bob, especially in traditional Taiwan language teaching circles, “goal” is definitely a 4-letter word… 
I was “lucky” enough this week to have been taken for what I thought would be a “four day hang around Singapore drinking in sleazy bars English class” that turned out to be a “four day attempt to negotiate your way around Singapore and see all the sights and all in English English class.” I have been teaching this guy for a couple of years and in class he has been completely passive and unimaginative. Suddenly though when we arrive in Singapore he has completely bought into the notion that what he really needed for his English to improve was to actually use the language to get something. Or to get somewhere. What we wound up doing was rehearsing lines like “Excuse me, can you tell me the way to the Harbour Front MRT station” and then we would walk along until I spied a suitable victim for him to impose himself upon and off he would go with me trailing a ways behind in case he got in trouble (he always got in trouble). We tape recorded a lot of this too so we could listen later to discover what went wrong, what went right, what went so so… Anyway the whole thing was really quite hilarious and perhaps even more interestingly the most I have ever seen anybody improve in such a short time.
Actually, can I nominate “Asking For and Giving Directions” as a topic for this thread? In fact how do you say “Asking For and Giving Directions” anywho? Thanks. 
As a chapter heading it might me something like 問路 wen4 lu4, which means “asking the way” or “asking directions”.
might me? Wow, you talk funny!
Sorry, I’ve been reading too many of webdoctor’s posts :raspberry: 
Ta hen3 mang2
I’d like to be typing: He/ She is very busy working today and can not come with us.
Can somebody do this please. My interpreter is on strike again.
Ta tai mang. Bu hui gen women qu.
Great thanks Bob. Can you do the following please! :bravo:
1.Put the numbers next to each word.
-
Write the actual words below in order i.e. He/She/ Very/ busy/ etc.
-
The sentence in English as we would say it.
Sorry my interpreter will not work. Does not work. Does not need to work and you’d think could do just this one thing…enough rant.
Ta1 tai4 mang2. Bu2 hui4 gen1 wo3men qu4.[/quote]
(S)he too busy. Not will with us go.
(S)he’s too busy, and won’t go with us.
Tā t
Tā t
Does qu4 have the umlaut(sp?) on top of it. You know. The two dots above the letter. The German “u” sound. Like in ququ where the first qu is the umlaut one and the second one is the regular u one.
As a chapter heading it might me something like 問路 wen4 lu4, which means “asking the way” or “asking directions”.[/quote]
Can we then look at this as an example of how the in/transitive isssue is handled differently in Mandarin and English? In English we would ask Dagonbones ABOUT the route, but in Mandarin we can say “ask route” which to a native speaker of English begs the ridiculous question “Ask the route what?”.
Tā t
No. The umlaut is only used with n
Remember, folks, that when you use “tai4” to mean “too…”, you usually have to slap a “le” at the end of the adjective.
Ta tai mang le.
It’s kind of a pattern. You may hear people leaving it off but it’s considered “correct”. Plus it’s free and it won’t hurt you.
Tai4 hao3 le. “That’s great!” (well, I guess it can never be “too” good.)
Isn’t this more true with short examples, like the ones you present?
[color=red]Sunday 31st August 10:07am[/color]
edit
Wo3 zai4 jie1 shang4 kan4 dao4 ni3
Wǒ z
上 shang4 is 4th tone
Done, is the rest okay?
My assistant is 1/2 functional today.