User Comments - rods

Posted on: Flu Vaccination

很有意思！头号语录是什么？"我会回来!", 还是, "Here's looking at you, 小朋友." ;-)

btw Baba, hope you didn't mind my borrowing your Kermit pic briefly for my avatar. Unfortunately, cold blood and winter don't really mix.

Posted on: Flu Vaccination

" ... Okay. You wanna play rough? Okay. Say hello to my [kid]!" That doesn't sound right.

Posted on: Where's the soap?

Hi zida,

If you're doing the exercise in pinyin, then type what you hear in pinyin, using the numbers 1 through 4 to indicate tone. If you were to hear, for example, 我 wǒ, I, then you would type wo3. If you hear 我们 wǒmen, us, then type wo3men. If you were to hear 大家 dàjiā, everyone, then you would type da4jia1.

Of course, if you know how to enter the tone marks on your computer (it varies by operating system) then you can use those instead of the numbers.

Finally, if you're doing the exercises in simplified or traditional, then you'll have to type the text you hear using traditional or simplified characters. Unfortunately, you'll have to configure your computer to do that. Here's a thread explaining how to do so:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/11086#comment-201514

Posted on: A Visit to the In-laws

I'm just going to tag this on here. I don't want reply to anyone in particular.

The original poster's sentence isn't really even that bad. It contains a relative clause, a nasty little construction, which we native English speakers "just know" how to use correctly. Not so simple for non-native speakers. A grammar I consulted notes that relative clauses are easier in Chinese ... I'll have to trust that that is so.

The OP's author gets into trouble with the verb "visits". "This is the first Chinese tutorial that I (have) ever (visited)." And "have" is optional. Change tense from present to present perfect, cap. the C. That's pretty minor stuff in my book (colloquialism). I wish my Mandarin contained so few mistakes.

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

"You saw black snow." I'm going to remember that one. Thanks.

Posted on: A Visit to the In-laws

Congratulations!! Maybe Chinesepod has finally "found" the perfect voice actor to play the children's roles. :-)

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

Hi Jack,

I always enjoy learning different idioms. Is this one Flemish or Dutch? I tried Googling it, and found an article discussing a book called Emma--Die Zeit des schwarzes Schnees (Black Snow or Zwarte sneeuw) by the Dutch author Simone van der Vlugt. According to the article, "if someone has seen a lot of black snow in his life, then he has had a miserable life."

http://www.simonevandervlugt.nl/german/jugendbucher/emma/

I can't think of a good English equivalent off the top of my head either. It's an interesting expression. Especially how it has to be in the past.

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

浪漫。 哈哈，我不知道，但我有很冷的舌头！（Wǒ bù zhīdào, dàn wǒ yǒu hěn lěng de shétou.）Not sure if I'm romantic, lujiaojie, but I do have a cold tongue! ;-)

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

我 经常 捕捉 雪花 我 的 舌头上。(Wǒ jīngcháng bǔzhuō xuěhuā wǒ de shétou shàng.) I often catch snowflakes on my tongue.

你试试 一下!（Nǐ shì shì yīxià!) You try!

Opps, 我忘了 （wǒ wàng le!）Forgot :-P

Posted on: A Rarely Washed Car

Thanks Pretz. Got that song stuck in my head now. ;-)