User Comments - auntie68

Posted on: Addressing People

Here's another question for QW: We've been training the Stunt Toddler (aged 3) to address older kids -- as well as younger adults -- as 姐姐 / 哥哥. I've seen ethnic Chinese Yummy Mummies in Singapore take this seniority thing seriously even if the age difference between the kids is only a matter of weeks.

Older adults are addressed as 阿姨 / 叔叔 (*whether in Chinese or English or Malay or Tagalog). The rule of thumb seems to be: If the grown-up is roughly the same age, or slightly younger than his parents, then it's 阿姨／ 叔叔. 

Is this the same in China? The Stunt Toddler's social radar seems to have no problems detecting who is an "Ate" (姐姐) and who is a "Tita" (阿姨) or even an "Abuela" (伯母 or 婆婆). He does the same in Cantonese and in English. He knows it gets him a ton of brownie points, so he's learned to "work it" to the max. Just curious to know whether we are the only ones...

P/s: This is going to be totally OT for anybody except a fellow Overseas Chinese, but out of politeness, I call 阿梅姐, the lady in my avatar, who is a senior "retainer" of my family (the 姐 is perfectly traditional even though she's in her 90s), "姑婆" (gu1po2, in Mandarin) when referring to her in the presence of people who are NOT close family members. 

We scratched our heads for a long time trying to decide what Stunt Toddler should call her, in view of the 90-year age difference, and came up with "姑婆娘" (or sometimes, in Cantonese, "gu porr zhou" where I think the "zhou" represents 曾 zheng4, meaning "great-grand-"; in my community it is our custom to invert it...).

Well, if we have got it all wrong, I hope that some kind person out there will suggest something better! Thank you SO much!

Posted on: Olympics and more...

@chapman3us:

I have to agree with you that:

[I think] Amber's lessons in culture are just as important as the lessons in Chinese language. You cannot seriously learn one without the other!

I'd class them as "enrichment" lessons, though. As an overseas Chinese, I find the DAs valuable because so many tens of millions of "diaspora" Chinese have individual experiences of "Chinese culture" which are so very different from the world revealed by Dear Amber. So it's educational.

Thanks for your kind comments, I'll look out for questions from you in the posts, and if there's an answer (or some good examples) somewhere in my little print dictionary, I'll try to share them with you. All the best for your Chinese studies.

Posted on: Olympics and more...

@frances: Good point. Somehow "Media" was always detached -- in my head, that is -- from "Advanced".

So the arithmetic (before it became Maths for me) seemed straightforward:

A full cycle 5-day cycle each week, ie., Newbie, Elementary, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced. When did "Advanced" become coupled with "Media"?

In my head, QW and "Media" are actually enrichment classes. The way the other 5 types of lessons fit in with them is slightly different, but it is an important difference, because the question of transitioning between levels takes a back seat for QW and even "Media". In that sense, they are "level"-neutral (although "Media" definitely is for the very brave who can handle "Advanced"). 

Maybe CPOD could be persuaded to consider satisfying the hunger for "Newbie" lessons by releasing a brand-new lesson each week, plus one "Newbie Redux" lesson every other week. That "Newbie Redux" alternating with "Media" which then appears only once a fortnight.

Are Dear Ambers supposed to be lessons?

Posted on: 十月怀胎

@henning: Many thanks to your native speaker (wifey) for clarifying fortunestar's query!

Goodness, changye really is a "Black Belt 10th Dan" in Mandarin, as you described him in that other thread!

And thank you too for the "add-on". 

Posted on: 十月怀胎

henning, I so totally, TOTALLY agree with you and lostinasia that:

knowing the subject ahead of the podcast sometimes miraculously boosts comprehension rates by 50% or more.

So true. And if I can be naughty here, this effect has nothing to do with miracles, it's just common sense (or "good business practice"/ "quality control"/ whatever you wish to call it).

I just glanced at my iTunes list of "Advanced" lesson titles, and in the past 12 months, on my painful way to being reasonably comfortable in "Advanced", the going was harder -- for many lessons -- than it ought to have been (by any reasonable measure), because I didn't have a clue whom or where or what the lesson was about, or the "current event" which the CPOD teachers assumed would be interesting and familiar to everybody attempting the lesson.

