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| 47455 |
What is the meaning of " hit the sack"?
Ni hao! I am a plain girl from China. I want to practise English with English speaking people who want to learn Chinese.
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Language pair: English; All
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| 47498 |
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!
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47455
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| 47520 |
Re:What is the meaning of
Hit the sack usually means "go to bed."
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 47455
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| 47548 |
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
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47498
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| 47599 |
xie xie ni
Hi Mark,
Wo ye hen gao xing ren shi ni!
Thank you so much for your explanation in detail. You make me feel that learning English is much more interesting, especially idioms and slang. Ha ha.
Is Si ma ke your Chinese name? My name is Zhangyan.
Zhu ni zhou mo yu kuai!
Bye
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47548
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| 47600 |
xie xie ni (Thank you)
Ni hao!
Thank you so much for your explanation. You make me feel that learning English is much more interesting, especially idioms and slang.
Zhu ni zhou mo yu kuai!
(Have a nice weekend.)
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Language pair: English; All
This is a reply to message # 47520
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| 47664 |
Re:xie xie ni
Mei wenti Zhangyan,
Language is interesting. It always is, and I love noticing the interesting connections between words.
Did you ever wonder why the Chinese character hao3 is made up of child and woman characters? Have you ever had anyone explain it to you? I always had a theory that it was from a traditional assumption that a man who has a wife and a child has a good life. I wonder if femenists in your country, or people who choose not to raise families find that annoying. I wonder if anyone ever talks about wanting to find a more universally meaningful way of writing the word.
Si ma ke is what passes for my Chinese name. My Chinese teacher often promised to give me a more fitting one, but she never thought of one she liked.
You have an interesting way of wishing me a good weekend. In my class, we always said, "zhou mo kuai le," so I'm guessing that the "kuai" is the same one we always used, the one that means quick, made of a vertical xin character on the left and the yang character on the right.
But I had some trouble finding "yukuai" I finally found a character for yu2kuai4, which seems to mean happy, so I guess that was the one you meant. I'm not sure how to describe the yu character, and my Chinese software hasn't worked on my computer since I got Windows XP. But it's a vertical Xin on the left again, and this time a top made out of an 8 (ba) with a 1 (yi) connecting the legs. Below the top of the right part is a moon (yue4)on the left and something I always want to call a two stroke dagger that looks kind of like a dotless i and a dotless j.
I don't know. If I'm talking about the right thing, this should all make perfect sense to you, but if I'm wrong, you'll probably have no idea what I'm talking about.
Anyway, wo ye zhu ne zhou mo kuaile.
zai jian!
Make
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47599
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| 47756 |
Re:Re:xie xie ni
> In my class, we always said, "zhou mo
> kuai le," [...]
> If I'm talking about the right thing,
> this should all make perfect sense to you,
>
My teacher often used "yu kuai" and
"kuai le" as interchangeable variants.
Puti
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47664
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| 47758 |
xie xie
Hi Mark,
Hen gao xin you jian dao ni.
Ha ha! You are so humorous. And your explanation for Chinese word ¡°hao¡± is so funny. It is absolutely a new way of learning Chinese.
You are right for ¡°yu kuai¡±. It has the same meaning as ¡°kuai le¡±. Ha ha.
Zhu ni tian tian kuai le!
Zhangyan
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47664
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| 47823 |
Re:Re:Re:xie xie ni
Wow, you speak Chinese too?
Puti, you're amazing!
Mark
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47756
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| 47829 |
Re:xie xie
Ni3 hao3 Zhangyan,
Xie4xie ni3 xie3 wo3.
Hai2 you3 shi4 wo3 bu4 kan4 dong3.
Ni3 zhu4 wo3 tian1 tian1 kuai4le. Wo3 zhi1dao Tian1, gen1 jin1tian1 de tian1 yi2yang4, ke3shi4 wo3 mei3 ting1le zhei2ge tian1tian1. Zhe2 shi2 "days" ma? You wish me good days? Xie2xie ni3 :0) Wo3 ye3 zhu4 ni3 tian1tian1 kuai4le.
he2 "you jian" shi4 shen2me? Wo3 de ci4dian2 li3 bu4 kan4le.
qing3 yong4 yin1diao4 ba. you3 yi1 dianr3 nan4 kan4 bu4 yong4 yin1diao4 de pin1 yin1.
xie4xie ni3
Ma3ke4
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47758
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| 47975 |
Ni hao
Hi Ma ke,
Ni hao.
You also make me learn Chinese ping yin, because my ping yin is not very good. Ha ha. But I know what you said.
