User Comments - dubaobao

Posted on: Focus and Specialization

iaing, as someone who has been studying Chinese off and on for (gulp) 17 years, here's my two cents on just how invaluable and unique ChinesePod is (and I emphasize this since you indicate you don't live in China): ChinesePod gives you something no other Chinese-study resource gives, a method to learn natural, colloquial Chinese as it is spoken by friends, family members and colleagues every day in China. I haven't found any other resource that will, as ChinesePod does, allow you to shock native Chinese-speakers with words you know that are up-to-date and absolutely appropriate to the context. Even after all my years of study, I still, once or twice a week here in Beijing, use a word learned from ChinesePod that makes a native speaker say to me: "~~ 你也知道啊？" Nothing proves ChinesePod's value and authenticity more than that!

Every other resource I have seen (including your CSLpod - I just checked out the sample Advanced lesson) teaches often valuable but extremely formal Chinese; nothing wrong with the other resources – if you want your Chinese to be top-notch, you should learn formal Chinese as well. But ChinesePod will, more than anything else, help you learn the natural spoken language, and that will allow you to interact with native speakers in a way that breaks down barriers, allowing you to make friends and trusted business partners, and that in turn will help your Chinese immensely as those new acquaintances feel comfortable speaking natural Chinese with you.

I too went through a period years ago of wanting transcripts of everything. In my view, I wasted a lot of time trying to learn little details so I could feel I understood EVERYTHING and not feel so lost in a very unfamiliar language. I completely second Siteng's comments that feeling lost is part of the journey, part of learning to trust your intuition as he says. My suggestion is keep listening over and over, even when there are key things you don't quite get, and focus on getting the main points. Once again, in my opinion, your time is better spent not worrying about every small detail but rather letting your brain work its magic naturally by absorbing the patterns of the language. That takes time, but ultimately will be extremely rewarding in that you'll have much more natural interactions with native speakers.

Posted on: Buying a Plasma TV

Sorry to be so late (almost three years!) in catching up on lessons, but I couldn't help responding to Jenny's comment above of Nov. 4, 2008 (I'm referring to her third comment on that day) about the importance of TVs in early 改革开放 China.

That very topic is the subject of one of my favorite Chinese movies of that amazing period, "Ermo", or "二嫫", directed by 周哓文. The movie, released in 1994, is about a peasant wife whose sole obsession in life is owning a TV. Now that I am back in Beijing after several years and I see how thoroughly materialism has gripped China, I think it's fair to say that movie, more than any by far more famous directors such as Zhang Yimou or Chen Kaige, saw clearly where China was headed. It's a genuinely hilarious and touching movie. Also one which if shown today to Chinese people, would make them think hard about their headlong rush into the obsession with money over social good. Anyone stuck in today's typical Beijing traffic will have a lot to think about. Is it really worth it sitting in your own BMW if it takes 2 hours to get home? What if those resources had gone to building more subways and providing more buses, so your commute was only 30 minutes, and thus you could spend 3 more hours per day with family?...

At the current time, "Ermo" gets little notice, partly because Zhou Xiaowen has not had a successful career since then – not internationally anyway. But as film historians start to write more about that period without the influence of modern celebrity, I think the movie will gain more recognition.

Maybe it's also worth noting that I do see the lead actress, whose name in English is spelled (sometimes) A Li A (she's Mongolian, I believe), constantly on Chinese TV series. She seems to be doing well. She gives a fantastic performance in the movie.

The movie is very difficult to find on DVD, including here in China. Most people I ask, including my friends in the film business, have never heard of it. For those of you who are film buffs, it's worth keeping in mind. I think a DVD might be available in France.

Here's a wikipedia page about the movie, and for all I know, it is easily available, like all other movies, online in China.

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

Posted on: Monthly Data Plan

oops, 应该是“剪卡” 不是“减卡”。。。

Posted on: Monthly Data Plan

真可惜我没有早点碰到这节课！我一个礼拜之前到北京，是我第一次在中国有iPhone。去中国移动问，怎么把电话号码从我的普通的Nokia转到iPhone。服务员帮我减卡什么的，都很容易，还问我， 要什么样的数据套餐，10mb／月 还是 70mb／月? 70mb 也不贵，就定了这个套餐。当时有200RMB左右的余额。第二天我的iPhone 突然完全停机了。打10086问，原来是我的那个套餐是从下个月开始，现在就没什么plan!不知道是服务员没告诉我，或者我中文不行，反正250RMB象风似的飞到中国移动的手里。。。

Posted on: 土葬和火化

Great cultural notes Tingyun, thanks!

Just talked to a Chinese friend about "活人还能叫尿憋死" to get a little clearer explanation. This is one of those cases where 叫 means 被 so an extended (direct) translation would be something like "no one is going to die of holding in their pee; they'll always just let it go before it kills them." A colorful saying indeed! Note as well that because there's a missing "不“ this saying is in the form of a rhetorical question, thus a more proper translation would be "Would someone really die of holding in their pee? They'll always take action to pee before it kills them". Thus the actual meaning: "there's always a method to deal with a problem, even if it means peeing in your pants." ;-)

Hooray for Chinese as always!

Posted on: 土葬和火化

This reminds me a little bit of a phrase from a lesson from a couple of years ago... 留得青山在,不怕没柴烧... a phrase which I bring up occasionally when discussing the Chinese attitude toward the environment with Chinese friends. ;-)

There are some explanations of the phrase in Chinese here:

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/61081906.html?fr=qrl&cid=464&index=2

Posted on: 妈妈在哪里？

What's the word Connie uses at 11:13 when she says: "因为我jieshi多了。"

Thanks.

Posted on: Getting Internet at your Apartment

I think the ads are cute, the first time. After that, I'd rather study Chinese. ;-)

Although I am curious whether the one about sending nude pictures to Chinesepod prompted some interesting follow-up.

Posted on: Getting Internet at your Apartment

For those who use iPods/iTunes to listen to these lessons, here are the settings to skip the ads at the beginning and end of the lesson:

Start time: 0:30

Stop time: 10:04

(To access those settings, select the Podcast by clicking on it once in the library window so it is highlighted, go to File>Get Info, select the "Options" tab, enter the above times, and click "OK". That's for the Mac... I assume Windows is similar.)

Posted on: 十月怀胎

好像是一个有意思的文化区别，在中国的文化生孩子需要十个月的时间，在西方文化（至少在美国的文化）需要九个月。不知道加一个月的“烧烤”是否亚洲小孩那么聪明的一个原因。。。或者应该说美国的生产效率高一点点。

;-)

稍微严肃一点的一个问题，美国几年前有一部电影叫做“9 Months”。我有一点好奇这部片子中文的名字是什么？