User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Fog or Smog?

I suspected so.Good job then. I thought you should know then that it hasn't gone unnoticed and that I think that it's a very worthwhile exercise that's appreciated on the user end.Thankyou :)

Posted on: Fog or Smog?

I noticed in the exercises for this lesson the distractors in the multiple choice were better than I remember them being previously.Apart from one or two other lessons it's been a long time since I've done the exercises,so this may have been the case for some time,or maybe this is a one-off.The point being that good distractors improve the quality of the test.When the distractors are obviously wrong it's not a true test.Has this been a conscious implementation of CPod? Anyone else notice this?

Posted on: That's Not Your Food

I think it can be both mate.Smell and taste are closely linked and I don't think Chinese make much of a distinction between the two.

Posted on: Shanghai Expo: Haibao

Looks like Gumby is not as universal as Mickey Mouse

...I'd have to agree with that [have any Aussies struck him before?].As I said before I'd never heard of him..or at least ,I have seen claymation stuff in passing but never paid much attention,clever as it is...so if I did see him I didn't know that was his name. I've certainly heard the expression "gumby" though and presume it must come from this character.Can anyone confirm that?

ps ..yeah,interesting to hear he's not well known in Asia either...not that that prevents plagiarism....but it possibly makes it a little less likely [though I could envisage a convincing argument to the contrary...if plagiarism was sought out]

In any case, thanks to Haibao, Gumby has become a little more popular even in China.

...I'm interested why you'd say this.Is it just because of the discussion here,or has there been discussion of him in China generally? I guess if it's been noted here,it's come up in discussion elsewhere too. What do the gumby folk have to say about it I wonder? Maybe they should make a claymation..."Gumby goes to Shanghai Expo and meets Haibao".

Posted on: Daddy Changes a Diaper

From the expansion:

你已经长大了，不能让妈妈抱了。

translated as:

(You're already grown up. You can't allow your mother to hug you.)

..just verifying.Is 抱 in the sentence really meant to mean hug [if so,please explain what's going on here culturally...don't mums still hug their grown kids? ...or is it just an expansion sentence I shouldn't read too much into?] or is it meant to mean hold or carry...when a kid gets too heavy to carry.

Posted on: Shanghai Expo: Haibao

I agree.Though there is quite a large degree of similarity,they're such simple characters and the 人 seems a plausible explanation.

Posted on: What's up?

Just found this brief article which doesn't mention Brisbane but does mention Sydney:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwean_Australian

...but of course it mentions Sydney and Melbourne...our 2 biggest cities that thus often have our largest immigrant populations also,and Perth is no surprise as that's where heaps of S African's also immigrated ...perhaps they feel geographically closer to home there. I also note the figures in that article are from 2006 and I've mainly noticed in the last 5 years so I think it's gone up since then.

Posted on: What's up?

yeah,I've come across heaps of them. The first I can clearly recall was 20 years ago,but mainly it's been in the last 5 years,for obvious reasons.[but still not as many as the South Africans]

..maybe the warmer climate here is more similar to home,and of course immigrants have a tendency to flock together

Posted on: What's up?

good one. hehe yeah,it did sound a bit childish..I've got kids and it's lovely to have that as an excuse...one I like to rely on ;) ..it also reminds me of "assume".

Actually I think I'd have been about equally likely to use headmaster or principal.I throw this in both in response to your "probably" and also because I know you like to keep your finger on the pulse in these things.At a pinch I'd guess that perhaps as a youn'un headmaster was more common and now maybe principal,but I really don't know.There is also "head of college".

Posted on: What's up?

Well that's a relief to hear mate.Though the US population is much larger than Canada's ,we seem to bump into just as many Canadian's here I reckon and so its an each way bet as to where the accent is from [unless it's an obvious southern US accent].Both sides seem to get a little ticked off if you guess wrong ,so I usually just ask which part of North America they're from.They don't seem to mind this,hehe.

It's a similar story I find with S Africans and Zimbabwean's .Sometimes I think I can tell the difference,but certainly not with any confidence or consistency.