Those of us living in Beijing occasionally hear tales of the strange lands and barbarous customs that exist beyond the third ring road. Visitors to our studios bring whispers and rumors of yet wilder places that stretch off in the lands beyond the fourth. And beyond them? Few have seen the savage mystery of Greater Hebei and returned to tell the tale. We know of only one, and his name is Frank Fradella.
 said on
June 30, 2009
Incidentally, part of what we've heard is that there is now Dairy Queen available in Greater Hebei. Which is a major step forward for frozen dairy treats in the area. Morrison would be impressed.

 said on
June 30, 2009
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. :)

 said on
July 1, 2009
Names are hard to transliterate into Chinese. When I was given my Chinese name, I dropped my given surname and kept 羅琳. (Not that I am anything like Cher or Madonna.)

I remember being lost in Beijing in 1990. I just recall being on the outer rings going out of Beijing obviously in the wrong direction. I could not even understand the cigarette vendor when trying to find my way.

Okay, you say that we "认识" people and we "知道" facts. Can one say that “我认识她,可是不知道她?

 said on
July 1, 2009
@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?

 said on
July 1, 2009
@luolin, @orbital,

orbital has the point. when you know a person, you have to heard of (听说/知道) first, then 认识, finally, 了解。

we can say,我知道她,但是不认识她 instead of 我认识她,但是不知道她。---how?
 said on
July 1, 2009
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
 said on
July 2, 2009
@loulin

If I could make a guess on the phonetic translation of "Bender" into a Chinese name it would have to be "bèndàn"笨蛋. But that would be a pretty large self inflicted wound to carry around for the rest of your Chinese speaking life.

@gail

I heard xiaohu was a name given to the ”slow“ kid out in the countryside。 对不对?This is probably just another tall tale I've heard from one of my Chinese friends
 said on
July 2, 2009
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.
 said on
July 2, 2009
Surely you'd just pick a name you liked?

I always think I'm missing something regarding that so I've been in no hurry to get a Chinese name. Always figuring it would be better when I knew more Chinese. Course that could be an eternal state.

Transliteration doesn't work for me but I worry about a balance of something meaningful but not ridiculously immodest...
 said on
July 3, 2009
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).

 said on
July 3, 2009
@luolin - I'd go with something like 你觉得这个值得多少分. I don't know if there would be a difference between grading and scoring in Chinese - I've always just heard 分 being used colloquially as shorthand for 分数.

Anyone else?
 said on
July 3, 2009
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"

 said on
July 3, 2009
@luolin & paglino9,

So what's the difference between grade and score ?

When I was a student, we used hunderd mark system. We always used 分. I heard that some primary schools are using 优、良、中、差 now, and I think it's more like "grade" since it is sort of like A / B / C / D ... in the west, right?

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
July 4, 2009
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.
 said on
July 4, 2009
We know of only one
Make that two :-) I spent 3 years in Hebei.
 said on
July 5, 2009
True! I think that counts as penal time as well... ;)
 said on
July 5, 2009
Hebei's a great place to live - well certain parts of it anyway :-)
 said on
March 10, 2010
What would the last name Steele be in Chinese?
 said on
March 10, 2010
Hi lolitabomb,

Steele is 斯梯尔 (sī tī ěr). We've actually got that surname along with a lot of others in our online Chinese English dictionary. :)

Best,

--david
 said on
March 10, 2010
@trevelyan, @luolin,

I think it should be: 你觉得他们能得多少分儿?

 said on
November 20, 2014
some high level Echo snark in this one
 said on
March 6, 2016
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?
 said on
March 6, 2016
It means "anymore" in this case.

1st sentence: Isn't he living in Hubei anymore?

2nd sentence: Isn't he living in Hubei?

Cheers,

Paul
 said on
March 12, 2016
@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:)