User Comments - hobielover
hobielover
Posted on: I can't sing
February 14, 2009 at 8:07 PM@huanghua: That is what I mean. In songs, you just go with the rhythm of the song, tones aren't a problem. As far as I can tell, Chinese CDs also always include lyrics books as well as the Chinese subtitles on the music videos. All the CDs I've bought so far have the lyrics books, though I've heard that pirates tend to have bad ones with homophones as do many typed-up sets of lyrics on the Internet. I once came across a copy of Angela Chang's "雨后" that constantly replaced "雨" with "于" and made no sense what-so-ever.
That's why I'm giving ChinesePod a try, since I like the music so much that my tones are bad. Listening to my mumbly Jay Chou CDs has it's advantages, though. Instant common ground with younger Chinese who like Jay Chou and people decide they've underestimated my ability to speak Chinese once I've said that I like Vincent Fang's lyrics.
Posted on: Valentine's Special
February 14, 2009 at 7:42 PMSorry about the earlier comment! My brain was dead yesterday and I think I was thinking in Spanish for some reason. What I meant to say was in "谁送的," the "的" kind of makes everything before it like an adjective, though the noun is dropped.
@lennier61: It can't be "谁从了" because "从" is not a verb. I don't think the "了" would make sense without a verb. "从" is more for "从...到..." ("from...to..."). You would use it if you took a plane to go from Shanghai to Beijing, but as far as I know it would not be used for "from me to you." Please correct me if I am wrong.
Posted on: I can't sing
February 13, 2009 at 10:48 PMxiao_zhi: I'm not sure as to how to answer the first question, but in American culture, many people find it embarrassing to sing in front of others. This person is embarrassed to sing because she doesn't like her voice and doesn't want to embarrass herself. She says that she doesn't know how to sing.
A few other little song-related terms:
摇滚 (yáo gǔn) - rock
流行 (liú xíng) - pop
嘻哈 （xī hā） - hip-hop
歌手 (gē shǒu) - singer
To those who asked about karaoke with Pinyin:
As far as I know, there usually isn't any Pinyin in KTV, but some people sub it in themselves. My YouTube channel has a few examples here. These aren't on the original VCDs and DVDs, but rather added in and generally don't use tonal marks because they are for singing, so sloppy tones won't be such a problem. I actually sang along with Jay Chou's "黑色幽默" and recorded it with an MP3 player. 我真的不会唱歌！
Posted on: Valentine's Special
February 13, 2009 at 8:49 PMqiaokeli34: "的" generally refers to possession. In this case, the "who" possesses the action of sending. I agree with dunderklumpen, this is a shortened form of "是谁送的？" It's more around 8:30 in the lesson you linked.
Posted on: Mexico City
February 13, 2009 at 12:29 PMThanks lujiaojie! Those make sense. I wasn't sure whether to expect something phonetic or something that actually described the food.
Posted on: Mexico City
February 12, 2009 at 11:36 PMI'm glad I happened to listen to Song Zuying's "辣妹子" before hearing this lesson, so I understood the pun. "Là mèi zǐ" is a song that makes use of this pun, saying that hot girls aren't afraid to eat hot peppers. I'm new here. :)
How would you say "quesadilla con pollo" ("chicken quesadilla") in Chinese? Or "churro"? Just in case someone asks me what my favorite foods are, of course.
Thank you.
Posted on: Health Check
February 14, 2009 at 8:38 PM@bababardwan: LOL! That's a cute way to remember it! I like to think of characters more component-wise and make a little explanation for it all. "穴" is "hole" and "工" is "work." When you have a hole in your work, you have spare time.