Today we're pleased to support all you parents out there with a lesson that will teach you how to crush the hopes and dreams of your offspring with two simple words. Whether your child's interests lie in backyard construction, the sporting life, or more prosaic things like a chance to leave their room and enjoy their sixth birthday, this is your chance to put that foot down and establish some parental authority. Enjoy!
xiaoxin
 said on
October 7, 2009
这个小孩...
j320m3
 said on
October 11, 2009
这个小孩子很聪明！
Gail天堂的声音
 said on
October 11, 2009
@xiaoxin,

同感同感here.
Andrews_seat
 said on
November 18, 2009
An error in your vocab list:

没意思 měiyìsi

Shouldn't the first character take the second tone?
trevelyan
 said on
November 18, 2009
yes bob, absolutely. corrected with thanks.
jyh
 said on
November 27, 2009
This was a great lesson. I really enjoyed the systematic exploration of these shuō-X and méi-X speech patterns. Also, I like the fact that the Elementary lessons are getting a bit more complex (I think). I feel that some of the early ones were too close in level to the Absolute Beginner lessons, and then the jump to Intermediate seemed gigantic (still pretty daunting to me).

A question. In Echo's example sentence "he said 'no way,' so we argued", I can't figure out the verb she uses for "argue" (聽不出來: thank you lesson "Questions about Sex" :-) ）:

他說沒門兒所以我門xxxx了／他说没门儿所以我门xxxx了.

What's the xxxx verb above?

TiA.
Brendan
 said on
November 27, 2009
@jyh - The mystery word there is 吵架 chǎojià, "to argue." Good term to know, though low-frequency (one hopes!).
jyh
 said on
November 27, 2009
@Brendan

Thank you.

I was going to disagree about the frequency of the word (sometimes I feel that I argue a lot, just for the sake of it, it would seem), but then I noticed that both the Popup Chinese Dictionary and the Pera-kun dictionary give "to quarrel" for 吵架. So, does the word have the "strong" meaning of "argue", and if it does, what word would you use for the "milder" version of arguing?
mike_underhill
 said on
February 18, 2013
@Echo

Hi Echo,

Some questions about "反正"

1. Is it directly like English "anyway" in that it can be used to conclude a topic, even if there is no disagreement? Or is it (like the first character and this dialogue both imply) used to negate what the other person says and bring the topic to a close?

2. Can we use it, say, in a client meeting without risk of offense?

Thx,

Mike
Echo
 said on
February 18, 2013
@mike,

Hey Mike, to answer your questions:

1. 反正 can be used both ways.

2. I would suggest not use it. It may not sound rude, but a bit unprofessional in a business meeting.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com