User Comments - xiaophil

Posted on: Buying Sandals

Yes, probably suffering from a case of dude-itis.

Posted on: Buying Sandals

As evidenced by "The Thong Song," Americans, and as far as I know most other English speaking countries, have a very different meaning for thong than Australians.

In the US we would not call the pictured shoe a flip flop or a sandal. I think simply an open toe high heel, or have I been out of the States too long?

Update: I just did a web search and saw that kind of shoe is indeed occasionally referred to as a sandal. I don't know why I never noticed. I always thought of sandals as being more casual.

Posted on: Whatever...

Is there anyway to approximate this expression in Chinese:

"Oh whatev!"  (Roll of eyes.)

Perhaps just say 胡扯 or something of the sort?

Posted on: 人类的起源

Without an explanation, I don't buy it either. In my opinion, religion is a tool humans use to explain why their environment is the way it is, to provide a basis for morality and to give hope that there will be an afterlife. I could be wrong, but I don't think these would be a primary concern of our simian-esque ancestors. Then again, in theory the evolution of man from ape-like creatures must have been a slow process. Some of these concerns might have been present in "pre-humans". But regardless of who started it, I am willing to bet humans took it to the prominent level it has been in for as far back in history as scientist can see.

Posted on: Future fun with 会 (hui4), 要 (yao4), and 将 (jiang1)

Got another question,

Has anyone noticed that there seems to be two different ways of writing 将? Notice the style I just typed, and then notice this style used at nciku.com. Does anyone know why there is a difference? Is one style more of a handwritten way, while the other is a typeface?

PS: What happened to the hyperlink function in the toolbar?

Posted on: Future fun with 会 (hui4), 要 (yao4), and 将 (jiang1)

哦，我没想到有时候“将”和“把”的意思一样的，谢谢！

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

Connie，谢谢！

Posted on: Future fun with 会 (hui4), 要 (yao4), and 将 (jiang1)

CPod or any other Mandarin master, I have a possibly difficult question.

I understand 将 means 'will,' but it seems to me that it sometimes can be applied to actions that happened in the past.  For example:

我将这事告知了有关人员。I informed those concerned of this matter.

光阴似箭，不觉残年将尽。 Time went by like an arrow, and before I knew it the year was drawing to a close.

闹钟的响声将我从酣睡中惊醒。 The alarm clock roused me from my deep sleep.

已将叛乱分子一一缉拿归案。 All the rebels have been brought to justice.

I am wondering what function 将 serves in these sentences?  Is there any correlation at all with English?

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

Connie老师，谢谢你，我知道了！我想问一下，中国人常常铺修吗？

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

anybody?怎么说“minor”？是“副修”吗？中国人也有minor吗？我在一所大学当了三年的外教，可是每次我问我的学生这个问题，他们的回答不太明确。