User Comments - tucsonmichael
tucsonmichael
Posted on: Take Some Medicine
June 7, 2011 at 4:03 PMRegarding this expansion sentence, 医生，我的牙很疼，请帮我看一下。
Doctor, my tooth really hurts. Please take a look at it for me. Wouldn't a person normally go to the 牙医 ya2yi1 dentist to ask this question rather than a doctor, or is it common in China to first go to the hospital / doctor for tooth aches?
Posted on: Ordering Fancy Coffee
May 20, 2011 at 8:19 PMNice lesson. You might want to mention how many fluid ounces or milliliters are in the various Chinese size coffees, because my experience that Chinese sizes are smaller than American sizes, so a Chinese 超大杯 might be equivalent to an American 大杯. Also I prefer to drink 美式咖啡 "black coffee", and I embarrassed myself in China when asking for 黑色的 咖啡 instead of 青咖 :-)
Posted on: Asking Height and Weight
May 12, 2011 at 9:59 PMJust a clarification: 1 pound = 0.454 kilograms, so 60 kg is 133 pounds (pretty light for a man, but 13 pounds more than 120).
Can 1.78 meters be translated as yi dian qiba mi （一点七八米 ）?
寸 cun4 inch
英尺 ying1 chi3 foot (literally, English foot)
By the way, the pound / feet / inch metrics were inherited by America from England, so I would assume that Canada and Australia also use them.
Posted on: Transferring Money
April 28, 2011 at 10:07 PMIn the USA to avoid $15-$20 electronic transfer fees, and in China what seems to be 1-2% fees, I just withdraw cash from my account, and deposit cash in the recipient's account (assume the recipient has a bank branch nearby). Is that possible in China, or are wire transfers required when moving money from one city to another? By the way, for international wire transfers from USA to China, I find Western Union much cheaper, quicker and more convenient than trying to find a bank or credit union having a relationship with another international bank that has a connection to the China receiving (e.g. China Post Bank) bank.
Posted on: Sending a Text Message
April 27, 2011 at 2:26 PMThanks for the clarification.
Posted on: Sending a Text Message
April 27, 2011 at 1:55 AM
It may be that you only have three comments because we are not receiving emails on new lessons. After not receiving an email for a couple of days, I checked your website and this was here. I also got an email on a lesson from 2010 (mid Autumn festival) a few days ago, so there may be a problem with your lesson notification setup.
Rather than lengthy response ( 小王的，我有。), why not just say, "有啊"?
Posted on: Getting Satellite TV
April 18, 2011 at 9:54 PMIn the expansion section, 他保证以后不玩游戏了。
is "he", not "I". Which is more commonly used, based on the expansion example, 看得到，还是 看到？ Another useful lesson, thanks! :-)
Posted on: Which Hilton?
April 8, 2011 at 4:35 PMHere are some places I stayed in Shanghai in the 2006 - 2008 timeframe with their room rates at that time (I'm sure much higher now.)
Pudong Renaissance 660快 This was where I stayed on my first business trip to Shanghai. Very nice place, but full breakfast buffet was 125快 (for 10快 across the street you could get a simple but tasty and quick breakfast), and internet access charges were up to 100快 a day; easy and pleasant 2-3 block walk to subway line 2
和平饭店 (Peace Hotel) 540 great atmosphere but at that time somewhat run down, now fully remodelled and reopened; great location on north side of East Nanjing Street, close to People's Square, part of the Bund, and views of Pudong business district. ( 南京东路 remains my favorite location in Shanghai because of of all the colors, the skyline, the diversity and vibrancy of the people) Half a block walk to subway station.
Jin Jiang Inn 180 single - 230 double, breakfast here was only 10快 and it was clean, actually more convenient to work and much better value than those above; just need to have some Chinese language skills to stay here versus not needing that skill at 4 or 5 star places ( I stayed at the one adjacent to Century Park in Pudong, very nice walking spot, two blocks to park entrance or subway station.)
Shangralila (probably misspelled) 900 - 1000 in Shanghai (never stayed at the Shanghai one, but did stay at the Hangzhou West Lake one for around 600快 per day) - most popular hotels at that time for our executives and wonderful atmosphere, but very pricey
Posted on: Checking out at a Hotel
March 28, 2011 at 9:07 PMHi. Nice lesson. The price of beer suggests that the hotel isn't significantly increasing the price over what it would cost at a nearby convenience store fang1bian4 xiao3 shang1dian4 方便小商店, so this must be a two star ( 两星 liang3 xing1 ) or three star hotel (the four star and five star hotels would charge much, much more for both the room, and for the beer).
One question. My pocket dictionary has jie2zhang4 结账 for checking out of the hotel. Is 退房 a regional expression, or most commonly used throughout China?
Posted on: Ballet
June 9, 2011 at 3:46 PMAn interesting movie showing how ballet can be combined with hip hop is Julia Stiles' and Sean Patrick Thomas' "Save the Last Dance" from 2001.