¡°tian tian¡± means everyday. So ¡°tian tian kuai le¡± means happy for your whole life. And ¡°you jian¡± means see you again. The whole sentence means I am so happy to see you again.
Easter Sunday is coming. Wish you a happy holiday!
Zai jian.
Zhangyan
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47829
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| 48079 |
Re:Ni hao
Zhangyan Hao3,
Ni3 tai4 ke4qi le.
Xie4xie ni3 jiao4 wo3 zhei4ge ci4.
Let me know if there is anything I can do to help with pinyin.
Yes, now that you mention it, I do remember tian1tian1. But I’m puzzled by you4jian4. I thought "see you again" was zai4jian4. Or is that another way to say the same thing again?
I notice you’re quote marks are coming out funny when you post messages. I can tell you how to fix that, if you want. I’ll post a message for you on the Computer Technology board, where it might be helpful to other people, too.
So, do you celebrate Easter there in China? You don't seem very plain to me. Tell me about Guiling. What part of China is that in? What is it like there?
Wo3 ye3 hen3 gao1xing4 you4 jian4 dao ni3
Zhu4 ni3 hao3
Make
Sacramento, CA, USA
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 47975
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| 48151 |
Ni hao
Hi Make,
It is good to see you again.
Speaking of Guilin, it is a very very beautiful city sitting in the southern part of China. We are proud of the Lijiang River and a lot of hills. The water is so clear and the hills along the river are full of plant. Everything seems so fresh. Oh, I can¡¯t describe how beautiful Guilin is. And the West Street (Xijie) in Yangshuo (ÑôË·) is well known too. Thousands and thousands of people around the world come here for touring each year.
Let me explain ¡°you jian¡± to you. It means you meet somebody again. It doesn¡¯t mean bye bye.¡°ÓÖ¼ûµ½Ä㡱Òâ˼ÊÇÔÙÒ»´Î¼ûµ½Äã¡£Èç¹ûÎÒÃÇ˵¡°Ï£ÍûÃ÷ÌìÔÙ¼ûµ½Ä㡱£¬ÕâÀïµÄ¡°ÔÙ¼û¡±Ò²±íʾÔÙÒ»´Î¼ûµ½Äã¡£
I hope you know what I said. Ha ha.
What is ¡°Computer Technology board¡±? And how to use it?
Bye for now. Have a nice day!
Zhangyan
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 48079
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| 48209 |
Finding Computer Technology and other stuff
Zhangyan, Hao,
I need to quit for tonight, but I want to answer your question about using the board tonight when it might be more useful for you.
When you click on the Bulletin Board link on the left side of the screen wherever you are on MyLanguageExchange, it takes you to the listing of all of the different topic areas. The different boards are grouped by similar topics, as follows:
Language Exchange and Discussions
Language Learning Technologies
Teaching and Studying
Other Interests
Language Partners
General
If you look under the section called, "Language learning Technologies," you will see that this area has three boards listed. The first one, "computer technology," was the one I was referring to. If you click on "computer technology," it will open up that discussion area. Then, you can either reply to messages there, just as you have done before, or scroll down to the very bottom to find the link that allows you to add a new message.
Your home sounds absolutely lovely, with all of it's lush wilderness and a beautiful river nearby. I'm fortunate to have the American River flowing through my city of Sacramento, and we don't have to drive too far to find some wonderful mountain country to visit.
The material you typed in in Chinese didn't come out in characters, but looks to me like this: ÓÖ¼ûµ½Ä㡱Òâ˼ÊÇÔÙÒ»´Î¼ûµ½Äã¡£Èç¹ûÎÒÃÇ˵¡°Ï£ÍûÃ÷ÌìÔÙ¼ûµ½Ä㡱£ÕâÀïµÄ¡°ÔÙ¼û¡±Ò²±íʾÔÙÒ»´Î¼ûµ½Äã¡£
I have seen people get Chinese into their messages by using the translators provided by My Language Exchange, but I don't know if there's any easy way to do it if you're already writing it in Chinese. That would also be a good question to ask in the Computer Technology area of My Language Exc hange Bulletin Boards.
I'll talk to you again soon,
Zai jian!
Mark Springer
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 48151
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| 48770 |
xie xie
Hi Make,
Hao jiu bu jian, lao peng you. How have you been?
Thank you so much for your explaining the "computer technology". I know how to enter that section and how to change the quote marks now. It is so interesting. Ha ha.
I love the scene of countryside very much. I climb hills almost every weekend. I can imagine how beautiful your city is. But I have no idea of your city ¨C Sacramento. Which state it is located?
I have never use the translator in My Language Exchange. Can you tell me where it is?
