Studying very hard

hehe, beautifully bats that one to the boundary for a four ;)

'confronting the political correctness'

Aah, I guess I am now, but you can't trust dictionaries. The Free Dictionary also has 'abo' which is offensive, and 'aboriginal' which is the adjective. This terminology is dated. The accepted terms now are 'indigenous' and 'aboriginal' Australians, for the people that were in Australia when the Europeans arrived. I would think that you can call yourself native if you are born there ..

Is Bodawei confronting the political correctness ? ;o)

Native Australian - a dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/native+Australian

No - I am native Australian. :)

You will find that there are not many native Chinese speakers using the community boards. A few of the ChinesePod teachers use the board (their avatars are marked 'Team'). Other native speakers drop in from time to time but few stay for long - understandably. It's a good question - you should model your speech on native speakers and remember that the rest of us here are learners like yourself.

bodawei : are you a native chinese speaker

I was encouraged to read and write them right from the very start. I think that this is the conventional approach if you take classes. Of course if you are native Chinese learning the language naturally you have two or three years of listening and speaking before you try writing (reading comes earlier.) You use the right side of your brain when reading and writing characters .. maybe this helps, to get as much of your brain as possible on the job of learning.

My guess is SX is just way too competitive! 私信 comes up first if I type it out sixin--there are only six suggestions for that.

That's a worry - doesn't come up in Google pinyin input either, but 私娼 does as 第四个。It is in MDBG and Pleco as a 'private letter'. My guess is that it is an uncommon word. No-one writes letters any more. :)

The first 7 candidates sougou pinyin input gives me for SX:

1-深心 2-熟悉 3-思想 4-死刑 5-实现 6-首先 7-属性

and many many more but no 私信……

啊！到底我把首字母缩略词恨了！

在中文私信是'personal message'的意思。。不用首字母缩略词对吧？SX?

Bodawei it's PM here--personal message. When I hear “IM” I think Instant Message.

Whatever her name is, she knows how to send messages. Anyone else getting this message?

谁Guevara, Vara?

Did you know that "Kay vera vera" could also make sense ?

Spanish: "Que Vea, Vea." (kay vera, vera).

Français: "Qui verra, verra." (kay vera, vera).

almost "Qui vivra, verra" (Who will live will see).

I have sent her an email asking what she wants :)

"I am a male. :) So is Normie Rowe. I guess with Doris Day they just said que sera sera."

lol. You're on a roll mate. :)

hehe, yeah , bibiibjorn should report back to us .

yeah, thanks mate, I forgot to put the Que but I knew that's why bodawei had "Kay".[in his second line..my comment about the Kay pun was referring to the "Kay" in his very first line.]

"This user has been sending individual messages (IM) to users"

不会啊！ 我以前以为肯定只是我啊。。感觉我是那么特别的。。哎呦，真失望

Hi bibiibjorn

I'm guessing that your post was directed to me? (You need to press 'Reply' below the post in question.)

I'm sorry that my message was not as clear as it should have been. This user has been sending individual messages (IM) to users, using the IM facility on this site (you will find 'Send Message' below your avatar if you go to the user's page.) In my case the messages were just like the public post, so any thought of my being 'special' sort of went out the window.

Some people do come to this site to find foreigners to do a kind of language exchange via email or chat. It may not be obvious to this particular user whether you are a native English speaker - nor does that necessarily matter.

For most users who are trying to learn Chinese this is a bit of a distraction, but often these messages come from students who are encouraged to make these kind of approaches by their teachers.

My comment about 'other desires' was based on some of the wording in her post - eg. 'I will send you my details with my pictures' and 'invite you for a private discussion'. Neither of these proposals are necessary for language learning, but of course there could be a break-down in communication because she is not using her native language. Incidentally, I don't know what her native language is, but it is unlikely to be Chinese.

I'm not following anymore...

We'd all like you to give her your email address so that she will stop sending us IMs. :)

You can report back whether she wants to learn English or has other desires.

I'm sure it was only for me mate. Exclusively me. Special friends.

And i don't get what she's saying loL ? :p

Does she want to learn English or want to become friends ?

Is greatu her response to me or to bababardwan?

'The lyrics are supposed to be sung by a male.'

I am a male. :) So is Normie Rowe. I guess with Doris Day they just said que sera sera.

' wasn't it Doris Day sang that song? '

Oh I am showing my ignorance .. I just think of Normie Rowe and the Playboys. Here's what I discovered: Doris Day's version was #1 for 8 weeks in Australia when I was 4 years old. (I think I was playing in the back yard with my toys then.) Then Normie Rowe's version was #1 also for 8 weeks when I was 14 - by which time I had a Panasonic transistor glued to my ear. So the Normie Rowe version made an impression. This all takes me back to hot summer days, the beach and a hit parade that went from 1 to 8.

Spanish: "Que Sera, Sera." (kay sarah, sarah).

English: "What will be, will be."

The lyrics are supposed to be sung by a male.

If you'd left it at "Kay" I would have just taken that as a pun on the shortened form of "ok" and the name "Kay" and thought it was obscure though, but the kay sarah sarah [pun on sera sera...I just love this pun you've made...for many reasons but also because people do sometimes deliberately pronounce their names differently..sometimes to be posh I guess] made it perfectly clear.

Well wasn't it Doris Day sang that song? And they used to rub vaseline on the movie camera lens when filming..that's what gave it that slightly out of focus look.

I was being obscure, and this is what I get, I've been out-obscured. Maybe it is that soft lens. :)

I don't understand the Doris Day reference. (You know me, a little slow.)

lol....Doris Day lens included [maybe that's what caused the confusion]

Kay (whatever) ..

Kay Sarah Sarah ..

When I reply to this most generous and sincere offer of friendship, do I address you as Sarah or Vera?

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/10806