User Comments - amphivera
amphivera
Posted on: Mosquitoes
June 4, 2008 at 9:55 AMI'm so happy I came across this lesson. I've been suffering massively from all the mosquitos in my apartment here in China. It's been a mystery to me since I don't leave the window open and have sealed all other openings. Just when I think I've killed the last bastard another one inexplicably comes buzzing in. I've lived in a couple of countries including France, Japan and the U.S., but I think the mosquitos in China are particularly vicious, leaving unbelievably itchy bites. I'm going to have to buy one of those insect zapping machines.
Posted on: Seoul
June 4, 2008 at 5:12 AMfoleadu,
I'm no expert on Korean geography/history myself, but I think it's because the Han River 汉江 runs through the city. At least that's the explanation I got from this website which offered the following description:
"首尔过去一直使用的名称为汉城，作为首府，它已经有超过600年的历史了。它位于韩国的西北方向，城市面积为605平方公里。城市中心距离与北朝鲜的边境线40公里。著名的汉江穿过城市，并成为该城市的地理标志。沿江两岸成为主要的社会活动区域。在城市的周围有四座山将城市环抱。冬天可以滑雪，秋季看落叶，如果是徒步旅行爱好者一年到头都可以看到不同的风景。"
Hope this solves the mystery a bit.
Posted on: MSN and QQ
March 4, 2008 at 2:00 PMI'm really tempted to use QQ to practicing chatting in Chinese (since I don't get to work on my "writing" a lot). I'm quite scared though. Can someone enlighten me about QQ protocol, or etiquette? What are some do's and don'ts. Should I be wary of random users who message me? Also, how do you say "BRB" in abbreviated Chinese instant-message lingo? I'd appreciate all of your advice! 谢谢大家！
Posted on: The Final Jizhou Pieces
January 13, 2008 at 3:17 PMGreat story. I really enjoyed all the episodes. Speaking of which, if anyone is downloading from scratch and just getting into the series here's the order: 1) 639 Arrival in Jizhou 2) 654 Missing Persons in Jizhou 3) 671 Familiar Face in Jizhou 4) 688 A Jizhou Child's Warning 5) 699 Anonymous tip in Jizhou 6) 716 A Jizhou identity revealed 7) 738 Jizhou mental breakdown 8) 751 THe Final Jizhou Pieces Thanks CPod!
Posted on: Singapore
January 7, 2008 at 4:47 AMtrevlu, This is what I got when I did a search for "first impression" on dict.cn: First impression: 第一印象 (di4yi1 yin4xiang4) 初步印象 (chu1bu4 yin4xiang) Example: What were your first impressions of Beijing? 你对北京的最初印象如何？ ni3 dui4 Bei3jing1 de zui4chu1 yin4xiang4 ru2he2？
Posted on: Lesson
November 1, 2007 at 1:05 PMI need some advice. I've just started out studying Chinese on my own. It's about two months, and I'm trying to get the tones perfect but now my throat muscles are starting to hurt from practicing the third tone too much. Is that normal, or am I doing something wrong? When I do the third tone I try to really emphasize it (to differentiate it from the 2nd tone).
Posted on: Mosquitos and Olympics
June 13, 2008 at 5:40 AMWell, as much as I love my electric tennis racket I have this suspicion that all it does is paralyze the mosquitos for a limited time and after 10 minutes they come back from the dead. So if you want to be 100% effective you have to deliver the final blow personally.
I definitely advise against the mosquito coils. I remember reading an article about a case where the majority of workers at a mosquito coil factory fell ill or died within 5 years.