| Most Recent Messages of Each Discussion |
Created by |
Duibuqi / excuse me
Ni hao,
I was reading my message again, and realized I said that the sack was like a "sleeping back" or any kind of bed. I meant a "sleeping bag." These darn rented fingers just don't type what I tell them to.
Also, I was sharing with my girlfriends about your very interesting question, and she mentioned a really good "hitting" idiom in English that I completely forget about: "hit the showers," meaning to go take a shower. This one is typical of athletic coaches at the end of practice or after a game (and that's why it is always used in the plural, since it's always a large number of people who will be taking showers), but we can use it for just one person, as in, "I think I'll go hit the showers." It seems incorrect, but even in this case we use the plural. But of course, idioms never have to observe the same rules as other expressions.
zhu ni hao,
Si ma ke,
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
|
Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
|
|
Mark S.
March 18, 2005
# Msgs: 10
Latest: April 12, 2005
|
English Idiom: "Hit the sack"'
Ni Hao! Renshi nin, wo hen gaoxing!
"Hit the sack" is an idiom in English for going to bed or going to sleep. "The sack" is a metaphor for a sleeping back, but means any kind of bed. And in English when we're speaking very informally, (Only when we speak informally, not like in Chinese) we often use the word "hit" for going to something. So we might say, "Hit the pavement (or "hit the bricks") to mean get out on the streets, either to look for a job or to go sell things. We might say "Hit the books" for going to study.
It's funny, because as I was saying that about how we use Hit in English, and I remember how you use Da3 in Mandarin, like Da dian hua, to make a phone call (hit the phone), da zhen to get a shot, da qiu, to play ball. I remember laughing to myself, thinking, I never would have beleived the Chinese were so violent! (just kidding)
But anyway, as I say, in English, we use "hit" that way only in very informal conversation, like with friends and family.
Xiexie ni, rang wo yi ge zhen you yisi de wenti!
Zai jian!
|
Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
|
|
Mark S.
March 17, 2005
# Msgs: 10
Latest: April 12, 2005
|
Una poema muy linda (con correciones de mi mensaje)
Vaya pensamientos tan emocionantes.
Me gustaría mucho trabajar con tigo en eso, pero es muy importante que trabaje en mis estudios hasta mañana por la tarde. Por supuesto, si solo se la daría un traducción, no es muy de ayuda para usted; Espero que sabe lo que dar pescado y enseñar pescar.
¿Puede apegar un esfuerza en traducirlo, mostrarme que puede hacer usted mismo, y dónde le necesita mi ayuda? Esa manera puede ayudarle mucho mejor en aprender inglés, y también darnos mejor oportunidades por hacernos amigos :-).
Gracias por apegar sus pensamientos y compartirlos con nosotros. Tal vez conozco a una poema en inglés que le gustaría mucho leer. Busque en la red las palabras, "Invitation" y "Oriah Mountain Dreamer". Su poema, "The Invitation" también es muy emocionante. Pero hay dos versiones. Si encontraría la palabra "faithful" en la poema, es equivocado. Mountain Dreamer escribió "faithless" aquí, pero mucha gente presumían que era un typo, y lo cambiaron a "faithful" Pero eso sí es el error. Ojalá que se le gusta.
Como seguramente verá, no estoy el mejor hombre en comprender sus sentimientos perfectamente en español. Ni soy un poeta tampoco. Pero soy instructor de inglés, y les amo mucho ambas lenguas, y también lo que escribió. Por eso, me gustaría mucho contribuir en alguna manera con esta obra.
¡Espero ver su poema linda en inglés!
Saludos,
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: Spanish; English
|
|
Mark S.
March 16, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: March 19, 2005
|
Una poema muy linda
Vaya pensimientos tan emocionantes.
Me gustaria mucho trabajar con tigo en eso, pero es muy importantante que trabaje en mis estudios hasta mañana por la tarde. Por supuesto, si solo se la daría un traducción, no es muy de ayuda para usted; Espero que sabe lo que dar pezcado y ensenñar pezcar.
