User Comments - RJ
RJ
Posted on: Pedestrian Peril
January 21, 2008 at 12:33 PMFirst of all, thanks to all for the comments. I have no intention of giving up, and 10 years is my goal. I have been teaching myself Chinese for abut 3 years but I just found cpod in aug this year. What a difference. I have probably doubled my vocab and understanding of grammar in these few months. I always figured Im building a base that will serve me well once the hearing and speaking kicks in. Im glad to hear it can happen in a non-linear fashion. I plan to start a list of phrases (lexical chunks as Ken likes to call them) and learn them well, so I can retrieve when needed in conversation. Im thinking this will help. It also helps to shift my focus, or change my study techniques from time to time.
Posted on: Pedestrian Peril
January 19, 2008 at 5:45 PMa stretch for me but lots of good vocab and grammar. My listening skills tend to lag far behind reading and writing. Going through this on paper is still a very satisfying and educational endeavor. I wonder if I will ever be able to speak, but reading seems to come much faster.
Posted on: Is someone in here?
January 19, 2008 at 4:02 PMaccording to the picture, the question might need to be 有狗马？ Its not patti, legs are too long.:-) Changye - any theories?
Posted on: No Kidding
January 17, 2008 at 1:22 PMActually I just used jiudian on a conference call to China and I was understood. I guess my previous issues with the word were all due to my poor pronounciation. Disregard my question above. Im sure its a common word if you say it right :-)
Posted on: No Kidding
January 17, 2008 at 10:45 AMHow common is the word jiudian? When I was in China no one seemed to be able to understand that this meant hotel. Maybe my poor tones but even after explanation it seemed foreign to them. This was in SH.
Posted on: Scary Clown
January 16, 2008 at 4:57 PMthe verdict is in, clowns are scary: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080116/od_nm/clowns_odd_dc
Posted on: Lost Cell Phone
January 16, 2008 at 2:22 PMmattwhyndham, thanks for that perspective on zai, helped me a lot.
Posted on: Extreme Chinese - 不得了 (bùdéliǎo)
January 15, 2008 at 1:25 AMdifhdih They cant all be great, but in fact, most of them are.
Posted on: Bumming a Smoke
January 15, 2008 at 1:19 AMHey Baz, actually the guy in the mirror is the character yin by itself. Yin means reason or because of. The smoke character then can be thought of as "because of fire", since the other part is huo or fire. Where there is smoke there is fire kind of thing, maybe?
Posted on: Pedestrian Peril
January 21, 2008 at 12:37 PMChangye- in the US we have about 50,000 traffic deaths per year. The Chinese numbers dont seem so bad considering the difference in population but I wonder how many cars there are in China vs the US?