User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: Relativity
March 19, 2008 at 1:18 AMDear Uncle changye, in which country/ countries were you watching Star Trek? I've always wondered what Japanese viewers thought of Helmsman Hikaru Sulu. As a child, I was convinced that his character was a Filipino Chinese, because of the "Sulu". Now you know one of my embarassing secrets...
Posted on: Relativity
March 18, 2008 at 2:08 PMHi acorrigan. You have my sympathy. The "isolation to varying degrees" you mention is very real. One of my friends, a young German engineer working in Singapore, said that the PRC researchers in his lab do tend to keep to themselves; he says that most of them have never EVER tried non-Chinese Singaporean food despite working in Singapore for three or four years. If it's any comfort to you, I think it's more a "science nerd + foreignness barrier" thing, than a "Chinese" thing. One "plus" point is that if your field is some complicated scientific discipline, you can probably communicate with your Chinese colleagues using mathematical notation. I am guessing that what you may want is the simpler, more "human" and friendly kind of language eg. "I'm not getting anywhere, it's driving me crazy; something tells me that the problem is in THIS part of the code, what do you think? My (Chinese) wife is going to divorce me if I go home late again etc etc" I am not a scientist, so please forgive me if the words sound silly and inappropriate! But I think you know what I am getting at. As an Auntie, I can say that the "helpless chick" tactic can be useful. When you go to your Chinese colleagues with thousands of lines of code and a frazzled expression -- or even a particularly difficult page from the excellent site that changye recommended --, is there any possibility that they could be persuaded to jump in and do their best to help you out? I've done that before with French (in a law school context) and in Thai (in a general context), and was always surprised by how determined the "natives" were to help. The "helpless chick" thing is a great equalizer. Good luck!
Posted on: Mobile Repairmen and AZERDocMom
March 18, 2008 at 3:25 AMDear azerdocmom, thanks so much for posting these great photos! I am struck by how bright, self-possessed, and -- well, wise -- the Chinese babies look. You and Josh look like you are very close to each other. God bless, Auntie
Posted on: Embrace your Fears! 怕 (pà)...Adj
March 17, 2008 at 6:00 AMDear rash, I'm not sure there is a trick, but maybe looking at these examples from my little dictionary will help to give you a "feel" for the differences? Perhaps you could choose one example from each word and just... memorize it. Good luck! 可怕（Cf. 可爱 ke3ai4) ＝ to be "fear-able"/ fearsome: 可怕的故事。 使人觉得可怕。 昨晚，我看了一部可怕的电影。 那个人长得有点儿可怕。 晚上一个人走在路上，真可怕。 害怕 (literally -- "to fear fear"): 害了怕。 害什么怕。 害怕得不得了。 看见有人追上来，小偷害怕了。 没有灯火， 没有人， 她感到害怕极了。 恐怕 ("fear that..."， “reckon that..."): 恐怕他不会答应我们的要求。 这么晚才回来，恐怕要挨(ai2; suffer)批评(pi1ping2; criticism)了。 今天恐怕要迟到了。 太晚了， 恐怕没有坐位了。 他恐怕还没毕业(bi4ye4; graduate)吧。 今天恐怕要下雨。 他来了恐怕有半年了。 你恐怕还没吃饭吧？我给你拿点儿吃的来。 恐怖 (terrorizing; terrifying) 恐怖活动。--> terrorism 恐怖手段。 恐怖电影。(horror film) 气氛恐怖。 内心感到非常恐怖。 恐怖得全身发抖。 恐怖分子制造了很多恐怖事件。 这件事太恐怖了。 吓人 ／ 吓 ： 孩子被雷声(lei2sheng1; thunder)吓得大哭。 他突然从门前跳出来，下得我们叫了起来。 别(bie2; don't)吓我， 我胆子(dan3zi3; spleen, "courage")小。 他大叫了一声，把狗下跑了。
Posted on: Dublin
March 17, 2008 at 5:19 AMSingapore? My tiny home town? What would be the ERP ("Electronic Road Pricing") for a Godzilla during peak hours (that's per entry), do you think? And the COE ("Certificate of Entitlement") can be anything from USD$20,000 upwards for a sub-compact motor vehicle, to something like a few hundred thousand USD$ for a Lamborghini. Can Godzilla afford the cost of using Singapore roads?
Posted on: Dublin
March 17, 2008 at 3:57 AMHey, clay, that was no problem. But for CPOD, I wouldn't know how to order a Guinness Stout in Mandarin. Many Chinese Singaporeans seem to be convinced that Guinness Stout is 补 (bu3), meaning that it is tonic for the health, nourishing and somehow "restorative". I've even heard older folk say that Guinness Stout is particularly beneficial because it is 补 without being "heaty" (阳; yang2), unlike so many things which are considered to be 补 in Chinese medicine. So you can use Guinness to stoke the fires of your inner vitality without overheating! But that could be down to very clever marketing by the company...
Posted on: Lesson
March 17, 2008 at 3:39 AMHello farhang, I'm a fellow user of CPOD. Are you asking whether CPOD will teach you how to write Chinese characters? I believe that the answer is "no". Ken mentioned in one podcast that there are many other excellent resources available for that. One thing that you may want to note is that CPOD only explains grammer orally, in the "audio" section of the podcasts. So even if you are a Premium subscriber, there is nothing on grammar which you can print out and read. But I understand that a Grammar Section (and also some kind of grammar notes for the Basic subscribers) are being worked on right now. Good luck! If you have some other course (eg. book + CDs) to use for learning writing and grammar, CPOD will be a perfect supplement. In fact, very soon you may find that you are learning more from CPOD.
Posted on: Relativity
March 17, 2008 at 3:06 AMHi taibeitimes. There is an Upper-Intermediate lesson on the US elections, one of the more brilliant pieces of writing by the team, if you ask me: http://chinesepod.com/lessons/election-candidates/discussion Cheers, Auntie
Posted on: Dublin
March 17, 2008 at 3:04 AMI drink 吉尼斯黑啤酒 ／ 建力士黑啤酒 every day! Btw, clay, the characters used by paulc (吉尼斯) to transliterate "Guinness" are as per the Supplementary Vocab for the lesson... Thanks for a great lesson.
Posted on: Relativity
March 19, 2008 at 1:19 AMOr an Indonesia Chinese... Eek.