User Comments - si1teng2

Posted on: Guilin Mifen

For some reason, I can't get access to the pdf. It says I should be logged in, but I am already logged in.

Posted on: Which Finger?

用中指来骂人不是“西方”式的而是美国式的手势。比如，在英国我们用食指根中指来这样地骂人。好像那个胜利标志似的，但是相反的。八十年代雷根总统来伦敦的时候错用了这个相反的手势。非常非常不好意思。

Posted on: Views on the News

I guess Jenny didn't take up the monumental task of differentiating all the various kinds of situation and circumstance. ;)

(If Francis Jacquart is still out there he might be interested in François Jullien's La Propension des Choses, on the philosophical dimensions of the concept shi 势.)

Posted on: Munich

While the old format was excellent, I think this new format also has an invaluable purpose. I'm assuming that your thinking behind it is the following. Much of foreign language use involves a contextual guessing game: that is, when you know some of the context your brain rushes ahead to interpret unfamiliar words and phrases. This is an important part of developing listening (and reading) fluency, but it is a skill that needs practice. I think you should definitely continue to provide this practice (not necessarily for all lessons), but you might want to explain your pedagogy as you do so (as Ken and Jenny so graciously do in the Newbie an Ellie lessons). A simple "Now that you have some of the context and vocabulary, see how much more of the dialogue you can understand" would suffice. It would draw attention to, and make more explicit for the active learner, this part of the language learning process.

If I am right, then this is not just a variation for the sake of variation, but has a very important linguistic function, and as such I would hope that you continue to make judicious use of it. As Bababardwan suggests, it would be especially useful at the Upper Intermediate level...maybe even at the Advanced level.

Posted on: Dreams of the Departed 陇西行

Thanks, Pete! Great lesson: great poem beautifully explained.

Since we're distinguishing types of tropes, there's also synecdoche, if anyone is interested. While metonymy transfers names between things associated in a general or causal way, synecdoche transfers names between part and whole. (As in: 'three mouths to feed'.)

Regarding the etymology of 'barbarian,' while it looks like a beardy word, in fact it comes from the Greek 'barbaros', which in turn comes from the sound 'barbar'--the Greeks' imitation of the noises made foreigners when they tried to speak  (胡说!).

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Wonderful idea, wonderful achievement, Pete. Kudos to CPod for being willing to take the risk on your dream.

I agree with Tommaz that your explanation of meaning without translating, but by highlighting characters and phrases is excellent. Helps impart an intuitive feel for how the meaning is structured in the original (a feel that is lost in translation).

(Incidentally, regarding Calkins comments on Cassielin's grammar: just wanted to point out that while the past participle of 'get' is 'gotten' in American English, in British English it is 'got'.)

Posted on: Buying a Plasma TV

Chenlei, and Jenny,

谢谢你们对‘呢’的用法的解释。现在清楚多了！

思腾

Posted on: Buying a Plasma TV

I have a question about the grammatical particle 'ne' in 这里写着呢。I was taught that it is used for emphasis, for an interrogative rhetorical effect, to pause, or perhaps to 'soften' the feel of the sentence. All dictionaries and textbooks I have checked agree with this.

However, one teacher insists that it indicates a present continuous sense. I have never found corroboration of this definition, and since I have great respect for this teacher, I am confused about what to think.

If Jenny, or our resident linguist, John, could shed light on this, I would be very grateful!

Posted on: 河莉秀

I commend Chinesepod for their humane and compassionate stance in this subject, and encourage you to continue to adhere to such an ethically motivated stance. There will of course be times when it will be appropriate to note, for cultural reasons, the existence of groups who oppose equal rights for various minorities, or oppose treating them with dignity, but there is no requirement to discuss such groups as equal partners in a neutral "debate". When discussing Jews in China, for example, it would be offensive in the extreme to include an anti-Semitic perspective in a misguided attempt to be "objective".