Comments for Learn Hanzi

Comment on Back on track by McCorvic

McCorvic — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:38:04 +0000

Sorry to hear about all your recent trouble. I hope that things turn around soon for you.

Comment on Let’s make friends by zhanglihua

zhanglihua — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:48:24 +0000

“Is the People’s Daily a newspaper? The language used sounds overly dramatic to describe the growth of a newspaper.” 呵呵 The English language media outlets in China that are not informal (sports commentary etc) per definitionem always use this kind of highly pretentious, dramatic language. That’s what I meant by unnatural, not being written in an appropriate style, incorrect usage of registers etc. . Many political Chinese texts sound this way as well.

““only when we attach closer importance to global invents”
I suppose what the writer meant was the following: “Only if we pay more attention to global events” or perhaps “emphasise” them, right? I think his mother tongue interfered subconsciously, because in Chinese this sentence might be expressed using 把, which could explain the odd object-construction.

By the way, thanks a lot! On a sidenote, even professors, spokespeople and political leaders employ self-depreciating phrases, although I guess most of them actually aren’t too serious about that

Comment on Let’s make friends by Andrew Corrigan

Andrew Corrigan — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:07:46 +0000

“only when we attach closer importance to global invents”, “This is where lies the motive force for the continuous, forward advance of the People’s Daily, which has traversed a six-decade course of development .”

The first sentence does not really make sense. I have no idea what it means for “importance” to be “closer”.

The second sentence sounds natural, with one caveat. Is the People’s Daily a newspaper? The language used sounds overly dramatic to describe the growth of a newspaper.

Your written English is not feeble, in fact you write like a well-educated, native speaker. It’s really not necessary to demean your abilities.

Comment on Bog-Standard Roadkill by Jason

Jason — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:02:30 +0000

On the topic of Example 3, this is just a common idea among Americans at least. When I tell people I am studying Chinese the usual response I get is, “Why? Everyone knows English anyways.” There is a huge expectation among Americans that everyone does, or should, just know English. I’m not really sure why this is though.

Comment on Character 112-140 by Hans-Peter

Hans-Peter — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:25:02 +0000

Hi zhanglihua:

you didn’t explain:

科 ke1 FIELD OF STUDY/SCIENCE, ….

斗 is a measure (about 10 spoons).

科 shows the measuring or classification of 禾 cereals. Science (=科) has always something to do with 斗 measuring.

Comment on Bog-Standard Roadkill by zhanglihua

zhanglihua — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:32:43 +0000

呵呵 Yeah, that’s what I meant. I knew something wasn’t quite correct but I couldn’t work out what. My English used to be better, the other languages I am studying interfere with it, and so does correcting the sometimes abysmal writing of my students.

I think the Chinese attitude to “domestic” variations (i.e. differences between regions) goes along the lines of “Hey, funny, that guy has an accent and cooks differently” and then we shrug and get on with our lives. Your hear occasional jokes about farmers and Shanghai girls, but we usually don’t make fun of people from other regions whereas this seems to be a rather common theme in most western countries, albeit in harmless way.
Then again, from time to time we react in astonishing ways to foreigners, watching them intently. They just value their privacy too much, otherwise they wouldn’t be complaining about being stared at and their landladies wandering into their flats day and night!

Comment on Bog-Standard Roadkill by baillies

baillies — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:46:01 +0000

Hi Jasmine

I don’t think you are prejudiced. I also find it funny when people criticise other cultures and can’t understand why other cultures are not the same … in that case why are you travelling.

btw I think you mean to type ‘umpteenth time’ in example 2. I had to look up how it was spelt as well

thankyou for your insites.

Comment on Characters 1-20 by Hans-Peter

Hans-Peter — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:16:34 +0000

Hi zhanglihua,
thank you for your kind words. My motivation comes from my wife; she is from Taiwan. I am in Taiwan visiting my parents-in-law nearly every second year, so the Chinese language has become one of my favourite hobbies. As I am in the IT business I built up a character/vocab database over the years which I complement with those mnemonic words and explanations.
PS-1: “同喜”: I didn’t know that before, so I learned something new today, 谢谢.
PS-2: Your German is very good!

Comment on Characters 1-20 by zhanglihua

zhanglihua — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:59:16 +0000

同喜, Hans-Peter! Your website is really great, and so much more professional. Ich kenne nur bisschen Deutsch, doch ich finde das die Website ist sehr gut und hilfreich. Your explanations are based on the traditional characters, but you also provide the simplified form, 对不对?

May I ask what your incentive and motivation is? What “connects” you to the Chinese language?

Comment on Characters 1-20 by Hans-Peter

Hans-Peter — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:53:12 +0000

Hi zhanglihua, thanks for your efforts explaining simplified characters to the rest of the world .
I am trying to do something similar and “explain with menomonics” traditional characters in German (now at character no. 869): http://taeglich.chinesisch-trainer.de/index.php?alle=1
I will link to your pages, OK?
Again, many thanks and all the best for you!