User Comments - timlb

Posted on: Choosing a New Pair of Glasses

At the end of the lesson, the customer says "那就这种吧" -- this wasn't dealt with in the discussion, so maybe it's a structure taken up elsewhere? Is she saying "I'll take this one" as in she's chosen this one to buy?

Is this like the "那就在这里吧" or "就这样吧“  that we hear at the end of lessons or phone conversations?

Is this a common way to tell a clerk at a store that you've made your choice and this is what you're buying? "那就这个吧” means the same as "I'll take (or buy) this one"?

Posted on: Building, Establishing, and Creating

Closely related to chuangzao 创造 is chuangzuo  创作，right? I use this when talking about writing music. Is there a difference? Some of the examples for 创造 in my dictionary make it seem like it's more used for abstract things and 创作 would be used to describe creating music, art, or poetry. Is that a real difference or not?

Posted on: The Seven Year Itch

I'm intrigued by Jenny's suggestion that 平淡 does not always have a negative connotation. All the translations I have found do have that "boring, nothing happening" sense to them -- is this a cultural difference? Does this have something to do with China's Buddhist influence and perhaps an appreciation for a day filled with a "lack of excitement" as a good day?

Perhaps what she was trying to get at is that, after many years of marriage, a couple reaches a steady point where each day is good because of the mutual support and comfort of being together (whereas here in the US we're always trying to find ways to re-discover the excitement of young love and inject that into a mature relationship).

Posted on: Punctuation Marks

Good idea cassielin -- I use them quite a bit in my English, but haven't seen them much at all in Chinese.

Posted on: Interpreting Gig at the Exhibition

John makes a great point about the use of jieshao (介绍）and how it doesn't perfectly map with "introduce" in English. John is great at mentioning these kinds of things, thanks John! They're some of the more interesting (but sometimes difficult) part of learning another language, because you're learning how other people think.

For me, what works most of the time is to think of 介绍 as meaning "tell someone about" when I'm telling them about something they don't already know a lot about. Does that make sense to you guys? So I would "tell someone" 介绍 about my city or my country before they came here to visit me for the first time, but I wouldn't 介绍 someone what I ate for lunch.

Oh, and I love Dilu's voice -- it's very expressive and her pronunciation is very clear, so when she introduces language not directly in the lesson (during the discussion) it's easy to hear (even if I have to go look it up afterwards!). Okay, enough; don't want you guys to get a big head.

Posted on: Words with Heart (Part 2)

Are there other things "the dog can eat"?

Can you say 她的耐心被狗吃了to mean she has no patience?

Posted on: Chinese Liquor

um, "kneed" fingers? You mean tap using your knuckles? "kneed" fingers is not a term I've ever heard.

Posted on: Insecticide

I have a question about the construction in 有多少死多少。 Can this construction be used in other circumstances? How about 有多少吃多少, would that be "however many there are they'll all get eaten"? or can it be a command, like "however many there are you need to eat them all." And how about another example, can you say 买多少用多少, "however many we buy we'll use" or "we need to use"? Is this construction flexible?

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent

what is the purpose of listing the "entrance" -- would the address not be unique without it? That is, would there also be a 八栋，两单元，412号?

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent

Why don't they list number of bathrooms? Is it because there's usually just one? We (US) would say "two bedroom two bath" not "two bedroom two living areas" -- interesting difference.