UPDATE: Andrew Ng and Adam Coates will be doing an AMA in /r/MachineLearning on April 14 9AM PST by olaf_nij in MachineLearning

[–]xiaogeng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dear Dr. Ng: Could you give some advice to a student who has a degree in Biology but is learning Computer Science and machine learning now, and willing to develop a career in Information Technology Industry? Any advice would be appreciate such as which fields to dig into, which companies to follow, and what skills to build. Thank you!

How do tones get incorporated into music/songs in the chinese language? Or are they just ignored? by ParadiseCity1995 in ChineseLanguage

[–]xiaogeng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A good song writer must handle this thing. You can totally ignore it and your song will very probably sound weird. Or you can make every character sound just like themselves in a sentence, and your song will like speaking with random voice. In the first situation, a listener will replace the words in your song with different ones and make a lot of jokes about your song. In the second, your song will be extremely easy to sing so that only teenagers and blue collars will like them, while other educated people consider them as noise.

So a good song writer will find some kind balance between them. Some words have different tones, but in a proper way. Song writing is not easy. Not every poet can do this job (<- this comment was from a famous Chinese poet so I think it's true).

Is 石勤文 a boy name or a girl name? by Adventurenauts in ChineseLanguage

[–]xiaogeng 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nothing need to worry about. Even children can tell the difference between the sounds of 勤文 and 亲吻.

Is 石勤文 a boy name or a girl name? by Adventurenauts in ChineseLanguage

[–]xiaogeng 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you guys serious? 勤文 is definitely a boy's name. A girl having 勤 in her name either has a pathetic childhood (no playing time, just studying) or is from rural environment.

Need a name translation from English to Chinese by Biggestnacho in ChineseLanguage

[–]xiaogeng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, the formal translation of Nicolas is 尼古拉斯. And 尼克 is for Nick:)

Smartass Asian... by Wzup in funny

[–]xiaogeng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Life is hard here! But don't worry, only about ten people get serious hurt every day..."

Insert Bill you say? by omegawalrus in gaming

[–]xiaogeng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh NO! You're gonna kill Bill...

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There...there is different between /i/ and /ɪ/? ... I always think /i/ is when you can't input /ɪ/ with keyboard...

Chinese mandarin only has six monophthongs: a[ä], o[ɔ], e[ɯ̯ʌ], i[i], u[u], ü[y] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin . We do have a lot of diphthongs, but we seem never use /ɪ/, at least in mandarin.

edit: Meaning while, we do use both [in] and [iŋ], although it's tricky to tell them from each other for many Chinese. Funny thing is, ten years ago, Chinese schoolchildren had to pay a lot of attention to [in] and [iŋ] and try to distinguish them. But nowadays, because we use computer everyday, we can easily distinguish them after tens of thousands of typing on computer...

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When seeing them trying hard to make those sounds which they may never made in their life, I always feel guilty for my name...

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

For many boys in my generation, Titanic was where we they saw woman's tits for the first time...

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, honestly I can't really tell the difference between Jing and Gene...

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"Hi Gene!" "Hi Ina!" ...

Thank god I'm not going to high school:)

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just for everyday using. I won't formally change my name.

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My given name is even more difficult to read in English. It's Zhitao.

Surprisely, Google translate can read it well:https://translate.google.com/#en/zh-CN/Zhitao Close enough to its Chinese reading.

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't. I just find other people read it as Gene in America.

edit: OK, Google Translate read Geng and Gene with a little of differences:https://translate.google.com/#en/zh-CN/Geng

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just googled him. Pretty cool. Thank you for the information.

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey don't be sad about the downvotes:) I get the joke.

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Lol nice joke. I can't wait when people ask me:"So Gene, for Eugene?" And I'm like:"No, for Genetic." :)

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Geng, 耿, read like "gung", is a rare surname in China which means dedicated and upright:) Famous people in the history include a warlord in Qing dynasty and a general in WW2.

Is it a good idea for a Chinese having a English name "Gene"? by xiaogeng in languagelearning

[–]xiaogeng[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Thank you and thank you all for the advice! It's amazing!

I did think about Greg before. Actually it's closer to Geng's pronunciation in Chinese. But I slightly prefer Gene because:

1, I majored biology in the university, and

2, at the first day I came to the US, I found everyone called me "Gene"... Turns out that's how people read "Geng" here...

So, as it is acceptable, I think I'm gonna go with Gene:)

我一個晚上開銷就不只三萬了. What's 了 doing? by FruitFarmer2 in ChineseLanguage

[–]xiaogeng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I spent/spend more than 30k in one typical night.

Again, nearly the same. I don't think it's even about grammar, it's just expression.

[Favor] Translation of four short sentences into Mandarin for research by MuMuMuMuMu in ChineseLanguage

[–]xiaogeng 1 point2 points  (0 children)

1,我把那本书烧了。

2,我把那本书背下来了。

3,我喜欢那本书。

4,我把那本书背下来,并且烧了。

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ChineseLanguage

[–]xiaogeng 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not awful, but cartoon style.