User Comments - xueny
xueny
Posted on: Pair, Set, Match 双, 副, 对 , 套
August 8, 2009 at 2:43 AMThanks Pete and changye!
Posted on: Pair, Set, Match 双, 副, 对 , 套
August 8, 2009 at 1:15 AMRegarding dabaitu's comment, I've heard "可以不可以", but never "可不可以". Are both correct? If so, which is more commonly used?
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
June 27, 2009 at 1:06 AMI've been wondering why 'ren' sounds so different from 're' and 'reng'. Now I know (at least I think I do). When John said we have to learn the rules and exceptions, I rewound it to make sure I heard him correctly.
Thanks for this lesson. I look forward to more.
Posted on: To do
June 14, 2009 at 7:37 PMchangye, great post! Thanks!
Posted on: What's Your Surname?
June 14, 2009 at 7:24 PMThanks shenyajin and shiligs for your feedback. Very helpful.
By the way, I would never call an older woman 奶奶 (nǎinai). I live in New York City and can only imagine the reaction if I went up to a senior citizen here and said, "Can I ask you a question, grandma?" At best, I'd get off with only a stern look. More likely there'd be some choice words, and maybe something thrown at me. And if there were a son or grandson with her, I'd be off and running faster than The Menu Stealer. :)
Posted on: Hungry Travelers and Baby Issues!
June 14, 2009 at 4:03 AMThe Elementary set of Hungry Traveler doesn't contain the Sichuan episode. Possibly others, but that's the one I noticed. Maybe someone can add that, and the upcoming Northeast China, episode to the set.
Posted on: To do
June 14, 2009 at 2:28 AMThanks paulinurus! That was my assumption. Good to know I'm on the right track. Now if only I can remember when to correctly use the other "to do"s from this podcast...
Posted on: To do
June 13, 2009 at 8:16 PMThe first time I encounted 做 and 作 they were in the same sentence:
Ni3 zuo4 shen2me gong1 zuo4? (I tried to copy-paste the characters but it didn't work.)
In this case 作 is part of a noun, same as in 作业. I'm not familiar with it as a verb. Could someone give examples of it being used as a stand-alone verb? Thanks.
Posted on: What's Your Surname?
June 12, 2009 at 2:34 AMshenyajin,
What if addressing complete strangers? Would I address them as 叔叔 and 阿姨, or would 先生 and 太太 be more appropriate in that instance?
As orangina says, it seems too informal to use 'uncle' and 'aunt' for strangers. In alexyzye's case, he's being introduced through his in-laws so the couple wouldn't be complete strangers.
Posted on: New Exercises, More Speaking Practice
August 8, 2009 at 10:01 PMGreat to hear that all older lessons will soon have exercises in this new format. Some of the matching exercises didn't work with Firefox. And the dictation was extremely frustrating, as I often didn't know what I was doing wrong but I knew it wasn't the tones.
A suggestion regarding the new sentence re-ordering exercise: would it be possible to use sentences that aren't in the lesson dialogue? At least at the lower levels. There are so few lines of dialogue in the Newbie and Elementary lessons that it isn't hard to identify which line is which without really reading them. I enjoy the Lesson Review MP3s because they give us the lesson vocabulary in new sentences, new contexts. I know that's what the Expansion section is for. But something similar in this new exercise, which connects new sentences in a logical progression, would be a great learning aid.