User Comments - tvan

Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise

Coincidentally, one of the native speakers here, numbangelica , just used 马虎 in a post here on the 无论 thread.

Posted on: My Foreign teacher

rjberki, it's too long of a story to post here; it involved 关系, coincidence, working for peanuts on a tourist visa, and getting laid off during the 1980 version of a financial crisis.

babardwan, I actually don't know the characters for any profanity... only the pronunciation. My advice for learners is to avoid it.

Xiaohu, I like your idea on reading characters aloud.

Posted on: 还是 háishi OR 或者 huòzhě

Changye, I rely on you for convincing theories on Chinese grammar.  Chinese often tell me that it doesn't exist.

Posted on: 还是 háishi OR 或者 huòzhě

changye, do you think that the difference is due to a spoken/written difference?

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing

architpol, glad to help.  Did you get to try them?

Posted on: My Foreign teacher

I think some of you have misconstrued xiaohu's comments.  He's talking about learning Chinese in general.  John's comments dealt only with listening.  I didn't see anywhere where he (John) implied that you should ignore other aspects of the language.

I first learned Chinese with basically no instructional materials.  I was in 1981 Shanghai, nobody knew English, and I had just met my first authentic Chinese six months earlier.  I knew no characters, couldn't speak a foreign language, and thought Pinyin was the capital of China.  I got some help from my boss/best friend, but not much.  My first words weren't 你好 or 再见.  They were 油条 and 豆浆 because I'm an early riser and needed to order breakfast after my run.  Bottom line is, eventually, I started to understand the breakfast guy.  Then, I started to understand the bus lady... and so on.  Six months later, I went hitchhiking across Sichuan/Tibet/XinJiang. I tried some of my Chinese; the truck drivers laughed and said, "That's Shanghaiese."  That's when I learned that Shanghaiese spoke differently than Sichuanese... and so on.  Reflecting back, isn't this how most people used to learn languages?

I took my first Chinese class ever a couple of years ago, Advanced Chinese.  Other students' knowledge of characters and grammar definitely exceeded my own, and they helped me get through the class.  However, I don't think any of them could understand a native speaker speaking at a natural pace.

Do I recommend this course of learning?  Absolutely not.  I wish somebody had given me a textbook, an iPod, and a scholarship to 台大 back then.  I still speak with a heavy accent and have atrocious grammar.  I've also learned the hard way that some phrases used by Chinese truckers may not be appropriate in every social situation.  However, this is how you build listening skills, and that's all John's comment dealt with.  So my recommendation is to man it up, because in the real world the lady at the noodle stand ain't gonna hand you a script.

Posted on: 还是 háishi OR 或者 huòzhě

zyfjcty, the second sentence's meaning is clear, but it is a little awkward.  The first one sounds more natural.

Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise

I never heard 马马虎虎 until I took a Mandarin class last year.  I wonder if it's a Northern expression? 

Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise

archtipol, first, post your photo to an online site (e.g. Flickr or Picasso). Then, right click on the photo to get its location.  Next, open the image tool (second from the right on the comment box toolbar).  Paste the previously copied address into the "url" field, and you're done.

The key, as pointed out to me a week ago, is not to use the url of your photo or video in the web browser.  You have the get the actual location, in this case by right-clicking on the photo.

Posted on: 还是 háishi OR 或者 huòzhě

changye, according to my scant knowledge, your original five sentences all looked fine.  My wife also thinks they look fine.