Not everybody studying with CPOD is obsessed with everything that is happening in China today... or is dreaming daily of living or working there (or dreaming of dating Jenny, like bazza!). Hope this doesn't come out the wrong way... I don't mean to be offensive or hostile. I'm just an average learner focussing generally on the Chinese language, which I find very beautiful. Whether it's traditional or simplified or modern or classical or Cantonese... but those are my personal "terms", which aren't everybody's "terms"...

Posted on: 十月怀胎

Dear user2880, I have to agree with henning here. One year ago, I would have been sitting in front of my computer, nodding my head, and agreeing with you that there should be more English in the "banter".

But somewhere along the way since then, I started using a "Chinese-only" dictionary, a good one. It was not smooth or easy at first, but now I feel quite certain that definitions which I hear or read in Chinese stick with me longer. 

I am with you totally, and understand the sheer frustration, that comes from being let down by CPOD in an "Advanced" lesson where even the simple vocab translations are sloppy, or the hosts/teachers have neglected to explain something -- in whatever language -- that I would look for in my print dictionary but would NEVER find because it was slang.

Now that's truly frustrating. Hopefully, that seems to be more a problem of the earlier "Advanced" lessons, where they were "winging it", and had fewer resources on hand. I can't tell you how many times I felt very irritated because I had to play a stupid, unhelpful guessing game trying to identify the real-life people who were the subjects of an "Advanced" lesson.

But I think that this kind of quality issue is a different thing from objecting to a "no-English" philosophy behind the "Advanced" classes? I am also studying two other languages, Japanese and Korean, with another "-pod", and was disconcerted when those "-pods" started introducing some Korean and Japanese banter in levels as low as the latest "Beginner" seasons.

Yet it took only a handful (well, a "handful" to maybe 10!, depending on the level) of uncomfortable lessons for the banter to start to make sense, and become natural for me, and now I think I learn as much from the banter, as from the actual lesson materials, a lot of the time. To be fair, those other "-pods" are a bit more conservative than CPOD, you don't risk being distracted or confused by wild giggling or breathless laughter on the odd occasion that the hosts get carried away with entertaining, and forget to teach, as you might with CPOD. Eg. the points made in each QW are really important and useful, but sometimes I have to grit my teeth to listen to the podcasts because I am just too negative or calcified or whatever to appreciate them. 

Just my personal opinion... I know that you are probably a lot more advanced in Mandarin, than I am. All the best. Cheers. Auntie68

Posted on: 澳洲总理秀中文

LKY = Lee Kuan Yew / li3guang1yao4 (*the former PM of Singapore who was a proponent of "looking East", ie "to China" for some key best practices).

I'm Singaporean, and can tell you that LKY's son Lee Hsien Loong, now our PM, doesn't have anything approaching the Mandarin fluency of Australia's PM Rudd despite decades of special Mandarin classes. It's not his first language... his true first language is English, but that applies to Kevin Rudd too.

Posted on: High Maintenance Girls and the Elderly

I'm definitely "low-maintenance", even scruffy! Jenny, on the other hand, probably distinguished herself from the locals -- effortlessly -- in Singapore by being as elegant, as pulled-together and classy, as her podcast persona... You can spot a middle-class PRC-born Chinese resident of Singapore from a mile away... they're the ones who actually look smart/ yummy! The average Singaporean Auntie looks like a cavewoman next to them...

Posted on: Olympics and more...

I was one of those begging for Cantonese podcasts, but I'd rather not now, if it has to be at the cost of an Advanced Mandarin lesson.

Especially since Clay has given indications elsewhere that it will be a "fun" lesson, focussing on fun and entertainment rather than on even the little bit of "hard learning" that might have benefits for my Mandarin:

Eg. in the form of insights into how the Chinese language and Chinese characters change across dialects. Or else by introducing us to some classical characters which are relics in Mandarin but still very much alive in this living language which is Cantonese. I know that when I studied Cantonese via a bridging course published in the PRC and written in Mandarin, this "comparative" approach was good for my Mandarin as well.

Posted on: High Maintenance Girls and the Elderly

@laodie: I didn't detect anything negative in your original post. I was just trying to tweak you. Heh heh.