User Comments - Cornelia

Posted on: Simple Electrical Stuff

Looking beyond such anthropomorphic style (as outlined by Henning ;-) on the electrical equipment, we find out that Chinese use the same literal imaging as High-German: prefix cha1=to insert/to stick like our "Steck-",

"Steckdose" for cha1 zuo4 (German a 'stick-can')

"Stecker" for cha1 tuo2, but I really like "Steck-Kopf" as mnemonic (which would be 'stick-head' in English).

"Socket" and "Plug" do not give me similar hints.

Posted on: Simple Electrical Stuff

Writing white on white reminds of a joke we Very-southern-Germans have about our neighbours:

Q: How does the Austrian flag of war (Österreichische Kriegsflagge) look like?

A: White eagle on white background !

;-) can be really helpful e.g. in Excel if you don't want to show some formula, but need it elsewhere...

Posted on: Thoughts on Returning Home 回乡偶书

Hi Pete,

I tried this channel for the first time and was surprised how much I still could follow despite my only-Ellie-level...

I really enjoyed it ! Listening to Connie is a musical delight even in ting1-bu-dong3 mode.

To second Calkins with the spaces: I could do with them also in your oral explanation - would it destroy much of your flow if you would breathe/pause a fraction of a second after juxtaposing a Chinese-English couple?

Posted on: Stuffy Room

Hi sballa,
I think differences in constitution depend entirely on how you are brought up - it is a sort of gauging for temperature. Watch how babies and toddlers are clothed by their parents in different weather: I have seen bare children‘s legs in the UK when they would be wrapped in warm overalls in Germany - both with parents of seemingly average social stratum. And later in life long johns can‘t be worn together with a British school uniform. Societies obviously differ in how they are afraid of cold - to my experience Anglo-saxon societies are much more robust, whereas Germans and Chinese are pretty compatible in anticipating death by cold. You‘ll see this also in the focus given to house-building and sealing of gaps in windows etc. - but the German anxiety of „draught“ is famous...

Posted on: Stuffy Room

Thanks to CPOD for this lesson - sounds so familiar, also for German offices !

Best compromise to be achieved may be that you open the window really wide for 3 minutes per hour and have it shut it between. Thus it cannot become too stuffy and energy for heating the room is best used...

I wonder if there is a proper translation, be it English or Chinese, for our "schocklüften" - to air "by shock", i.e. exchange the air completely in a room in the shortest possible time, which usually is a temperature-shock for the females present ;-), but neither furniture nor walls loose their temperature as they would do if the window would be a bit open for longer time.  Good mould-prevention, too.

Posted on: Stuffy Room

Thanks, Changye, for this link to the chinese-characters page ! I found it immediately appealing, especially as I haven't done much for characters lately...

Posted on: To bag or not to bag?

In Germany we have also been paying for bags for around two decades. An alternative of special reusable bags has come up, which is typically German now and also vastly used in marketing: linen bags, size ca. 40x30cm, printed with advertisements. E.g. at fairs you will get stuff from the exhibiting companies prepacked in such bags. Some are quite convenient with long handles to be worn over your shoulder. Some big book-shop-chains give them to you for free when you bought for more than 50 Euro.

They are machine-washable, but after that you would have to iron them as they come out very creased...

Posted on: The Artistic Little Brother

Elementary? There are quite a number of intermediate lessons that I found a lot easier... also in terms of complexity in 'expansion'.

Could we have a "usual" pdf, i.e. with the transcript that John posted here in the comments, with pinyin underneath + English?

This could boost the usefulness for learners somewhat below the required level. I mean make it faster to get to grips with the material.

Posted on: Introducing a Friend

Hi, I have a cultural question about the sequence of introduction:

In a European context the person highest in rank (esteem) is in focus, which means you tell this person first who the other is, because he has the first right to know.

In the podcast situation this was reversed, as if it would be more important that first the lower-ranking ones get the hig rank publicly established. Only then the others are introduced.

Does this mean BEING INTRODUCED gives more face than being priviledged with first knowledge?

Posted on: Trip to the Vegetable Market

The medium "video" is not really applied for this learning content, in my opinion:

If I would find a vocab list with photos, the written hanzi term plus a loud speaker symbol to get the tone transmitted like in expansion sentences: this would be just the same in terms of audiovisual input (but more on my terms concerning speed).

The video does not add - I'd prefer if Jenny would not only walk like any model but bring her unique didactical skills into the concept: I'd like to have a video explanation of her, with her real voice and gesturing. Surely this would not deprive any male fan of anything!