User Comments - abelle
abelle
Posted on: Lying in Chinese
July 11, 2009 at 2:24 PMNi hao, Lechuan, that's a great idea! I have studied 80 Newbie lessons so far, so maybe in 2-3 months I will have studied 200 and can try your method. Xie xie.
Posted on: No TV Before Your Test!
July 10, 2009 at 10:46 PMThis sounds like my mom and my younger brother since he was about 10 or 11 years old. He always wanted to watch television, skateboard, or see his friends at before doing any homework. He is a very rebellious kid. Sometimes he did okay in school but last school year he almost didn't finish. He is now 17 and guess what? Next month my parents are taking him to a boarding school so he can finish high school for sure. He will have more monitoring and discipline at that school. We hope he can eventually go to a university, but that's not a sure thing. My sister and I are always good about studying, but not him!
Posted on: Lying in Chinese
July 8, 2009 at 11:20 PMThis was a tough lesson for me. I think it's more advanced than the usual Newbie lesson. It seems closer to the Elementary level. Anyway, I have ONLY 209 more Newbie lessons to go. I may be strange (maybe a bit obsessive-complusive), but I feel that I have to finish all the Newbie lessons before moving up to the Elementary level.
Posted on: Shikumen vs. Hutongs and Chinese vs. Western School
July 6, 2009 at 10:36 PMNi hao: The rote system of learning sounds like what my mom went through when she went to high school in the Philippines in the 1970s. She said it was all memoralization. She came back to the states for her junior-senior high school years and did well at US universities later on. Today in US high schools, there is a lot of pressure on the students. Not only do they have to do well in their classes and get into good universities, they have to be in the right cliques, date a popular girl/guy, wear the expensive clothes, drive nice cars, have the latest cell phones, etc. Really, in some ways, it's not a lot of fun to be under such "social" pressure for teenagers.
Posted on: Guilin Mifen
June 26, 2009 at 12:16 PMNi hao: I'm enjoying this series and am looking forward to more funny episodes from Matt. I always order the same things when I go to a local Chinese restaurant: General Tso's chicken, Kung Pao chicken, and sweet and sour dishes. Maybe I'll be more adventurous next time I go. I've discovered a Vietnamese restaurant (mainly serves pho but I like the noodles dishes better) near my college and lately I've been going there a lot. Zaijian. --Mystic
PS: My parents and I are going on vacation to the mountains of North Carolina tomorrow. I won't be bringing my laptop (spotty internet and cell coverage), so I will definitely be going through ChinesePod withdrawal for the next week.
Posted on: Introduction to Pinyin
June 25, 2009 at 9:23 PMNi hao: I always get confused. Why does the letter "c" sound like "t"? So "cai" (food) sounds like "tai" (highest/greatest)?
Xiexie. --Mystic
Posted on: Morning Hygiene
June 20, 2009 at 10:22 PMNi hao: Our family has always showered at night and I never gave it a second thought. First of all, a lot of us exercise and do sports in the afternoon and evenings and we like to go to sleep clean. Second my parents, especially my mom, don't have time to shower in the morning. My mom leaves for work before 6 am in the morning! Although I don't leave for college until much later, I like the convenience of just getting dressed, eating breakfast and going. I didn't think this has anything to do with Asian vs. Western culture, although my mom is originally from the Philippines. --Mystic
Posted on: June Will Be CPod's Greatest Month Yet!
June 20, 2009 at 1:30 PMNi hao: I received my ChinesePod starter kit about 2-3 weeks ago and am using the CDs, mostly in my car. I also want to load the lessons onto my MP3 player for when I exercise at the gym or take a walk around the neighborhood. But I can't seem to download the CD content to my laptop, for eventual synching to my MP3 player. Is there something on the CDs preventing me from doing this? Something to do with copyright? Xiexie. --Mystic
Posted on: June Will Be CPod's Greatest Month Yet!
June 7, 2009 at 10:44 AMNi hao, I received my starter kit last week and tried to use the voucher to extend my premium subscription, but it didn't seem to work. If it had worked, my subscription would have been extended to Nov 2010. I sent a note to customer service last Thurs but no one has answered my question. :-(
Xiexie.--Mystic
Posted on: No TV Before Your Test!
July 11, 2009 at 3:35 PMTvan, the kid from my Macao sounds like my brother! My parents had to hire a tutor to help him with his pre-calculus. Kids from around the world are really not so different after all.