User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: What's up?
February 28, 2008 at 5:16 AMDear jennyzhu 老师, yes, Ah Bings and Ah Lians still rule in the Lion City!
Posted on: To Love or Be Loved
February 28, 2008 at 1:51 AMDear longdehua, actually, I blame CPOD and/or CPOD's "users" for wilfully spreading worldly ideas to me. Considering legal options even as I type these words...
Posted on: What's up?
February 28, 2008 at 1:31 AMBtw, user5712, I agree with you. In my country (Singapore), at least, a 怎么样 said in a certain tone, or "staring", does have the potential to lead to the kind of brawl which can lead even more quickly to multiple arrests based on public order laws, assault, battery, or worse (eg. gbh, attempted murder etc). I wonder how Jenny Zhu would translate, "He stared at me so I broke the beer bottle over his head", into Mandarin. This phrase appears on many, many "charge sheets", believe me...
Posted on: What's up?
February 28, 2008 at 12:58 AMHi pipa and electric9s. One thing to consider is that Chinese is, technically speaking, an "analytical" language. In the sense that "meaning" is conveyed by HOW the words (especially particles) are combined, rather than the individual words themselves. In my humble opinion -- I'm not fluent in Mandarin --, you won't be able to make yourself understood in Chinese unless you focus on learning these rules/ patterns for combining words in such a way that they make sense. I've been flamed painfully for saying this before, but I read so many comments on CPOD which are in Chinese characters, but which do not make any sense at all even if I can understand every character, because the vocabulary was advanced but the sentence was put together "wrong". I take my hat off to Ken & Co. for doing such a great job teaching some very difficult concepts so well without ever using words like "predicate" or "adjectival phrase", even though these concepts are so important in Chinese. Even the familiar distinction between the different "parts of speech" -- "verbs", "nouns" etc -- is rarely helpful (if at all) if you are talking about an analytical language like Chinese. In Chinese, a verb isn't always a verb, etc. So much of the time, new learners make horrible mistakes because they try to apply grammar rules which don't apply at all in that language. But I'd like to run with your basic idea. It would be great, don't you think, if CPOD could release a "Newbie starter podcast" which gave a lot of listening practice for the four tones, giving the listener a rich chance to practise listening for different tones in compound verbs, phrases, and perhaps even in full sentences. Another area which newbies might like a good workout in is the "difficult sounds", ie. how to listen carefully enough to distinguish between "-n" and "-ng", "z-" and "zh-" etc. If this could be put together in a single podcast designed to be listened to every day, I'd be willing to bet that users like pipapod and electric9s would see a quantum leap in their Mandarin skills. For one, they would get so much more out of anything they heard in Mandarin, including the podcasts...
Posted on: London
February 27, 2008 at 8:13 AMErm, rich -- you sound about a THOUSAND times more responsible than I just KNOW I was during the days when I farting about in Brighton, Brussels, and London during five years of my basic degree plus "Bar School"...
Posted on: London
February 27, 2008 at 12:29 AMrich, your explanation is evidence that the tuition fees were well-spent. Much appreciated, thanks!
Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 10:50 AMPeaceful little Hove (豪富) sure does sound like a good place to "marry a millionaire"...
Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 10:48 AMHello. In case anyone would like to know, I've finally tracked down the Chinese name of: 布莱顿 Brighton 豪富 Hove 布莱顿和豪富 Brighton and Hove
Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 6:26 AMBtw, changye, thanks so much for the cities list! When my long day with the Stunt Toddler is finally over (he is napping right now; today we're together for at least 8 hours!), I'll go look up "Brighton", which deserves a place on the list if only for the fact that (i) I studied there; and (ii) it has some pretty interesting Regency history behind it. Again, thanks!
Posted on: What's up?
February 28, 2008 at 5:18 AMuncle changye, I actually agree with you. Guess I was trying to be conciliatory...