User Comments - waterbear
waterbear
Posted on: Custom Birthday Cake
October 23, 2015, 02:21 AMI've lived in Tianjin for about seven years now and I'd say that people use 星期 and 礼拜 regularly. I wouldn't say one is used more than the other but I'm sure that depends on where you are in Mainland China. Both will be understood wherever you are and should sound natural.
Posted on: Wake Up and Feed the Baby
May 28, 2015, 01:53 AMFor the lazy, Constance is saying 才 in front of an adverb like 刚 emphasizes the adverb, making the sentence unambiguous. So instead of being, "I recently finished breast feeding the baby" it's' "I just finished feeding the baby."
Posted on: Can Your Kid Speak Yet?
May 27, 2015, 05:02 AM现在我的儿子是一岁零三个月，他学会说几个单词，这些单词是：no, 哎呀, 妈妈，爸爸，dad， 爷爷，不吃，但他最喜欢说 yeah. 每天能看他的语言能力提高。
Any comments on what I wrote would be appreciated, thanks.
Posted on: House Hunting
January 20, 2015, 12:44 PMFiona, Gwilym.
Typo in the vocab. yue (month) was spelled yu.
Posted on: Don't You Know How To Drive!
January 17, 2015, 12:38 PMI have a tutor teach me once a week and I like to share what I learn when we are going off lessons from Chinesepod. These will be more colloquial, keep in mind I'm in Tianjin (near Beijing) and my tutor is from here.
蹭 cèng (v.) - to graze another car, scratch, rub against another car.
Usage: 他蹭我 Tā cèng wǒ He scratched my car (with his car)
剐蹭 guācèng (n.) - I suppose this means a fender bender, scratch, minor accident.
Usage: 发生了剐蹭 fāshēng le guācèng a small (car) accident happened.
Other useful words I learned when trying to tell a story of an accident that almost occurred:
车轮 chēlún - wheel (of a vehicle)
刹车 shāchē (n. v.) - brakes, to brake.
Posted on: The Important Difference Between 需 (xū) and 须 (xū)
January 17, 2015, 04:26 AMIt's great to see the videos on the site finally, using Wistia. Please take the above comments as constructive and make changes, I think you're all doing quite well though just starting out! I'd write more but 我须要上班。
Posted on: Don't You Know How To Drive!
January 08, 2015, 03:20 PMThank you for the reply Fiona, so far I think the new team is doing great.
Posted on: Don't You Know How To Drive!
January 08, 2015, 12:56 PMI thought censorship was over now since the move to Taiwan? ;-)
Posted on: Souvenirs of your Baby's Birth
January 08, 2015, 05:42 AMI have a lesson with a Chinese teacher in Tianjin every week, we usually cover one or two lessons I studied here on Chinesepod and sometimes expand upon them. I'll try and add whatever extra words and phrases I learn that relate to each lesson I study in an attempt to help out my fellow poddies. Please correct me if I make any mistakes.
周岁 - zhōusuì
Notes: You can also say 一周岁 两周岁 三周岁 etc... these can be used to count your real birth date by gregorian calendar.
虚岁 - xūsuì
Notes: "nominal age" when someone refers to their xu1sui4 they are talking about their actual age plus one year (having to do with the Chinese calendar, basically after CNY they add a year whether their birthday has passed yet or not)
满月 - man3yue3 used to date the first month of a babies life. Some people celebrate this, you invite your friends over to celebrate and traditionally they will buy a silver spoon. That's all I remember from our conversation anyways. This comes from "ancient" times when infanticide was high so it was a milestone and perhaps a safe bet that the child would live to see adulthood once a month passed.
That's all I can remember, I'll take more notes in future classes so I can share and remember more of it.
We did get a bit off topic and if any of that interests you (It should be at the intermediate level still) then read on:
When asking someone if they will be getting married any time soon the colloquial way to do so isn't by asking, "你什么时候结婚？“ but by asking, "我什么时候能喝你的喜酒？“ 喜酒 here reffers to the liquor at a wedding. Alternatively you can say, "我什么时候能吃你的喜糖？“ referring to the candy given out at weddings to the groom/brides friends.
Posted on: Custom Birthday Cake
October 23, 2015, 02:22 AMI don't have Chinese yet installed on this new machine so forgive the pinyin. The phrase structure zou, women + v + qu means let's + verb. How is this different from using ba at the end of a sentence? For example how is zou, women youyong qu any different from women qu youyong ba?