Kudos to Frank for taking the plunge. There is a world of experience to be had in China outside Beijing and Shanghai. It's a pity we don't all have more exposure to it. :)

@luolin - I think you can use 知道 that way, although I'd probably veer towards 了解 in that context. 知道 might mean 听说 there.

It's a good name too - Lauren, right?

Orbital, actually it's Laureen, like Maureen but with an "L." The "ee" makes it a long "e" sound. I was born way before the Lauren craze came about in the 90s. (I am a teacher, so I have seen the trends in names.)

Names are so important to us, I guess for some kind of identify. I wonder if the Chinese have problems on the playground when a person's parents gives the him or her a "bad" name. Somehow I doubt this.

My first teacher (an American) in Chinese had a last name of "Bender." Orbital, give it a guess, what do you think he named himself?

Luolin

Was it 笨蛋？ That would be awful. I had a friend named Eve who ended up with the name Yifu. The characters weren't the same as the one for clothing, but it was a total homophone.

Yep, Trevelyan and Gail, "stupid egg" for Bender. Learning Chinese is such a humbling experience.

I need a translation of kind. At work I grade tests and I have to determine scores ranging 0-4. My coworker knows some Chinese and we were discussing how to ask in Chinese, "What do you think this test's score is?" We weren't quite sure but something with 怎么样？

We did not how to say "score" as in a grade (but technically there is a difference between grading and scoring, so "scores" are given to these tests).

When I was trying to explain to my students what a "grade" was they looked at me with their usual blank stare. I think students are more familiar with the term "marks" as in "I want to receive good marks for the assignments I have prepared."

so in this instance what would be the word for "marks"

Okay, the difference between grading and scoring is...With No Child Left Behind (NCLB) public school students have to take standardize tests (in most states, if not all). So during the year, teachers test their students. The teachers give the students "grades" or marks and depending on the school district, the students receive a grade for that period of time such as A,B,C, D, or F. Most school districts still grade this way (in the U.S.).

Now when these public school students take a standardize test, these test questions are scored 0-4 points. This is probably like what you said in the previous chat entry. "0" is no understanding, "1" is a minimal understanding, "2" is a limited understanding, "3" is a general understanding, and a "4" is a clear, concise understanding of the standard being tested. (Another state may use 0-6 etc). These scores are not a part of their academic year grade.

A company will hire people like me, during the summer, to score these tests. The scores are reported back to the school districts to measure how well (or not) the school district, the school, and the individual student is performing on a state level.

So when I asked how to say "what do you think this score is" in Chinese, I was specifically asking for a "score" in this very limited situation.

This is probably TMI.

True! I think that counts as penal time as well... ;)

What would the last name Steele be in Chinese?

@trevelyan, @luolin,

I think it should be: 你觉得他们能得多少分儿？

What is the purpose of 了 in 他不是住在河北了吗? Is there any difference between that and 他不是住在河北吗?

@1c2d976f

Yeah. It doesn't make much of difference here without 了. But 了 does show the emphasis on tense(here is Present Perfect Tense)

So depending on the context here, 他不是住在河北了吗 indicates that this person used to live somewhere else, then moved to Hebei. It feels more like "this person has settled down/ started to live in Hebei already/ for quite awhile".

Hope it helps out:)