

I know what the girls mean, but it's better to say 'it would sound normal'.

Almost all language is composed of artificial norms human beings have

created. Nature has little to do with it. We grow up learning what's normal speech from our forbears. But over the centuries all languages

change and what's normal today in China or England or wherever wasn't always a long, long time ago. Back then whatever was being said seemed normal enough just as what's being said now seems normal enough. And

both are right because norms change.

But the general act of speech for human communication

you can call natural if you want. That human quality, what some cultural anthropologists call the quality most separating us from other primates, never changes although languages do. Sorry to be so picky but it's good

to stick to these distinctions. Otherwise almost any kind of langauge can be defended by just saying it's natural when it's no more than some new or old norm.

Posted on: Where's the soap?

May one say yī bǎ qìqiú - a balloon & yī bǎ don1gxi - a thing ? I know balloons are notorious for usually not having handles, and 'thing' is very

ambiguous being such a general term, but I have these two examples as

questions in my notes for which I haven't been able yet to get the proper

answers? Thank you for any help you can give.

Posted on: Dancing in Public

Sorry, the reply to mal_praxis above was meant for JasonSch. Also, I meant to say 'Mr. Wang', not 'Teacher Wang' in the English. Studying Mandarin can start to affect one's English at times.

Posted on: Dancing in Public

Is the 10th expansion sentence translated as it is because 'jiāo' can actually mean 'to teach someone how to do something'?

Plus, doesn't "Wáng lǎoshī jiāo le wǒ liǎng nián le" mean "Teacher Wang has taught me for two years" or "...has been teaching me for two years" in

order to indicate the action is still going on. The extra 'le' at the end of the

statement prevents the action from being treated just as something fully

completed in the past, which is what "Teacher Wang taught me for two years" implies". This is the way I understand this if I haven't misinterpreted what John explained in Qing Wen #0017. Someone there at Chinesepod please let me know if I've got wrong this correction of the English translation.

Posted on: Trick or Treat!

In the expansions, wouldn't "He's late again" be just as correct as "He was late again", depending on the context?  And I know "I really hate flies" accurately gets across the meaning, but I like "I hate flies the most" or better yet "I most hate flies" just as some people "most hate snakes", etc.   

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

Your English is wonderful, Jenny, but I think it's 'replicate'.

Posted on: A Stroll through the Hutongs

I take it that 'zài' in the 12th expansion sentence does not mean 'currently' in this case but only 'at'.  Also, the 16th sentence should be "Will he be coming tonight?".