User Comments - auntie68

Posted on: Prescription Drugs and Overseas Chinese

Hi greatname. 

Autie68,  what do you mean "it has aquired a distinct meaning over the centuries" ? 

There are many sources that address this. Wikipedia, anything written by Lynn Pan (author of "Sons of the Yellow Emperor" and "The Encyclopaedia of Overseas Chinese"), quite a few works written by Leo Suryadinata. Even the much-loved "Father of Indonesian Literature", Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who was pure Javanese, has written informative essays about the Tionghuas.

The Chinese diaspora began a few hundred years ago, it was concentrated on Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, and the communities there developed a distinct "overseas Chinese" identity which maintained some common threads. That's why CPOD users like dennisliehappo (A Dutchman with overseas Chinese ancestors from former colonies such as Suriname) could be said to have something in common with somebody like me.

Tsinoys may be Filipinos first, but I imagine that very few of them would argue with anybody who claimed that Emilio Aguinaldo and Jose Rizal were all part of the Overseas Chinese experience in some way (even if they were reluctant members, like Jose Rizal who fought to have his status changed to "Native").

Before the founding of the Republic of China, in 1911, Sun Yat-sen made a number of fundraising trips to Southeast Asia, where he raised substantial funds from ethnic Chinese who identified with their adoptive countries, but who nonetheless considered themselves to be "overseas Chinese". HTH.

Generally, people with "overseas Chinese" names like Cohuangco, Teehanko, Shinawatr, Vejjajiva, Liem, Lie, Gouw, and quite a few Nguyens out there would identify themselves as overseas Chinese if pushed, but they would not consider themselves to be nationals of the PRC or the ROC by any stretch.

Posted on: Prescription Drugs and Overseas Chinese

Amber, I didn't mean to sound grumpy. It was a great show, I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to listening to a show that would speak to pinkjeans, hitokiri6993 and the other very active Tsinoys, the many Luuk-Jeen (Thai Chinese) and Indonesian Chinese who have surfaced on the various threads, missgoldfish (?), qiren (from La Réunion). We'll love you for it!

Posted on: Prescription Drugs and Overseas Chinese

Thanks, greatname, it was obvious to me to. But why use the term "overseas Chinese". which has acquired a distinct meaning over the centuries since the Ming Dynasty?

Posted on: Prescription Drugs and Overseas Chinese

Wow. Now I know why CPOD has never responded -- not even once, if I'm not wrong -- to any of my comments begging for them to consider factoring in the needs of "overseas Chinese".

Listening to this Dear Amber, anybody would get the impression that the "overseas Chinese" community is based in the US (3 million overseas Chinese), Canada, or Australia (well under 1 million). I'm not surprised if ABCs (both kinds), BBCs, and CBCs -- all of whom grew up outside Asia -- are all feeling well-served by CPOD, not at all.

It's as if the 7 million plus overseas Chinese in EACH OF Indonesia, Malaysia, or Thailand simply didn't exist. There are perhaps 3.5 million ethnic Chinese living in Singapore, even if you don't count the very small number of recent immigrants from China.

I believe that there are just over 1 million overseas Chinese who live EACH OF the Philippines, Vietnam and Myanmar today. 

????

"Overseas Chinese" are a new thing in the West, but in Asia, 华侨／ 华裔 have been a presence in various Asian countries since the Ming Dynasty.

I'm not complaining about any particular omission in this Dear Amber. It does give me some insights into some things that I hadn't been able to appreciate/ understand about the CPOD approach to teaching Chinese.

Posted on: Changes on ChinesePod

@hape: In cassielin's case, she has just started her first "real" job. Access is not a problem because she was "cherry-picked" and given a free one-year Premium subscription. I was offered one myself, but didn't feel comfortable accepting it (even though I am grateful).

But I have every intention of making full use of the remaining 3 months of my "Basic" subscription before it expires in December.

I do miss sophie's posts; I loved reading her posts about growing up in Inner Mongolia, I miss her native-fluent Mandarin, and her 呵呵...

