User Comments - socratesinsichuan

Posted on: Car Crash

很有意思！

Posted on: Car Crash

It was suggested that 我的车被你撞坏了 and  你撞坏了我的车 are grammatically equivalent. But is one of them the more natural thing to say in Chinese? In English, the passive might be gramattically correct, but no one would say after getting knocked down, "Hey, I was hit by your car." The natural thing to say is "Your car hit me" (more probably "You hit me!"). In Chinese is either the passive or active more likely to be uttered in this situation, or are they both equally probable?

Posted on: Set the Alarm Clock

In the expansion sentences, there are a couple of examples that illustrate problems that I (and I suspect others) have ongoing issues with in Chinese and that might make good fodder for a Qing Wen. There are two sentences that are translated with the English “have” and that contain a sense of obligation but use none of the Chinese terms that we associate with obligation, for example, 得，应该，必须. The sentence “I have to go to school a little early tomorrow uses “要” “我明天要早点儿去学校”   while the sentence “I have something I have to do tomorrow” uses “ 有”:“我今天有事，早点儿下班.” This is one of the things that makes me despair of ever learning Chinese. My question is, could you coherently translate those two sentences using one of the obligation words mentioned above?

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

When I put

我从来不文纹身 in Nciku and translate I get: "I never text tatoo"

我从来不纹身 in Nciku I get: "I never tatoo"

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

As Jimmy Buffett calls it, "a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling."

Posted on: Weighing Yourself on the Street

This is classic. One of the great things about Chinese pod is the cultural information intermixed with the language lesson. I was already familiar with the obsession about weight. For example, if you are American, one of the first questions you will be asked in China （even before your name sometimes) is, "why are Americans so fat?" But I hadn't realized there is no real word for the concept of being overweight. Rather you are simply 胖。Hence, the debate on whether this is blunt/rude or simply, as Jenny said, "诚实。" When a friend of mine was approached at a busstop in Chengdu by a complete stranger with the remark, "you are fat," I can tell you which one he found it, although I happen to agree with Jenny on this one.

Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group

I don't know dude. I spend a lot more time in China at restaurants than in villages. And I can't remember the last time I had a converstion that involved either the term "construction crane" or "sewer system." So I find the emphasis on restaurant lessons very useful.

Posted on: A Special Fondness for Jewelry

A cultural question. Given the fact that private gun ownership is illegal in China and the severe penalities that attach to crimes committed with a gun, how realistic is it to have the criminals pull off the robbery in this manner? If I am not mistaken, they would actually be risking the death penalty for committing a robbery with a gun. Wouldn't they be much more likely to use some other weapon?

Posted on: Revisiting Before and After

So in response to

来中国以前你会说中文吗？

How would you say
"Of course. Eveyrone in Mexico speaks Chinese"--

"当然！在墨西哥里大家都说中文" ?

Posted on: Lhasa

Taking the train greatly helps to prevent altitude sickness. When I was there, all the people I met who got altitude sickness flew into Lhasa. That said, one 40 hour train ride (from Chengdu) is enough. I would recommend flying back.