User Comments - xiaophil
xiaophil
Posted on: Earlier and Later than Expected: 才and 就
August 15, 2009 at 4:31 AMThis lesson is great!
I'm wondering, is it okay to say, "你怎么这么早才来？". I would think not, so I guess what I'm getting at is would it be best to collocate 早 with 就 and 晚 with 才?
Posted on: What's Your Job?
August 14, 2009 at 3:26 AMshenyajin
Thanks so much! Mostly clear. Just want something cleared up. It seems 人员 is the most generic. How do we use it? Can you translate this sentece: "I am a 人员 here." Does it usually have to collocate with 工作?
Posted on: What's Your Job?
August 14, 2009 at 2:26 AMOkay, I'm sorry to hog up the newbie space, but I think they might find these questions useful too. Anyway, I am never too clear as to how the following words are different and how they overlap. Can someone help me out?
- 工人 (gong1ren2): worker - is this primarily used for people who do physical labor?
- 雇员 (gu4yuan2): employee - is the the most generic word for somebody who works in some place, i.e. could I always say, "I am a 雇员 at such and such place"?
- 职员 (zhi2yuan2): staff member - is this primarily used with low-mid level office workers? Can we call a boss a 职员?
- 人员 (ren2yuan2): staff - is there a difference between 人员 and 职员? How about 人员 and 雇员? What is most common? Are any of these plural?
Posted on: What's Your Job?
August 14, 2009 at 2:12 AMI notice that almost everytime I ask a Chinese person in English, "where do you work?" He or she always replies with an address, district, street name, etc. This question has two meanings, but usually we mean 'what company'. So this got me thinking, "How do they express this question?" Can I say these:
Where do you work? = 你在哪家公司工作(ni3zai4na3jia1gong1zuo4)？or 你在哪家公司上班(ni3zai4na3jia1shang4ban1)？(Can I say 上班 here?)
Also, you got the tone wrong for 老师 in the pdf.
Posted on: Washing Dishes
August 13, 2009 at 7:28 AM我讨厌洗碗，而且讨厌做饭，但是两个都是必须的，没办法。
Posted on: Do You Know That Girl?
August 13, 2009 at 1:55 AMI've got a question or two
stevemisch reminded me of somthing. I always hear Chinese people say, "I have 'met' a problem," which in English isn't wrong, but it is used a little infrequently. Does this arise from outdated text books or because they are trying to translate word for word. Okay, I guess what I really am getting at is how is the best way to say, "I have ran into a problem?" I always say 我碰到了困难（或者问题）[wo3peng4dao4lekun4nan(wen4ti2)]. Is this okay? Is there a better way?
kismawan
Don't take my word for it not being a native and all, but I think you usually can interchange them to your hearts content except for in the case of when you say 哪里，那里，那儿 and 哪儿. Those must be 'na' (but again, this should be clarified by a native).
I was told before that nei is actually a contraction of na and yi (一), much like 'isn't' is a contraction of 'is not'.
Posted on: 沙漠寻踪五
August 17, 2009 at 2:15 AM这个系列已经结束了吗？哎哟！太突然的！