7 Responses to “CLO_044: Do you have any pets at home?”

1. chris(mandarin_student) Says:
   December 13th, 2006 at 2:44 pm

   Hi, keep up the good work!

   Slightly off topic but we had a brief discussion about practice passages a couple of lessons ago. I like your one about the Ostrich and I see you apparently have a few more in your premium section.

   My only comment about the Ostrich example is it would be a lot more helpful with the characters and English translation. I have found that memorising little passages like this is terrific, not only for pronounciation practice but also for memorising a little vocabulary. Also if you meet a Chinese speaker and have the chance to practice with them, then even if you are not yet good enough to have a proper conversation you can always try to tell them some of your rhymes and jokes.
   The addition of the recorder is nice.

   I am assuming the Ostrich example you give is as follows:
   小鸵鸟脾气怪。
   妹妹喊它它不睬。
   脑袋钻沙对里。
   嘴里喊我不在。

   I may have made some mistakes (pinyin is a great tool but a little ambiguous in cases like this).

   My rough understanding being:

   Strange tempered little(baby) ostrich.
   Little sister calls you, you ignore.
   Head drills into sand.,
   crying “I am not here”.

   It will be a little while before I get to publish everything I want to and I have a feeling that my Skype partner actually wrote a couple of passages for me so I should get her permission first, I will send you an example through your contact form now though.

2. admin Says:
   December 13th, 2006 at 5:22 pm

   Hi Chris,

   Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve added an English translation if you mouse-over the words.
   http://www.chineselearnonline.com/tone-and-pinyin-practice.
   I’ll work on the Chinese translation. I’m looking forward to seeing your other examples.

   -Adam

3. parrot Says:
   December 14th, 2006 at 5:42 am

   If that link doesn’t work, it’s because the dot at the end gets in the way, try this:

   http://www.chineselearnonline.com/tone-and-pinyin-practice

   Do Chinese people talk about their pets in the same way as talking about people? For example:
   My parrot is 32 years old. She likes to drink tea. / Wo de ying wu san shi er sui. Ta xihuan he cha.
   Do we always have to call all animals “it”, or anything like that? Is our relationship in the household sufficiently close that I can leave out the “de”?

4. admin Says:
   December 14th, 2006 at 2:18 pm

   Thanks for the link correction, parrot.

   Animals have their own special pronoun tā. It’s the same pronunciation as the tā for he or she, but it has a different character when writing 它. As far as your relationship with your pet goes, that’s your personal choice. If you feel the relationship warrants it, you can leave out the de. For example, official government spokespeople in China will often refer to China as “Wǒ guó” (My country).

   Hope that helps!

5. admin Says:
   December 16th, 2006 at 1:23 am

   Ok Chris, your wish has been granted (it is the holiday season after all). Both English translation and Chinese characters have been added to the Tone and Pinyin practice ( http://www.chineselearnonline.com/tone-and-pinyin-practice ). Move your mouse over the text to see the English translation. If you scroll towards the bottom you’ll see links to Simplified and Chinese character versions. Those also use the mouse over effect to translate back to Pinyin. Try it out and let me know what you think!

6. Daniel Tynan Says:
   May 25th, 2007 at 3:22 am

   Great idea to put the recording and playback device in the VOCAB section! I started using it and could hear for the first time how much I sometimes was off on my tones! I hope you continue to integrate that tool into the vobac section.
   Daniel

7. Adam Says:
   May 25th, 2007 at 3:28 am

   Glad you like it. I’m in the process of adding recording and playback to all older lessons. The word bank will soon be up to date for all lessons allowing you to search and see how how vocabulary and characters are intertwined between different lessons.

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