User Comments - alleghenyj

Posted on: Chinese Rock Music

I went to Youtube and watched/listened to Carsick Cars do "Zhong Nan Hai", "He Sheng" and "You Can Listen, You Can Talk".  They've got a great sound, kind of like indie bands here in America about 10 years ago, and the guys can play. Easy to see why they are so popular.  But a whole song where 95% of the lyrics are repetitions of the name of a cigarette?  Rock with Chinese characteristics, I guess.  Or is it something a little more subversive?  Thanks!

Posted on: What to Expect

Hi Wande,

As a fellow Newbie of about 15 month's experience, I wholeheartedly agree with you about the need to not go too quickly. It's way too tempting to push ahead to material one really isn't ready for, isn't it? I kinda get enthusiastic and have to rein myself in and force myself to really work to master the tones and the flow. I just started with a private teacher two months ago and it has done wonders for improving my tones and making my vocabulary much more fluid and useful. My laoshi works me very hard during my lessons and I have a headache afterwards because she's demanding and exacting. Chinesepod has been a fantastic source and I have just signed up for more, but it is very clear that there is nothing that beats really getting deep in the basics with a live teacher before moving on to more advanced levels.

Posted on: Dialect Party Mix

First off, I am very much a newbie so I'm no authority.  But I'm here to try to learn Mandarin essentially for fun and for planned travel.  I found it fascinating in this lesson to hear some of the variations in other dialects.  (Besides, I live in Boston, and just about all I hear is Cantonese, anyway, and even some of that is in a subdialect called Toy Shan, so my beginner Mandarin is pretty useless around here!)  I speak French and some Italian, and I love the challenge of Mandarin Chinese. My father-in-law is a native Italian, born in Naples, but he has lived in the United States since he was 24 years old.  His English is excellent (he's now 85, but has the energy of a 50 year old) but he still has and will always have his Italian accent.  So what?  It's part of his charm, and he is completely understandable.  I don't think anyone - sorry, elitists - who learns a 2nd, 3rd, 4th (or beyond) language as an adult ever loses their native accent completely.  If you you are talented, study hard, and live in native-immersion conditions for 10 years you can become very very good, but a native speaker will nearly always be able to tell you're no native.  Ken's Irish-accented English is plain to any American who listens to him, and Jenny's Chinese-accented English is obvious as well.  SO WHAT?  They both have tons they can teach us.  Besides, who would I be stupid enough to try to fool?  I'm a middle-aged American guy, so there's no way at all that I could ever pass as a native Chinese in any dialect!  But if I can ever get to the point of being able to have basic conversations in Mandarin and read some signs and - who knows? - even comprehend a bit of a newspaper while I'm in China, then it will enrich my experience and appreciation of Chinese culture in every way, and at least I won't be insulting the Chinese people I meet by acting like an "ugly american" who expects everybody to just speak English!

Posted on: Useful Phrases #1

I have a question about a specific point of pronunciation. To my admittedly newbie ears, in the lesson, Ken and Jenny both sound like they are saying "liǎojiě", but in the written transcription this word is written in pinyin as "lǐjiě", and in the "fix" audio review, the young woman speaking sounds like she is saying "lǐjiě".

I saw pretzellogic's reply above, and I understand that point, that there are actually two words "li3jie3" and "liao3jie3". Fine. But the same word in the same sentence is being written one way and pronounced in two different ways (I think!)

Which is it, "lǐjiě" or "liǎojiě"? Are these just individual style issues? Are they regional dialect differences? Or are my newbie ears just not hearing third tone on "lǐ" correctly? Help!!