Some queations about the text

[happyyy]

I learn Chinese online, the following text is my today's lesson, I can't solve some problems in the text:

1 how to express the price?

When I say"eight handred yuan", the Chinese means"800kuai4", well, when I say "a piece of cake", I also say"1 kuai4 dan4 gang1", so,what "块" means? How I express the Chinese price?

2 The sentence "nin2 yao4 dianr3 shen2 me"

"dianr3" is what's meaning? The Chinese character is "点"，when I want to order disher, in Chinese, also say"点菜"，otherwise, why there is a "儿"behind the "点"？

Who can tell me to solve the peoblems? Any help will be appreciated! Thank you!

http://www.linese.com/cc/21903240000000000.html

[gougou]

块 means piece, as in a piece of cake. Its usage has been extended to money (supposedly because that came in chunks previously? I'm sure somebody here knows the origin!)

The 儿 after 点 is about pronunciation, not about a different meaning, see here.

[roddy]

I wouldn't use that site for a start. There are at least two elementary errors in the pinyin transcriptions in the video, and if they can't get that right you can't really trust them with anything else. Perhaps Chinesepod.com

[HashiriKata]

I wouldn't use that site for a start. There are at least two elementary errors in the pinyin transcriptions in the video, and if they can't get that right you can't really trust them with anything else.

I'd take Roddy's advice with a grain of salt. It's unhelpful and biased, which shows the kind of stuff he's made of.

[Luobot]

I wonder how anyone is able to watch anything on Linese. That site always chokes on me whenever I try to access it.

I would agree with Roddy. ChinesePod may not be perfect, but it's a fairly reliable source of information in a lively format (much improved since I last reviewed it).

Another site that I subscribe to is CLO, which takes a progressive approach. Be sure to start with lesson 1 (as opposed to the current lesson) and proceed step by step from there.

Good luck!

[chabuduo]

Kuai means pieces, but in this money context it's kind of similar to German using 'Schtutz' (sp) or Americans saying 'bucks' for dollars.

[Han-tiger]

A Chinese character usually has several meanings and can be combined with other certain characters to create some phrases.

1 How to express the price?

The expression of price in written Chinese is quite different from that in spoken Chinese.

A. The expression of price in written Chinese

For example,

a. ￥66, in Chinese, it reads 六十六元.

b. ￥66.6 in Chinese, it reads 六十六元六角.

c. ￥66.66 in Chinese, it reads 六十六元六角六分.

B. The expression of price in spoken Chinese

For example,

a. ￥66, in Chinese, it reads 六十六块.

b. ￥66.6 in Chinese, it reads 六十六块六毛 or 六十六块六.

c. ￥66.66 in Chinese, it reads 六十六块六毛六分 or 六十六块六毛六.

2 块

A. piece, lump or cube

B. yuan (A unit of currency in China)

In oral communications, people prefer to use kuai (块) rather than yuan (元).

3 点

A. 一点：a little

B. 点菜：order dishes

[roddy]

It appears that the original poster actually works for Linese and is attempting to drum up traffic, hence does not need any advice on the Chinese language. Feel free to continue the discussion though.

the kind of stuff he's made of.

Nice to see you again as well.

[Luobot]

It appears that the original poster actually works for Linese and is attempting to drum up traffic ...

Assuming that's true, then I'm glad that I commented as I did. The last thing they can handle is more traffic without some infrastructure improvements. I'd be "happyyy" to see them make the investment so that I can use their site, which appears to have some potential. But there are so many good options, nowadays, that I have no patience for pages that take forever to load and sputtering multi-media. The other two sites that I mentioned in my previous post have acceptable response times. Linese may wish to take a look at how others are doing it (e.g., Chinesepod's use of Amazon). Note, also, that sites like CLO have never, to date, done any low-life advertising. They believe in what they're doing, and they focus on content and delivery, so they have confidence that the good word will spread organically. I think sneaky advertising just causes potential customers to distrust the site. It would be more honest and effective to just put up traditional advertisements. Anyway, that's my 2 kuai.

[Han-tiger]

I hope the replies to OP are of some help to any other learners.

[Luobot]

I hope the replies to OP are of some help to any other learners.

Not to worry, Han-tiger, your post was helpful to me and I'm sure to others who happen by here.

The title of this thread should be something more descriptive, like: "The expression of kuai and the price of being on the sly"

[Aunty]

No, the title should be "watch yet another forum fall for these disrespectful lies and tricks"

A couple of chinese learning sites, generally of measley value, send their staffers out to join Chinese learning forums and to PRETEND to be students and PRETEND to have trouble with their lesson. They ask for help, and point back to their boss's site.

When told to stop, they refuse. When they and their posts are removed, they simply rejoin in another name, and ask another fake question or maybe ask people's opinion of their site, making out that they're thinking of studying there even though they're probably the site's teachers. In some cases, these people are commission sales people for the site. You can see in their fine print that they'll offer anyone commission to drum up business by any means, ethical or not apparently.

Sorry, but it's only a trick, guys. You have been lied to, cheated, and scammed!

Now you know what kind of posts to watch out for from new members, and, what sites not to bother visiting.

[roddy]

There's some discussion about dealing with these people here. I figured I'd let the post stand as Linese has, for all its faults, got a bit better and there's some video content on there which might be of interest, but also point out that it can't yet be relied upon (houma and kuan as the pinyin for 号码 and 块). Should have made it clear it wasn't a legit post, apologies for that.

Linese are nowhere near the worst. I'm not even going to dignify the worst by naming them though

Now you know what kind of posts to watch out for from new members, and, what sites not to bother visiting.

old hands, Aunty, old hands . . .

[imron]

Aunty, I should also point out that the vast majority of first posts by new users that contain links to various websites are simply deleted from the moderation queue before even being shown on the board. Sometimes posts will be let through with the link removed, other times the post will be let through because it either a) has some amount of useful content, or B) the attempt was so shameless and obvious that the poster and the site deserve to be mocked publicly.

Anyway, we're well aware that there are people that do this kind of thing, and on the whole I think we manage it quite well.

[md1101]

i thought that linese video was alright... even had a bit of a review at the end. if its free then no one should complain really.

I thought the OP was from some non english speaking country judging by his/her english... so it would make sense if the OP is from linese....

[Quest]

Some faults in the transcription:

800 块 元 一件。

我 可以 试一试 吗？

没有问题。