User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Good Morning!

sueb,

You're welcome [ bu4 ke4 qi ].Definitely possible to open on the screen at the same time as listening to the dialogue.There are different ways of doing this,but as you have to download both the audio and seperately also download the pdf I usually save both files to somewhere on my computer.Then it's just a matter of opening both files.

Posted on: Good Morning!

sueb,

sueb says:"and I find I need to see the dialogue transcript at the same time as hearing it. Is this possible?"

Yes;just download the PDF which is the 5th download option.

sueb says:Also, I would find it useful (when I'm going over the lesson yet again!) to be able to click on a part of it, hear it repeated, and repeat it myself

  This is also available.If you look at the top of the page you'll see 5 tabs.Currently we're on the discussion tab.Just to the right of that is the dialogue tab.Click on that and you'll see the lessons dialogue.You will see red arrows to the right of each sentence;if you click on that you'll hear the audio for that sentence.The vocab tab lets you hear individual new words.Good luck.

Posted on: 古埃及

goulniky,

Thanks for that excellent article.I hadn't seen it before but was made aware that it was a myth several years ago now and it stands to reason.As disappointing as that news would be to many Chinese,it has probably turned out best if they heard if from one of their own taikonaughts,Yáng Lìwěi.None of this detracts from the amazing achievement that is the Great Wall of China.

Posted on: 古埃及

pearltowerpete,

Thanks heaps for that.I did notice that jin1 was shaped somewhat like the pyramids but never knew that this was another way the Chinese developed words for foreign things [I knew of course that originally many characters were often pictographs].In my ignorance I was only aware of conceptual translations and transliterations for  foreign things.Are there many other examples ? Cool.

There were a few other minor things in the dialogue translation ,like the word for sphynx was later translated simply as "to be like",but once one has figured it out the first time it didn't really matter.

It was a fascinating discussion ,as an outsider ,of one ancient cultures views of another ancient culture.Very insightful.

When young I was always led to believe that the Great wall of China was the only man made object visible from the moon.While I've not been to the moon recently,and while I think the Great wall of China is awesome,I now believe this claim is a myth [sorry,honestly no disrespect here and I acknowledge that I could be wrong].I found this quote:

"The myth of being able to see the Great Wall from space originated in Richard Halliburton's 1938 (long before humans saw the earth from space) book Second Book of Marvels said that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the moon.

From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, such as highways, ships in the sea, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can certainly be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard.

However, when leaving the earth's orbit and acquiring an altitude of more than a few thousand miles, no man-made objects are visible at all".

Posted on: 古埃及

I love how logical the Chinese words for foreign things can be when they're not transliterations.Pyramids being gold towers [presumably referring to the gold stored inside them;wonder why they didn't use li3 for the middle character though].But I especially like lion body person face resemblance for the sphynx.Straight to the point.

ps using the mouse to rollover the second line of the dialogue just gives person as the translation for sphinx .Just thought I'd let you know.

pps Also in the second line of the dialogue it translates xiang3qu4 as to think.Wouldn't it translate as "thinking of going"?

Posted on: Around the Office

Intro says:

"office supplies is sure to become a staple.."

Very punny;no wonder the stapler was so prominent..

Posted on: No Wonder!

JP is hilarious and thus very entertaining to listen to,but unless I'm missing something here,I thought he was from Seattle,Washington.

Posted on: Post-Holiday Preview

light,

Thought I was missing something for a sec till I realised that by "We Australians" you were referring to those living in NSW getting the labour day holiday.Oh well,enjoy;will help you adjust to daylight savings anyway.

Posted on: A Month as a Monk and Chinese Business Meetings

frances,

Yes;good observation and well put.It makes one almost wonder whether this was a deliberate contrast.It made for a great show all around.yin/yang and all that.

Posted on: Post-Holiday Preview

Great to hear Michaels jingle introduce the show for the first time;it worked well.Glad to hear you guys are having a well earned break at CPod.I would like to wish you a happy,relaxing ,and safe holiday to you all.