User Comments - ElijahW

Posted on: Chinese Drinking Culture

Incidentally, I would like to compliment Cherry and Alice on a great first lesson! Your little conversation about your nieces had me laughing out loud.

Also, the technical quality of both video and audio in the lesson itself, as well as the dialogue mp3, is quite good.

Posted on: Chinese Drinking Culture

francesco155 and A222222,

Just out of curiosity, I revisited an old favorite: Fat Camp. From a quick half-listening, it seemed that Jenny was speaking around 90% Chinese, and John was speaking around 10% Chinese. Jenny would usually speak first, then John would answer in a way that, if you didn't understand what Jenny said, you could figure it out from John's response.

It was quite a brilliant approach: You get practice hearing Jenny speaking in Chinese, then with John's answer, your guess as to Jenny's meaning gets either confirmed or corrected (or maybe a bit of both). It's like John was talking on the phone with someone, knowing that someone else was listening to him, and he spoke in a way that the eavesdropper would be able to understand the conversation from only hearing one side.

In those old lessons, I also found it quite helpful that John, regardless of how much he knew, tended to play the part of a "dumb student." He'd ask a question, Jenny would answer it, then John would re-explain it in simple terms that a Westerner could identify with. It was then obvious that John knew the answer from the beginning, but he understood students well enough to anticipate our questions, and ask the questions for us. He was then able to anticipate how confused we'd be with a Chinese approach to answering the question, and re-worked the answer into a form we could grasp.

That was a big part of the magic behind those early lessons - an uncanny ability to anticipate everything we'd be thinking and asking and struggling with. That's what was lacking in Chinese school that caused us all to run to ChinesePod after an exasperating day in class.

Posted on: Time for Attendance

哈哈哈！I hadn't heard this dialogue before. It's a good one.

From what I can tell, adults in the Mainland (including teachers) often call kids of school age 同学 tóngxué. Using 同 tóng in this situation might not make much sense, but it's a commonly accepted convention.

Posted on: Chinese Drinking Culture

When I first went to China, the whole 劝酒劝菜 culture was a pretty big shock for me. However, I found Chinese people to be generously accommodating. Since I never drink, I've been in a few situations where I had to explain myself, and contrary to what some people might expect, when people saw I was serious about not drinking no matter what, they really respected that. I've actually had some Chinese people tell me that they wish they could be a foreigner, too, so they could get out of drinking!

The 劝菜 phenomenon was an adjustment, too. During a meal, the host constantly says, "多吃点，别客气!" "Eat more, don't be so polite!"

I've been asked if they 劝菜 in America, and I responded, "美国人太胖了，所以主人不停地说，'少吃点，别胖了!'" I then of course had to explain that I was only joking.

Posted on: 疯狂富豪和现实生活 Crazy Rich Asians & Real Life

A ChinesePod lesson that made my wife chuckle early in our relationship was Star Trek, and she was happy to learn that I would never buy her an Uhura uniform. I picked up the term 三生有幸 just a few months ago from the 孔子拜访老子 series.

Something I learned from watching this lesson: The only thing worse than hearing yourself speak Chinese is watching yourself speak Chinese!

Posted on: Directions with a Map #1

Actually, I just stumbled across this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-strait_language_database

It's also available for free download in the Pleco dictionary (it shows up in the menu as LAC).

In reality though, this problem goes much deeper than the strait. Just for the term for "turn," it varies from place to place within the Mainland, with there being more than just these two options.

I've found that I have to re-learn a lot of vocabulary depending on which province I'm in. Even the word for "Chinese" (汉语、中文、普通话) varies within the Mainland. And, depending on where you are, people will zealously correct you on whether you say 一点儿 or 一点点. It's part of the price of learning Chinese!

Posted on: Star Trek

我1988年和1989年都参加了星际聚会，真有很多人打扮成电视剧里的人物（或者”外星人物“！）。

没想到，在2018年还有Star Trek Cruise这种东西。我虽然很喜欢星际迷航，但这不是太过时了吗？对了，Star Trek Cruise中文怎么说？

Posted on: 疯狂富豪和现实生活 Crazy Rich Asians & Real Life

I believe HanYang is talking about the definition at the bottom of the screen (circled in the screen shot I've attached). It defines 日久生情 as "Long-lasting love," which is a bit imprecise. Maybe "Love comes in time," as it's defined in Pleco, would have been better. The CC-CEDICT defines it as, "Familiarity breeds fondness."

Posted on: Tips on How To Prepare for the HSK

Sounds good! I noticed that their level 6 material says "Pre-Order." 

Posted on: Five ways of seeing: 看、见、看见、看到、看出

Sounds good! I noticed that their level 6 material says "Pre-Order."