User Comments - John
John
Posted on: 练书法
November 15, 2008 at 2:59 PMA transcript of Vera's story:
小时候，我爸爸妈妈送我去学校学习书法，还让我回家以后多练习。
可是他们一点儿也不知道我不想写字。我只想出去玩儿，只想看动画片儿。
十岁的时候，我的爸爸妈妈决定让我去参加书法比赛。让我一直在家里练习。
可是这多无聊啊！一个下午我都在写一个成语。哎！我多想出去玩啊！
可是我的妈妈说："不行，这个字不好。不行，那个字不好。我真是气死了。终于我把笔扔在了地上。
这个时候。墨水瓶倒在了地上。一下子，墙上，地上，纸上，我的衣服上，都是墨汁。我害怕极了。我怕我的妈妈骂我。
可是妈妈只说了三个字："继续写"。
Posted on: The Big Deal about Shenzhou 7
November 14, 2008 at 9:12 AMhenning,
As a fan of sci-fi myself, I think I have heard enough to make my decision! :)
Posted on: Girly Talk
November 14, 2008 at 5:11 AMhelandou and sebastian,
I understand your concerns, but in determining the amount of English and difficulty of Chinese in the lessons, we do have to take into account the entire spectrum of difficulty. The gap between Elementary and Intermediate used to be much larger, and we have worked hard to close it. Based on the extensive user feedback we have received, we are doing a much better job at managing the gaps than we used to.
Unfortunately, that means some of the Intermediate lessons might be a bit easy for learners like you, but you can surely understand our position. I would hope that we can all be supportive of the learners that are currently at the Intermediate level. I was there once too. With a bit of hard work, they'll be leaving behind the "crutch of English" soon enough.
Posted on: The Big Deal about Shenzhou 7
November 14, 2008 at 5:03 AMLooks like Changye would respond well to some more sci-fi material...
怎么样，长夜大哥？我们是不是该编个科幻故事？
Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac
November 13, 2008 at 2:45 AMbababardwan and Pete,
If you're interested in being more precise in your comma terminlogy, it's:
逗号 (dòuhào) [ ，] - for a pause in the sentence
顿号 (dùnhào) [ 、] - to separate items in a list or series
For the most part, it's pretty easy to get straight when to use one and when to use others, but there can be some tricky borderline cases. I'm glad we're not PuncuationPod... we won't get into that stuff too much.
Posted on: Agreement on Exclusive Representation
November 13, 2008 at 2:34 AMpinkjeans,
You're right; this was a more technical, business-oriented Upper Intermediate lesson. It's good to stretch yourself every now and then.
Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac
November 11, 2008 at 2:57 AMI'm a horse by the Chinese Zodiac, and a bull by the western one. I guess that means I like to eat grass? I never put much stock in this stuff.
Posted on: The Artistic Little Brother
November 8, 2008 at 6:46 AM
大家好，我是Connie，今天我要跟大家说一件我们家的事儿。
我有一个很小很小的弟弟，他从小就很喜欢画画儿。
在他三岁的时候，有一天，他又在画画儿，我们的爸爸呢，在房间睡觉，我在看电视。过了一会儿，爸爸睡醒后从房间走了出来，我一看见爸爸就哈哈大笑，爸爸不知道我在笑什么，我就指了指他的衣服说"：爸爸，你的衣服上怎么会有太阳和小狗小猫啊？"
爸爸也觉得很奇怪，就脱下了衣服，一看，真的有很多小狗小猫。原来都是我弟弟画的。
爸爸非常生气，但是，他没有打弟弟，因为他也觉得很好笑。
Posted on: Buying a Plasma TV
November 7, 2008 at 9:27 AMHi all,
We have changed all instances of 液晶 (yèjīng) to LCD in the text of the dialogue and vocabulary sections.
Sorry for any LCD/plasma confusion!
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 5: Wang Tries to Excel at the Office
November 17, 2008 at 3:43 AMI recently had to get a lot better at Excel in order to analyze the data for my master's thesis. I didn't actually have to talk about it in Chinese with anyone, though.
What kind of office software talk is most useful to you all? Word document formatting? Powerpoint presentation creation? (We've already done a bit of graphics editing, as you probably know...)