User Comments - everett

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everett

Posted on: Words of Encouragement
February 10, 2012, 07:23 AM

If they were having the same conversation on their cell phones instead of in person could the boss have asked 还没走?hai mei zou ma? without it sounding unnatural?

Or what about when a taxi driver drops you off if it was a bit complicated to find the destination, for instance because of one's own weak Chinese; and the driver was patient and maybe had to do a couple of u-turns or something. Would 辛苦了 sound appropriate in that case?

Posted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat
February 05, 2012, 02:02 PM

Great grammar tips in this lesson. Thx!

Posted on: Teaching English to the Neighbors
January 11, 2012, 11:33 AM

I had a nice experience of teaching English where a very small effort gave a large reward. I was very new in China, still staring wide-eyed at everything, in a village outside a smallish town in Henan, and the shopkeepers at the closest little Shaochi asked me to help their kid who was doing his English homework on a stool behind the counter. I talked to him for a while and complimented him on his great English and the parents were pleased as pie. We even took pictures.

The next year an internet cafe had opened in the village and I was warned they might try to rip me off as a foreigner. Turns out it was the same couple as before, they'd closed the shop and opened the wangba and they remembered me. They were always friendly and helpful. 2 rmb an hour doesn't sound like a rip-off price :-) A few years later they'd opened a hotel and I got a "friendship price" there when I stayed there for a night while the school I live at had an electrical problem. 

It's one of the cool things about China. Just buying stuff at the corner store can be like establishing a low-key kind of business and social relationship with the proprieters. 

Posted on: Teaching English to the Neighbors
January 11, 2012, 11:23 AM

I was also surprised by that. I figure it's just because it's a transliteration, not an original Chinese word. Most important is probably to put together a character pair that isn't easily mistaken for a real Chinese expression.

吉 is also used for the "giga" in gigabyte I believe, so it seems to already have a shady history of being used in transliterations. But 他 really threw me for a loop. As a basic unit of grammar, it strikes my anxious beginner eyes as really dodgy used like this.

Posted on: That's Not Your Food
January 04, 2012, 09:55 PM

Realize I'm about a year and a half late but just noticed the vocab list and exercises list 不错 bú cùo as meaning "not".

Posted on: Dental Floss
December 06, 2011, 03:12 PM

Chinese toothpicks are really thick and luxurious. They look manufactured on a lathe. Nothing like the thin, brittle slivers available in Sweden.

Posted on: Hospitality Series 4: Chinese Breakfast
November 19, 2011, 04:59 PM

I love chinese breakfast. Give me millet&mung bean porridge, (or cornmeal and sweet potato), a couple of youtiao, baozi, egg omelette w/spinach or other greens,... or why not soft tofu with the brown sauce. Happy camper!

Posted on: Breakup
August 16, 2011, 06:32 AM

As Joan Jett said, sure women have balls. They're just higher up.

Posted on: Breakup
August 15, 2011, 10:10 AM

多谢!

Posted on: Breakup
August 15, 2011, 09:49 AM

This is great, thanks.

I already learned something about juede... that's it's mostly connected with feelings and sensations.

Could anyone answer... What word would be more appropriate to ask someone what they "think" in the sense of their opinion about something?