Zai jian. Xia ci zai liao.
Zhangyan
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 48209
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| 49100 |
zaijian / you jian dao ni comparison
Message I of III for Zhangyan 4/6/05
Hi Zhangyan,
Duibuqi, hao jiu mei xiele.
I thought I had answered these last couple of your messages and I now realize that I never did.
I finally worked out your explanation in Chinese, about the difference between ~{TY<{~}, zai4jian4 and~{SV<{5=Dc~} you4jian4 dao4 ni3. Everything you said was familiar to me except for the word, ~{1mJ>~}, biao3shi4, "expresses", but everything is so rusty for me, I had to look up most of it to refresh my memory. It was good exercise.
>Let me explain ~{!0~}you jian~{!1~} to you. It means you meet somebody again. It doesn~{!/~}t mean bye bye.
~{!0SV<{5=Dc!1~}
"you4 jian4dao4 ni3"
"I see you again"
~{RbK<JGTYR;4N<{5=Dc!#~}
Yi4si shi4 zai4 yi1ci4 jian4 dao4 ni3
The meaning is, "another time I see you."
~{Hg9{NRCGK5!0O#M{CwLlTY<{5=Dc!1#,~}
ru2guo3 wo3men shuo1 "xi1wang4 ming2tian1 zai4 jian4dao4 ni3,"
If we say "I hope I see you again tomorrow,"
~{Ub@o5D!0TY<{!1R21mJ>TYR;4N<{5=Dc!#~}
zhe4li3 de zai4jian4 ye3 biao3shi4 zai4 yi1ce4 jian4dao4 ni3.
This "zai4jian4" also means, "another time I see you."
In English, we would say, "we meet again!" For some reason, we never say, "I see you again, even though this would make perfect sense. We also have some more playful versions of the expression, like, "You again!" (pretending to be annoyed by an unwanted person who is following you around,) or, "You again!"
We also have the ironic form, "Long time no see!" (hao3 jiu4 bu3 jian4) Of course, with the exception of the first one, these are all very informal expressions.
So it seems to me that the expression in Chinese, ~{TY<{~} zai4jian4 is an idiom. The words mean "see again", and the sense is, "see you later," but the intent is, "good-bye" Do I understand correctly? Because all of the other places you use~{TY<{~} it really means to see again.
My letter is too long to fit in one message, and the next part isn't really about vocabulary or translations. So I hope you won't mind tootling over to the "making friends" board, where more of the locals are likely to appreciate our conversation. Of course, if you don't like bouncing around between board areas, you can go to the very bottom of the board selection page and select "View all messages" This will lump everything into one board so that you can see everything at once. This is the way I normally read the boards anyway. In either case, I'll see you there!
See "Making Friends" board for part two of today's message.
Mark
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 48770
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| 49492 |
zaijian / you jian dao ni comparison
Hi Mark,
I am very very excited when reading your long messages! Language learning is so interesting! Ha ha! I feel my English are making progress gradually by your help. Thank you so much!
Yes, you are right in the meaning of "zai jian". And you have got the idea of what I write in Chinese character last time. Ni shi hao yang de (ÄãÊǺÃÑùµÄ)! J
I notice you write a lot of messages on bulletin board. Many of them are very interesting and useful. I will take more time in reading these messages.
Have a great day!
Zhangyan
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 49100
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| 49524 |
Re:zaijian / you jian dao ni comparison
I'm delighted to hear it. I enjoy visiting with you as well. I have been paying attention to my Spanish, because I have been speaking it longest and am closest to actually becoming fluent, an achievement which is very important to me. But Chinese is the most exciting language I've ever studied because of the beautiful writing system, and because of how different your language conceptualizes meaning. I love the difference, the challenge of it. It's so wonderful and so beautiful.
Of course, I'm so rusty after so much time not writing and speaking so little. I can't remember now how to draw many of the very first characters I leaned. But you make me miss it and take out my Chinese dictionary and refresh my memory. I really shouldn't spend the time, but it sure is fun. Like, Ni3 shi4 hao3 yang4 de. I recognize all of the characters except yang4, but I wonder if this yang4 is yi1yang4 de yang4. Yes, I think it is.
Now I've looked it up in my dictionary and I'm confused. My dictionary says that you have either said that I am good-looking or that I have good manners. In either case, thank you. I assume you mean the manners because I can't imagine how you'd know what I look like, and anyway, I'm an old fat guy, so that can't be it. :-)
Anyway, I'll let you get back to my encyclopedia articles that I posted. Let me know if I say anything confusing.
I'll talk to you later.
Xia ci jian!
MaKe
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
This is a reply to message # 49492
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