User Comments - si1teng2
si1teng2
Posted on: Those Pesky Mosquitos!
July 7, 2014 at 1:16 PMInteresting suggestions, veronique and baba! Thinking about this, I realize that the sense of value judgement is implicit in the English thought I was naturally trying to express: "It's just/only a mosquito" (and doesn't know any better). The thought wasn't (just) an identity statement (a mosquito is precisely a mosquito) but was hinting at a value judgement. What is most interesting, if all these hypotheses are correct, :), is that the subtle value judgement that seems perfectly natural in English seems less natural in Chinese. Are we getting this right, David?
Posted on: Those Pesky Mosquitos!
July 5, 2014 at 2:53 PMThanks for the corrections, baba and David! May I ask, what is the difference between 只是 and 就是?
Posted on: Those Pesky Mosquitos!
July 4, 2014 at 1:27 PMwa1! wen2zi bu2 huai4! wen2zi zhi3 shi4 wen2zi.
哇！蚊子不怀！蚊子只是蚊子。
Posted on: Red Wine
July 3, 2014 at 12:18 PMKosher wine: the grape juice is boiled (or pasteurized) before fermentation.
Posted on: Physical Examination
July 2, 2014 at 2:46 PMIt's not a regional accent, but a common mispronunciation among speakers of English (I've heard it in both England and America, and not varying by region), reasonably extrapolated from the verb "pronounce".
Of course, what exactly constitutes 'correctness' is a complex linguistic issue. But it would count as a dialect variation only if 'most' competent speakers of that dialect have considered it to be correct for a 'long enough' period of time. According to this criterion, most competent speakers of standard English (American, Canadian, British, and Australian) consider Shanell's pronunciation to be incorrect (a quick perusal of any good dictionary will verify this).
Posted on: Math Class Woes
June 26, 2014 at 6:43 PMAmericanisation of ChinesePod has been official policy for years. I raised a question about the use of regional American slang for an international audience years ago and was told that it had been decided as official policy that American pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar (and apparently, regional slang) were to be taken as the standard.
Posted on: Insurances
June 17, 2014 at 10:05 PM“单位”的现代用法很有意思。
Posted on: "Practice" Made Perfect
June 14, 2014 at 12:30 PMDid we ever get an explanation for the three days of radio silence from a week ago? We were promised some exciting news? Did I miss it? Or have we not been informed yet?
Posted on: A Foreign Intern
June 10, 2014 at 2:09 PM”持学生签证的外国学生是不能在中国实习的。“ The 是...的 structure in this sentence is crying out for explanation! But it was completely ignored! I would never have thought to use it here: it doesn't sound natural to me. So why was it used?
Posted on: 玉林狗肉节
July 8, 2014 at 1:54 PMMy understanding is that Media lessons are supposed to be aimed at cultivating advanced listening fluency (which requires being weaned off transcripts). I like this approach and find it to be a great challenge.
Alternatively, as discussed in another lesson, it may be that CPod has copyright concerns about providing their own transcripts? (I know nothing about Chinese copyright laws, except that they now exist, so I don't know if such concerns would be justified or not.)
Of course, I'm only speculating here. I don't know if CPod has ever explained its policy regarding Media lesson transcripts.
Since lessons are drawn directly from the media it is inevitable that links will eventually be broken. This just means that they are timely and topical, and is surely not a reason to discontinue this kind of lesson!