User Comments - channa
channa
Posted on: Going on a Diet
June 7, 2007 at 8:41 AMThanks franch. Also, I've heard women use 标准 biao1 zhun3 to describe the 'ideal' figure--meaning this person doesn't need to lose or gain weight.
Posted on: Going on a Diet
June 7, 2007 at 6:28 AMI actually have a Chinese friend in her 30s who is trying to gain weight. Her strategy is to drink a box of milk every couple of hours. How do you say 'gain weight' in Chinese? Also, is 可惜 perhaps the word Chinese people are thinking of when they say to me "it is a pity" in English?
Posted on: Directory Assistance
May 24, 2007 at 9:50 AMHmmm, I guess it should be 'non-English speaking speakers of Chinese'...
Posted on: Directory Assistance
May 24, 2007 at 9:45 AMHi all, I have a story that will warm the cockles of your Chinesepod hearts... My quest to find patient, non-English speakers of Chinese (PNESCs) led me all the way downstairs to the janitor of my apartment building. She spends most of the day surfing the Internet and watching people come and go on the building's security camera. When she asked me if I would teach her English, I agreed. She speaks virtually none and the "English" lessons have been excellent Chinese practice for me. Recently we've been piecing together cut up transcripts of the Newbie and Elementary dialogues. She works on reassembling the English and I work on the Chinese characters. Then we check each other's work and correct each other's pronunciation. This works well for both of us; my spoken Chinese is limited (but improving!) but I was basically illiterate until we started doing this. Anyway, I'm sure everyone at Chinesepod is well aware of just how valuable a service Chinesepod is to English-speaking students of Chinese. Just thought I'd write to let you know that it's also a cultural bridge AND an ESL teaching tool!
Posted on: When the Taxi Takes the Long Way
May 14, 2007 at 6:03 AMGreat dialogue! I appreciate all the examples of 才cai2 after being introduced to it in 'Parking Lot Rage.'
Posted on: Going on a Diet
June 7, 2007 at 10:19 AMHaha. I also teach English at a university and the standard response I get in my conversation classes to 'how was your weekend?' goes exactly like that: 'just-a so so. I played with my friends.' After 10 months in China, this now sounds perfectly natural to me. Actually, I'd be very interested in a list of the most common words and phrases that anglophones overuse/misuse when learning Chinese. Does anyone know of such a list?