User Comments - jicutler

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jicutler

Posted on: Bringing it All Back Home With 回去 and 回来
July 22, 2009, 01:44 PM

For use with 吧。。。is it true that you can say both: 回来上海吧! and 回上海来吧!! ??? i said 回上海来吧 to a friend and got corrected, but then she relented with "都可以” can someone clear this up?

Posted on: Drinking Game
July 21, 2009, 02:46 PM

penalty drink one glass!

john you crack me up.

Posted on: No TV Before Your Test!
July 10, 2009, 01:20 PM

Pete,

 

I'd say I'm way more distracted by the power of the internet to give me little bits of information and news whenever I want it...the only drawback of chinesepod is that if I want to use the online tools, I'm just one click away from some other very distracting stuff :).

Posted on: City: Mumbai
July 01, 2009, 02:57 PM

did anyone else burst out laughing when jenny said there was romance in the air....awkward silence...John: "yeah"....awkward silence

Posted on: Podcast Language 2
July 01, 2009, 01:59 PM

Maybe it would be possible to make an ele-intermediate gap bridging series that encompasses some of these concepts into an actual lesson set, which would be easier to digest over time. A lesson set where these "jenny-isms" are actually included within the dialogue and can be integrated into the rest of the content available on cpod. I like the idea of this qingwen series but some of it seems like a random barrage :).

Posted on: I Have Class
February 17, 2008, 03:48 PM

American english is a product of the american people, not the american government. I find it offensive to pegged in a demeaning manner simply because of my government's recent actions. You will find that most educated Americans themselves feel a bit of shame as well. Also, orwell was an "english" author - being born in london. So your analogy is misplaced. Please, let's try to have some class, yes?

Posted on: I Have Class
February 17, 2008, 03:27 PM

The "i have class" carries over to a few usages I can think of off the top off my time. It can be used for events that are scheduled, but required? this is hard to explain: I have lacrosse practice at 5 o'clock. I have book club at 10. I have chem lab at 2. I have school today. I have work at 4. It seems like you can omit (a) for something like: I'm going on (a) vacation tomorrow! But phrases like: I have doctor appointment at 2. I have meeting at 3. I have concert at 6. Those are incorrect, it seems more idiomatic than pragmatic. However, it also seems that you can omit it (a) whenever something like class etc is an overarching idea instead of an isolated idea. Class is generally an on going thing, every day, and the idea of class is a broad one, instead of just one class. So let's say that I had a group I got together with every week, and we named our group "appointment." Then I can imagine saying, "I have appointment at 4." I know it's strange but that works, haha.

Posted on: Preparing for the Heat
January 09, 2008, 11:00 PM

nooooooo! Don't buy a stroke dictionary yet! http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php This is my favorite online dictionary and it has stroke animations to boot: http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php When you find the hanzi, there are little brush icons and when you click them you can access the animations.

Posted on: Getting Water Delivered
January 04, 2008, 05:03 AM

Hi Howard, I've only been taking mandarin for about 3 months, but I did learn that the measure word for floor is ceng2,(层). Maybe the chinesepod folk will agree? -Josh