User Comments - danjo
danjo
Posted on: Speaking and Writing
October 14, 2007 at 6:10 AMMy explanation: In Chinese, any language can be referred to using "wen" or "yu", for example "yingyu" and "yingwen" both being used for English. They are often interchangeable but "yu" is more often used for spoken language and "wen" is more commonly used for written language. So in this lesson "hànyǔ" could also have been used and I would say that is actually a more common question. "Putonghua" literally means "common language" and is the term for "standard" Mandarin that is taught country-wide, as opposed to regional dialects. So Chinese people sometimes say "my putonghua isn't very good" or "he can't speak putonghua" even though they obviously do speak Chinese.
Posted on: Fighting over the Bill
October 10, 2007 at 8:41 AMI asked a friend today how to say "I'll never do that again" in Chinese, a useful sentence related to this lesson's "I'll never eat with you again": 我再也不会那样做了。 So presumably "I'll never.... again" is just "我再也不。。。了". Actually just today I fought over a bill with that friend/student, but it was only 3 yuan (less than US$.50) so I let her win.
Posted on: Fighting over the Bill
October 10, 2007 at 4:48 AMone ring to rule the mall (i am a lotr fan but i decided it's funnier written out that way), When I go out to dinner with Chinese friends they are generally students, and I assure you there is no hidden agenda. I actually don't like to do it much because they are uncomfortable with me paying all the time but I am uncomfortable with them paying due to their severe lack of money. But they want to pay simply because we are friends. Well, there was one student in danger of failing with a not-so-hidden agenda but he still got the (barely passing) grade he deserved.
Posted on: Of Beauty Pageants and Plastic Surgery
October 5, 2007 at 9:28 AM"我看" reminds me of an advertisement I see all the time that says 神州看行，我看行！that I don't quite understand. What/where is Shenzhou and what is this ad about?
Posted on: Applying For a Visa
October 3, 2007 at 12:43 PMMy dad and brother came to visit me this summer in China. Telling them to get a visa somehow slipped my mind/I assumed they would obviously have researched this and when I mentioned it they rushed to get visas about four days before leaving. Near disaster.
Posted on: Too Fat
October 3, 2007 at 12:06 PMA new foreign teacher arrived at my school who was pretty overweight. Without fail, every person on campus I have small talk with in Chinese referred to seeing the new "胖胖的!" teacher, stretching out their hands for emphasis in an exaggerated way. I've also had to tell my students not to use "fat" in English as freely as they enjoy doing.
Posted on: 你好 (Nǐhǎo) is a Many-Splendored Thing
September 30, 2007 at 6:35 AMFunnily enough I was watching a (very cheesy) Chinese show called 187 信封 (187 Letters) yesterday and it showed a scene where a Chinese man greets another with 你好吗? Perhaps foreign influence. I don't think I've ever seen that in real life.
Posted on: Chinese Identity
September 29, 2007 at 11:33 AMI did this lesson about two days ago and a friend today said to me 那最好的办法就是顺其自然 in reference to a dilemma I'm having. I would have had no idea what 顺其自然 meant otherwise. ChinesePod lessons have a way of being eerily timely. I was also watching television today and picked out a half dozen words I've learned very recently through CPod. Far more useful than other Chinese services I've tried in the past.
Posted on: Election Candidates
September 29, 2007 at 8:22 AMI've been teaching in China for a year and a half and in my experience college students show almost no interest in politics, at least to me. I think they have a very general idea of American politics but don't really care. In one lesson I did mock election campaigns with "Democrats" and "Republicans" attacking each other in mock advertisements which went over fairly well (mostly humorous personal attacks). I also had students make political cartoons in a lesson, which they didn't have a problem doing (issues raised included the destruction of the environment, corruption in government, and of course the Party line on Taiwan, with students in different classes making the exact same cartoon that they had obviously seen before). One of the only times it has been brought up was when a student asked me "what do Americans think of our socialist system?" and another student tried to quietly shush him in Chinese, but I answered in an honest but inoffensive way. There is plenty of political apathy in America, so a country in which the population genuinely has no say in politics is of course not going to inspire much political discussion. It's actually often frustrating that due to lack of interest/sensitivity I hardly ever talk about politics here, when there is so much to talk about. This lesson was extremely difficult for me but I encourage more lessons about politics.
Posted on: #20
October 19, 2007 at 2:15 AMExcellent. I would like to thank China's affordable selection of DVDs; I had seen the film fairly recently. Students enjoy it.