Posted on: Afraid of Dogs

@joannah: Oh no! Your poor cat. A feline on fluoxetine! If it doesn't sound too ungenerous of me to say this, I would guess that the diagnosis for my former neighbour's dog was more like "violent psychopathic disorder"... I know that small breeds can be more highly strung, but this little doggie was something else! But I could never blame the dog, I actually felt sorry for her because the former neighbours were entirely responsible.

Posted on: Pretty Clothes

It's no problem. Other Intermediate lessons which I think you'd like are: “The Jealous Friend" (*you don't have to understand the vocab to know who's being the Queen Bitch of the Universe"), "Lover's Spat" (*between the same characters!) and "Parent-Child Fight". If you can handle that, you can even think of listening to the Upper-Intermediate "Saved By the Gong (SBTG)" series, where you will have the chance to get to know the Class Dunce, the Smart Aleck, and the Diligent Female Student over a few lessons. Happy listening. It's great preparation for the future transition to "Intermediate", which some people find difficult. 

Posted on: Afraid of Dogs

Hi light487. This one's definitely a keeper. And it's a situation which I've seen played out so many times here in Singapore!

Sadly, the average Singaporean Chinese person still has a lot to learn about keeping dogs as pets (rather than as scruffy guard dogs which are never allowed into the house).

The nervous ones are too nervous, the "nouveaux" dog lovers can be very irresponsible, Eg., letting their dogs go unleashed and leaving young children unattended with one (or even two...) dogs, a recipe for disaster if you ask me. I really appreciate the way in which "Western" expats who own dogs here love their dogs without upsetting their neighbours.

About five years ago, I was badly bitten -- on the back of the hand -- by a former neighbour's small breed. The scars are still visible; the A&E doctor told me that I was lucky the dog didn't get its teeth behind the small "carpal" (?) bones, or I would have been looking at many surgeries.

I'll never forget what the owner said to me when I spoke to her after the "accident": "I don't know what to say, my dog is like a member of the family. Actually, we've all been nipped by her, but it was always nothing serious and she's actually very loving."

I'm afraid I made such a stink that they sent the dog to a "doggie psychiatrist" (yeah, sure...). But I'm ashamed to say that I made her cry by asking her to consider how she would make amends if her dog bit any of the tots in the apartment block around the head or face; this was before the Stunt Toddler was born, but the dog had already nipped a toddler living there. To this day, I still can't help asking ST's nanny for reports on how the owner/dog is behaving! I'm glad to say that they have learned to carry the dog in their arms when there are small children about!

Posted on: Pretty Clothes

@bababardwan: You might find it useful (and fun, too) to listen to a few Intermediate lessons. Don't worry about understanding. The sentences are longer, the vocab is richer, so the emotions can be much "sharper" in them. Try this one for starters -- "It's over (Again)" -- about a flaming row:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/its-over-again/discussion

Posted on: Changes on ChinesePod

@user33255 and cornelia (hi Cornelia):

FWIW, I don't think it would be very feasible to draw in native speakers through the kind of test you describe? It was already quite an achievement for CPOD to draw enough of them into the shop as "casual browsers", such that a few of them (Eg. zhanglihua, cassielin, wgxcathy, sophie etc) could develop an interest in the "Community of Practice". I think that expecting them to audition for the right to lurk is not very realistic.

As to the non-native "Advanced" users, I'm not in favour of offering any incentives other than really excellent lesson content that can help them to deepen their knowledge of Chinese (rather than merely broadening it), and the chance to interact/ learn from native speakers. For one thing, their Chinese is simply not "native" enough.

The idea of CPOD trying to cherry-pick "native speaker/ advanced learners" in some way, just doesn't sit well with me. I don't think they would even consider trying to create/maintain a "Community of Practice" in an artificial way.

I think that if we are reduced to that, paying users like me would prefer CPOD to simply hire enough native users to help man the comments threads during the hours when Amber and Connie are asleep or resting. 

It's about time! CPOD is not a product which is designed to fit neatly within any one set of office hours. I think our bosses -- whatever our time zone! -- would prefer us to do our expansion sentences outside work, on our own time. And considering that CPOD now seems to have users in every time zone, the idea of "OUT FOR LUNCH" makes less and less sense.