can link to 347805 and 347807.

إلى متى ستبقى في شنجهاي؟
إلى متى أنت باقٍ في شنجهاي؟
for some reason I'm not liking this sentence at all...I'm not sure why...but it kinda sounds very colloquial...

Do you agree that it's a possible way to say it? If so, maybe we can keep it and you can add another translation that's less colloquial.

you gotta hate my guts by now :D.

I think that this sentence is a possible levantine construction that you literally translated into standard arabic...If you can somehow confirm that the grammar in this sentence is acceptable...sure I'll stop annoying you :P

after a bit of search...I think I pinned down the problem...(feel free to correct me if I'm wrong and laugh in my face afterwards :D)

I'm guessing that it has to do with التعليق ومحل المجرور you can read about it here:
http://www.islamguiden.com/arabi/m_a_r_49.htm

Basically it says that some prepositions 'need' verbs to function...I guess that's way I had a tendency to add ستبقى after إلى متى?

Fair enough. I've changed it to include ستبقى.

*why [EDIT: the article describes it as 'linked'...and a prep. can be linked to a verb, 'pseudo-verb', 'interpreted verb', or an 'interpreted pseudo-verb'...sorry took some liberty in translating the grammatical terms :P]

And not hating your guts. It's good for my Arabic.

>And not hating your guts. It's good for my Arabic.
أطريتني يا رجل...:D unless it's a double speak :P

>Fair enough. I've changed it.
Don't take my word for it :P. You might just discover that I'm delusional, and your sentence was perfectly fine...you know what they say...arabs are native speakers of their dialects :D
proof:
http://bit.ly/8WXzuM
http://bit.ly/cs1FE7