User Comments - sushan
sushan
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 4:51 AMthanks for the clarification guys!
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 2:29 AMUsually need to say 'i have class' from the teacher's point of view so I use 教课 jiāokè or 教书 jiāoshū.
Posted on: 马丁· 路德 · 金
February 15, 2008 at 5:51 AMI also found it pretty easy to understand (or was that the English version echoing in my head?). Thanks for doing this lesson with great cultural significance to North Americans. Chinese people always wonder how foreigners see them and their culture, it is nice to see a view from the other side as well.
Posted on: Valentine's Day
February 14, 2008 at 7:15 AMcasie, it's cheapskate. Whatever dictionary or source you got those other words from might be helpful for reading really old texts, but not for speaking contemporary English. I sympathize with the problem of finding a good dictionary btw, I was looking for an electronic one yesterday and some had English words that were not even spelled correctly.
Posted on: Valentine's Day
February 14, 2008 at 4:59 AMHow many others, like me, were looking forward to Changye's post today even more than the lesson? Fess up! I can pin but have to leave the translation to others. The last line in particular is a bit too poetic for me to render worthily. 情人节的忧郁 （七言绝句） Qing3rén jié de yoūyù (qī yán juéjù) 审判日到怎么办，年年丢脸真心寒。 Shĕnpànrì dào zĕnme bàn, niánnián diūliăn zhēn xīnhán 自幼喜爱巧克力，还是家人总动员。 Zìyoù xĭ’ài qiăokèlì, hái shì jiārén zŏngdòngyuán
Posted on: Taxi Conversations: Small Talk
February 14, 2008 at 4:03 AMJust noticed that no smoking sign in the taxi, and had to laugh. I wish! One of my favourite phrases for taxis: 请 不要 作 烟 qing3 bu4 yao4 zuo4 yan1. Please don't smoke.
Posted on: Study Abroad
February 13, 2008 at 3:56 PMVancouver has UBC, which stands for University of a Billion Chinese. I really appreciated the explanation of 华人; I've heard it a lot but didn't get the ethnic Chinese shade of meaning.
Posted on: Finding One's seat
February 11, 2008 at 5:00 AMsangdela, I use the same terms in taxis, though it's more like gwar4 for turning here in Sichuan. I thought I was saying some kind of guan4, actually. Regional issues: I've been in China for a year and don't actually know how much of my Chinese is standard and how much is Sichuanhua. Suspect that certain chunks of my vocabulary morph into Sichuanhua automatically - things you would say to taxi drivers, food terms, buying stuff, etc. As long as I continue to make progress in being able to communicate with people I don't really care though.
Posted on: Whatever...
February 5, 2008 at 2:29 AMAnother meaning for 随便 sui2bian4 in a previous lesson: http://chinesepod.com/lessons/shes-easy/discussion Wonder if there are more ways to use it?
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 9:05 AMI also think of 现在(xiànzài) as an adverb - the when, where, or how of a verb. 时间 词 shíjiāncí 'time word' translates pretty directly into 'adverb' though there may be other Chinese parts of speech that we would translate to 'adverb'. The Intermediate lessons often discuss parts of speech. noun is 名词(míngcí) - person, place or thing; verb 动词(dòngcí) - action word adjective 形容词 (xíngróngcí) - word used to describe a noun I do think grammar can help a new learner get their bearings in a maze of new words. The more languages you have studied the more naturally it feels to think in terms of grammar.