User Comments - ZhouRui

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ZhouRui

Posted on: 孟婆汤
August 08, 2015, 05:14 PM

The issue is mixing the dialects without saying so. Not that they are teaching Taiwanese Mandarin. I have nothing against it. I've lived in Taiwan my entire adult life. I got my MA in Taipei. I couldn't speak passable Pu3tong1hua4 even if money was on the line.

Now, my logic is fine. There are books about this. I provided a reference at the end of this post. You seem to be confused about what dialects are. They are mutually comprehensible regional varieties of a language. There are differences in pronunciation, words, and 'grammar'. (Technical terms would be phonology, lexicon and syntax.) Taiwanese Mandarin and mainland Chinese Mandarin show differences in each area. Here are difference off the top of my head:(Translating 方言 as 'dialect' is an error which has been written on over and over again. People still make the mistake, though.)

Pronunciation: (most variation)

  • (1) no rhotacization 兒化音 in Taiwanese Mandarin
  • (2) weakening of the second tone in Taiwanese Mandarin
  • (3) some speakers don't use retroflex initials in Taiwanese Mandarin
  • (4) some speakers change f- initials to h- initials in Taiwanese Mandarin
  • (5) many word-based differences: xing1qi1/xing1qi2; la1ji1/le4se4; zhi4liang4/zhi2liang4...
  • (6) no neutral tones in Taiwanese Mandarin

Words

  • (1) a lot of differences here: 飯館/餐廳;水平/水準;馬桶/廁所...
  • (2) phrases such as 找個樂子 aren't said in Taiwan.
  • (3) In Taiwan, we like to say 不錯吃.

Grammar

  • (1) In Taiwanese Mandarin people use 有 a lot instead of 了.

There's more than these differences, of course. If you want more, there is a book that has a chapter dedicated to the difference between Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin. It's written by a famous Taiwanese professor. It's called the "Sounds of Chinese". She distinguishes the two as different dialects very clearly. Professor 竺家寧, my former teacher, has written a ton about the difference between the dialects in his book 詞彙之旅. These should get you thinking more accurately.

Posted on: Does This Come with a Warranty?
August 08, 2015, 04:31 PM

I think most people just want to know what they are learning. As it is now, you don't know what variant you are learning unless you already know or you do extra research.  

Posted on: 孟婆汤
August 06, 2015, 06:34 AM

I care if my tones are wrong. And it's not just "randoms" that will think that. It's everyone you talk to. Including friends and relatives. And you are wrong saying gu1ji2 in China.

Why not do away with retroflex initials, too? Why not lower down the second tone, as well? f- initials? Let's not teach them! It's Taiwanese Mandarin. It's fine.

To mix dialects and say nothing about it brings about a very low quality product.There's no excuse.

I wonder if anyone is walking around saying ming4 sang4 huan2quan2 because CPod people can't event fix pinyin errors?

(And I did ask for a refund within hours of resubbing. It wasn't granted.)

Posted on: CALL IN
August 05, 2015, 01:55 PM

我喜歡聽陳揮文。

Posted on: 孟婆汤
August 05, 2015, 01:00 PM

Well, there are some other issues. If you live in China, and you say gu1ji2, people will think you got the tone wrong. Just like if you live in Taiwan, and you say, for example, zhi4liang4, people will think you got the tone wrong. How would you know when to use the Taiwanese version or the Chinese version? CPod just mixes dialects without saying so. Secondly, internationally, the standard from China is what is taught. ChinesePod is mainly working with students who are somehow associated with Putonghua, either it be through living in China or using international curriculum. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mandarin textbook that all the schools use in Taiwan --視聽華語 -- uses forth tone of寂. It adheres strictly to Putonghua conventions. Lastly, if ChinesePod is going to mix tones from China with tones from Taiwan, theyshould be clear about which dialect they are using. Randomly throwing dialects together isn't responsible from an educator's perspective. Imagine an ESL class that randomly mixes the Indian English accent and the Australian English accent. Sure, they are both valid, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't distinguish them. The deeper problem is that many lessons on CPod are error prone and are not being fixed, including this one. I won't be renewing my sub, but that's because, to my surprise after I subbed again, there are no more Media lessons.

Posted on: 猎人头公司
August 02, 2015, 01:44 PM

Good question. I know you can say things like 為國家犧牲。But in this case, 為 without 了 sounds strange. For most cases likes this, I would stick with 為了 and not use 為.

 

 

Posted on: 猎人头公司
August 02, 2015, 11:21 AM

  • 為了 需求 For the purpose of needs
  • what needs?
  • 為了 業務協調上的 需求 For the purpose of needs in the area of sales coordination 

Does this help?

 

Posted on: 猎人头公司
August 02, 2015, 11:15 AM

為了 can take a noun。 There's no problem in that regard. Here's another example: "為了家庭,我不會再賭博了。” "For my family, I won't gamble anymore."

Posted on: 猎人头公司
August 02, 2015, 10:50 AM

1. 為了 = for the purpose of. A common sentence pattern with 為了 is: 為了__A__, __B__ (For the purpose of A, B.) B is what the subject does for A. Here are three examples:

  • 為了生活,他每天打兩份工。
  • 我是為了你好,才會這麼嘮叨。
  • 為了繼承家業,她放棄百萬年薪回家經營小吃店。

2. (在). . . 上 means 'in the area of' or 'in terms of'. It indicates the domain to which the following statement applies. An abstract noun goes between 在 and 上. Here are some examples:

  • 她在工作上很努力。
  • 在學習上,他很認真。
  • 在推銷技巧上,我們還有進步的空間。

So, "為了業務協調上的需求..." would be roughly translated as: "for the purpose of our needs in the area of sales coordination...." Hope this helps. Sorry about traditional characters. I'm in the habit of using them. I should set up simplified input for this site haha.

Posted on: 孟婆汤
July 31, 2015, 11:09 AM

About 寂 in 孤寂, dictionaries from China have its tone as fourth. Dictionaries from Taiwan have its tone as second. All the example sentence of 寂 in other contexts have it as fourth. 

I recommend changing it as most of the students here are learning 普通話 (standard Mandarin of China). If ChinesePod is going to start teaching 國語 (standard Mandarin of Taiwan), then ChinesePod should be open about this and go back and fix the tones in past lessons. 

Having a mixture of Mandarin from China and Mandarin from Taiwan on this site is pretty bad considering users pay a lot of money to access premium content. It's teaching a form of Mandarin that isn't a standard anywhere!