User Comments - bababardwan

bababardwan

Posted on: I Haven't Seen You in Ages!

August 10, 2012 at 6:05 AM

"did you just call me 10,000 years old?"

hehe, yeah, in our culture that might come across as more of a curse ;)

Posted on: I Haven't Seen You in Ages!

August 10, 2012 at 5:15 AM

hehe, well this just shows how easy it is to misinterpret what is said in a non native language [though I'm sure RJ will just be shaking his head and thinking what a dill I am again and how it was obvious to all but me, hehe].

"what am I supposed to say to that?"

oh, I totally get what you meant now and can see I should have interpreted it that way. I thought you were saying how can you communicate with me [ in a general sense...as in you could make no sense of what I was saying and I'm impossible to communicate with]...well it wouldn't be the first time anyhow, hehe

"efforts far beyond mine"

...hmm, the word "efforts"..yeah, well I'm lazy at times and sometimes try hard at it [but most of my energies are more 聊天 driven than serious study driven] , but my results, 我的级别 are nowhere near yours.

"So sorry for expressing myself poorly"

not at all. 是我的错　..my bad.

"re-igniting any nightmare fuel from previous controversy"

no, it was good actually...I really learnt a lot from those old debates, and it has had the good effect of reminding me how xiaohu inspired me to try harder [and tals recent encouragement has had a similar effect so hopefully that reminder with the current one will have a synergystic effect]

加油朋友，万岁：）

Posted on: A Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

August 10, 2012 at 4:45 AM

Yeah, I got the title, but I didn't realise they were Aussies. It was reminding me of another somewhat similar skit/song but I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it was in French or Spanish...the skit I'm trying to recall that is.

Posted on: I Haven't Seen You in Ages!

August 10, 2012 at 4:41 AM

Rachel,

"怎么跟你沟通？"

ok, I'll have to switch to English here to express myself properly. For me this question really goes to the crux of something important here. I know my ability to express myself lags way behind my comprehension [limited speech opportunities and all that], and I have troubles with grammar...but how to improve and what to do? I don't want to re-ignite what subsequently followed from the comment I'm about to reference [and anyhow what ensued there was off on another tangent, other issues and so I don't think touches on those] but Tal recently commented here:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/money-laundering-operation#comment-238204

"On another note I can recall the days when Upper-Intermediate comments here were invariably in Chinese, I used to be filled with admiration for the posters and learned almost as much from reading their comments as I did from the lesson"

This wasn't the first time this has been raised on the site, I recall several times it has been debated, but most memorable for me was a discussion with xiaohu here:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/6155

...he urged us all to use more Chinese in our posts, and for me it was the boot up the rear I needed, and was encouraging to boot. So you see, some users would be much happier if we tried to communicate in Chinese. But as we are learners here, if we're encouraged by some to give it a shot, that naturally means our attempts [at least amongst those who haven't already achieved a significant level] are going to be faltering, Chinglishy and full of blunders, and also potentially confusing and open to misinterpretation. Of course many will make a better fist of it, but I don't think refraining from trying is necessarily going to help. I think that's what this site should be for...having a go in a "safe" environment. Ideally if a teacher or a native came along and corrected one's Chinese that would be an enormous help, but that's not going to happen...I don't think CPod have the manpower [or should I say personpower?] for that [hehe, even when I first got a guided subscription I was politely asked not to ask my first teacher so many questions, so I don't think it's going to happen on the boards...fair enough]. So are you suggesting that to communicate with you I should only use English? ..if so, fair enough, but I agree with Tal and Xaiohu and others who have suggested to give it a go. We have to rely on each other for help. All I can suggest in order to facilitate communication is that we try and clarify/ question anything we are unclear of in what someone has written. Sometimes, like in this instance where I had really no idea how to express "boom boom" [as I'm not even sure if there is an equivalent word usage in Chinese...it's a cultural thing after all] one can highlight something one is not sure of as I tried to do with " ［可以这么说？在中文怎么说？］"[...can you say that? how do you say that in Chinese?"]. While my Chinese is full of errors and I have trouble expressing a lot of things, I thought for the most part we were understanding each other btw as there was a to and fro that I thought [以为］indicated you were following what was being said. I'd have encouraged you to let me know what you don't understand. Anyhow, maybe I have read to much into what you have said in that you have trouble communicating with me and you meant more on this thread. The thing is language can be full of errors, but I find I can usually follow what a language learner is trying to say, despite the errors....not always of course...time for clarification, hehe. Jiayou :)