User Comments - jennyhow

Posted on: Best Friends

I can not download the last 2 pdf's or even open them?

any reason?

howard

Posted on: Hiking

a few pennies worth:

Koreans have the same issue with mountain climbing = hiking issue so obviously some connection there....

Bilingual vs Accent impediment? i.e. Welsh, Hong-Kongese etc etc. Jenny's English is perfect compared to say "Glaswegian" yet theirs is NATIVE duh!

I read somewhere a article by a French professor that to learn English like a native (not speak but know/understand) takes something like 29 years! Because when you learn a language (as we are doing now with CP)  we don't gain the baby/kindergarten, junior, high, university/ teanager/hoodie etc etc speach.

However I always say "Language is for Communication NOT Examination" Title of my book teaching Korean to Non Koreans.

My ONLY complaint of CP is that it is American orientated even if not intentionaly; it does come accross that way.

Howard

Posted on: Seoul

Dear Alwingate

I agree 100% with your views I complained several months ago about these types of lessons and the fact that there is no planning; for example "a set of lessons on say weather from beginner through to advance" YES they are there somewhere but there is NO link to each of them. CP tried with the taxi theme a while ago but then it fizzled out. There needs to be complete lesson planning so we can see goals and aims. I found that I need a set of those taxi lessons but they fall short of requirements and I am having to goto (ken's despised) grammer books to fill in the gaps. There are about 30-40 topics which should be the core of the business model. Other stuff can be dealt with as whims and musts.

H

Posted on: Airplane Arrival

Hi everybody.

I am not quite sure who this is aimed at. The dialogue is a bit weird considering you are flying American Airlines! It would have been far more realistic with an internal flight;  China Eastern or China Southern. Also the following "This aircraft is scheduled to arrive at 4:20pm Beijing time. The local time at our destination upon arrival will be 3:20am" meaning we are early, late or what?  Is that peculiar to AA to announce arriving at "origin time? Seem to have lost the plot (or is it pilot). Let's have some more supplementary dialogue to cover the local airlines etc.  

Jenny (I believe) travels often to Beijing from Shanghai; why couldn't we have used her experience to write a dialogue?

Even Jenny has a few wry mocking sneers at the dialogue.

It would have been good to start from the check-in desk; making sure you have your entry visa, baggage correct, gate number. etc. at some middle of nowhere in China where English is limited.

H

Posted on: Seoul

FYI re Soju

It is pure chemical since some years ago. The government decided that to use food to make a drink was a waste of resources.

There are probably some places (AnDong Soju) which are probably traditional. But less than 1USD for a bottle of 19.9% has gotta be chemical.

Howard

Posted on: Seoul

spot on, however from a personal point I think abondoning Chinese characters in favour of HanGuel was basically to educate the masses. Koreans didn't want to adopt Roman letters as they (as you say) an immensely proud nation and therefore devised their own (BTW The Monolian leaders 2 centuries earlier had promoted a "new" character set to be able to communicate to all their subjects, but was felt to be unworkable). The main problem with Hangeul is that it very poor for modern society and use. There are not enough "sound/characters" to be able to make foreign words. Anyone want a laugh then go to a ldies underwear shop which is called "Venus" and pronounce the Hangeul!!!. Many Korean menus are written in English but using Hangeul. You can drink a "copy" or read a "coffee". Legal or Regal?

Howard

Posted on: Seoul

Sorry to go on BUT everybody you need to learn TRADITIONAL characters when you wander around Seoul. So CP could we have all names etc for Seoul in Traditional too as we can't ask a local for  东大门 as they would probably have not much idea. So you will never see 首尔 only in mainland China everywhere else including Seoul hahaha would be 首爾

Howard

Posted on: Seoul

And because there are no tones in Korean language no-one knows which HAN you are talking about. That's one big problem with Korea. Take the metro to Sinsa station (sinsa= means gentleman) or。。。。。 well i'll leave you to guess the real name.

Howard

Posted on: Seoul

HI everybody

Yes that's basically right. There was NEVER a Chinese Charcter name for Seoul. But the Chinese had their own name for Seoul. Since this name contains the Chinese word for HAN not the Korean HAN which are totally different meaning (Korea = Deh HAN min gook or The HAN (korean HAN) People Country). Also Korea wanted to stop using the Chinese HAN word because it had Chinese (country China not the Character) overtones. they (Korea) wanted to change to something more akin to Se-oul.

They (after long wrangling) decided on Shou-er. (Note there are both traditional and simplified versions) (Traditional will be used in Korea).

Basicall it was the Chinese that needed a name for Seoul not the other way round.

BTW on another point, they (Korea) would love to change the name of the Han (Chinese HAN) river.

If you need better understanding take a metro trip around Seoul and see how many places have Chinese Character names and how many don't; Seoul was one of the former. Which probably means Seoul was founded after the start of Hangul characters.

Howard

Shou-er-ite (now working in Taipei)

Posted on: Baseball

yet once again this prooves chinesepod is only for septics......come on i want to learn chinese not useless yank oh dear ...i have wasted my subscription on the premise of US rules i will not renew my subbies what a waste howard97