¿Puede apegar un esfuerza en traduzcarlo, mostrarme que puede hacer usted mismo, y dónde le necesita mi ayuda? Esa manera puede ayudarle mucho mejor en aprender inglés, y también darnos mejor oportunidades por hacernos amigos :-).
Gracias por apegar sus pensamientos y comartirlos con nosotros. Tal vez conozco a una poema en inglés que le gustaría mucho leer. Buzque en la red las palabras, "Invitation" y "Oriah Mountain Dreamer". Su poema, "The Invitation" también is muy emocionante. Pero hay dos versiones. Si encontraría la palabra "faithful" en la poema, es equivocado. Mountain Dreamer escribó "faithless" aquí, pero mucha gente presumían que era un typo, y lo cambiaron a "faithful" Pero eso sí es el error.
Ojala que se le gusta. ¡Espero ver su poema linda en inglés!
Saludos,
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: Spanish; English
|
|
Mark S.
March 16, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: March 19, 2005
|
Re:PLEASE HELP WITH JAPANESE!
Hey, I'm Japanese! Well, 1/2, and I speak Osaka-ben, is that ok? I'm 15. I'd be glad to help but I'm not a gold member so I guess we can do it here.
Yeah, I already speak English but that's cool. Where should we start?
|
Language pair: English; Japanese
|
|
Camille T.
March 15, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Re:Explaining an English Sentence
The word, "deny" often means "to refuse to fulfill a need," as in, "the captives were denied food and water for several days" In this case, "denied" means "withheld" or "refused."
In the case of your quote, the soldier destroys the city in order to prevent his enemy from being able to capture it and enjoy its resources. A very common military strategy.
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: English; All
|
|
Mark S.
March 10, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Re:Pronunciation of rr
Hi Melanie,
I don’t know if this question is easier for a non-native speaker to answer, since we may be more likely to remember how we learned.
My Spanish teacher always told us to spend a couple of minutes every day saying, “duh-d-duh, duh-d-duh, duh-d-duh, duh-d-duh,” just to develop the agility with our tongues. I think that was helpful for a lot of students in my class. That helped both with the r and the rr.
For me, I just put the tip of my tongue very lightly up against the bone of the roof of my mought just above my upper teeth. And breathe through that contact point so that it vibrates like a blade of grass between your thumbs or like the reed of a saxophone or an oboe. This makes a sound not unlike the purr of a cat, and when I voice it, so that my Adam’s apple vibrates while I’m doing it, it makes the sound of rr.
I hope you find that helpful. Good luck with your Spanish!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
Mark S.
March 6, 2005
# Msgs: 2
Latest: March 6, 2005
|
Re:Pronunciation of rr
My Spanish teacher used to have us practice a couple of minutes every day, saying, "duhduhduh, duhduhduh, duhduhduh" That was helpfor for some of the students in our class.
What I do is I place the tip of my tongue very lightly against the bump above my top teeth, and I let the air flow between my tong and this spot on the roof of my mouth so that my tongue vibrates against it, making a sound kind of like a cat's purr. If I add a little voice to it (so I can feel my Adam's apple vibrate), that's exactly the sound of "rr."
I hope that's helpful. Good luck!
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
Mark S.
March 6, 2005
# Msgs: 2
Latest: March 6, 2005
|
Re:Hobbies in Sweden
well... what can I say?
It's a male hobby usually performed with one hand on ones own, but there are many variants. It's not the kind of hobby you'd bring up while having dinner with your stepmother. Unfortunately, it's the kind of hobby that quite a few for some unknown reason find interesting to disscuss in internet conversations with Swedes.
I hope my reply has been of use!
/Louise
|
Language pair: English; Swedish
|
|
Louise
March 5, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Re:Re:anyone?
Fadia, if you can help me as well, I would appreciate it! I can call you in your country and offer oen fo the Latin languages in return, or Russian.
|
Language pair: Arabic, Middle Eastern; English
|
|
Duccio
March 4, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
