User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Awkward Silence

I've had a smile on my face trying to suppress laughter all arvo thanks to CPod, and also due to some classic responses on this thread.

Posted on: Awkward Silence

oh, almost forgot. The pdf only has A with the....'s. I take it that the "....."'s represent the awkward silence. What about B's awkward silence [which if anything I would have anticipated to be much greater as she's the one being stalked after all..or maybe that was part of the mixup I referred to above...it was meant to be B ...... as A was quite happy just stalking in silence and didn't feel awkward at all]?

Posted on: Awkward Silence

the pdf has the guy kicking things off and he's designated as A but then later in the dialogue when the elevator ride as over it has B saying zaijian first when in fact it was the guy A.

Also, still on the pdf, what is the significance of zaijian being translated as both good bye and see ya. Which one is it? ...or is this a gender difference? and if so, as you have A and B mixed up at the end, which gender render's which translation? Does the context of the woman's less than enthusiastic zai jian, in other words her tone, play a part here?

Finally, I'd like to point out a problem with the English translation..."ya"...I mean come on guys, is that even a word? I love youse all ,but youse guys should know better.

Posted on: Awkward Silence

I was just going to say this is one reason I love the CPod ...great fun, great sense of humour, ready to try something different. I'll never forget ni hao and zai jian now. The suspense the awkward silence gave us had that effect of ramming in the vocab.

Posted on: Awkward Silence

Dang, I've been wimplo'd again

got a real "DANG" soundbite link you can share with us mate?

Posted on: Awkward Silence

I think this one's like an onion. Yes, you could take it at the most superficial newbie layer..the hello/ goodbye layer, but as you keep peeling back the layers, you're absolutely right, to really grasp it's full meaning..Advanced. So really the genius of this lesson is that all levels are catered for. Thus it can also accompany a newbie on his/her journey to fluency, to be revisted from time to time. Kind of like a level test. When you revisit it and find new meaning then you're ready to go up a level.

Posted on: Awkward Silence

haha....you're still in fine form mate :)

Posted on: Awkward Silence

yes, there was an awkward silence...

Posted on: Awkward Silence

I think the dialogue also spoke volumes about their relationship. I mean firstly I was definitely under the impression that she thought she had the lift to herself and then he suddenly rocks up at the last minute. Her disappointment was palpable. I think something went on in the past between them and maybe he's even stalking her now. He didn't sound too deterred though, he remained upbeat about it, despite her obvious mocking of him by parrotting. I mean that's not normal is it? ...to just repeat back what the last person said to you? ...I mean otherwise what am I even doing here trying to learn this tricky language if I could just go to China and parrot back whatever was said to me? But if I'm wrong please let me know. It will make things a lot easier. Tell you what, next Chinese person I bump into I'll give this parroting a go.

Posted on: Awkward Silence

ok, well I've listened to the dialogue 6 times now, and I think there are still some things I'm not clear on. Firstly I'm wondering if there are 2 kinds of 4th tones. I mean take this zàijiàn..to me it sounds like this 4th tone in zài is really shown up and made to look wimpy but the following 4th tone in jiàn.

On a cultural note, I'm wondering why the silence had to be awkward. Do Chinese folk really feel obliged to continually fill any little bit of silent reprieve that manages to find it's way into society? Is there a parallel here with firecrackers at chunjie? So they're not just comfortable standing in the lift and smiling at each other?

Also as to formal/informal. If they are going to be awkward in the lift because of the silence, what effect would using nin instead of ni have had? Would going more formal make it more awkward or would the greater familiarity brought into play by the use of ni mean there was a higher expectation of a convo and therefore the lack of convo bringing about a hightened awareness of the awkwardness.

I think there was a lot more to this lesson than met the eye and I think our hosts could have spent more time addressing some of these issues. I have many other pressing questions on the subject but I'll give our hosts another chance to come clean and clear them up for us.