User Comments - jennyzhu

Posted on: Funny Business 5

@calicartel and simongrant,

Thank you for your suggestion! Numbering pages would make the PDF a lot easier to use. I will talk to John about it.  

@user30253 and tgif,

Do you mean vocab is missing from the PDF file? It's there... I think I might have misunderstood.

Posted on: Two Tough Ladies

Weirdly enough, my most vivid memory of a cat fight was between a woman and my dad on a crowded bus in Shanghai 20 years ago. The lady pushed me to get on the bus, and my dad got pissed. Don't remember who won, just remember myself crying loudly because I was scared. Umm, not sure if it qualifies as a cat fight since a man was involved.

Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy

@renatom100,

It's helpful to frame the question as which part of China has a demand for Italian. There is definitely a market in Shanghai and Beijing, and much bigger than all other cities combined. Although small compared to the demand for English,  however as they always say, a small market in China is a big market by any other standards. You can google 'teach Italian Shanghai'. You will get some job listings. Best of luck!

Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy

@Bodawei,

Agree with your observation. Much of the challenge lies in how to channel the aspirations of newly affluent Chinese who want the Chinese Dream if you will: a house, a car, a plasma TV, etc. I remember watching a special report on CNN which gave the example of a young couple in Beijing whose dream was to own a car, despite the fact that public transportation could well support their daily commute. As the journalist pointed out, for them, the car was a milestone, a powerful symbol of personal accomplishment. And there are millions and millions of Chinese who share the same dream. Take Shanghai for example, the city's public transportation system is really well connected by any standards. It has an ever sprawling subway network, highly accessible bus routes, but people still want cars. For many of them, they are buying a dream, a lifestyle.     

Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy

@Light487 and Rjberki,

The restricted use of cars during the Beijing Olympics was brought back on a trial basis this April and will last till next year. But it was revised to spread out the restriction over 5 working days in order to still preserve some flexibility for car owners, or ease them in. I don't know what exact impact this has had. Any Beijing Poddies to shed some light?  

Posted on: Fruit Basket of Cause-Effect

I really like this host lineup on QingWen. Like Light487 said, it's great to hear 'Liliana's real struggle with Chinese'. And Lili will be on future QingWen's as well. She can really represent fellow Poddies' learnig curve.

Posted on: Away on Business

@james002219111,

I wouldn't say the Shanghai dialect is going extinct, but it's definitely going through a decline largely due to demographic changes. Now about 30% of people living in Shangai are not native of the city. They of course don't speak the dialect. There are attempts to preserve the language, e.g. increased media content in Shanghainese (most of which are comedy skits, talk shows, etc). But it's something done with caution and restraint since preserving Shanghai dialect could send the wrong message of 'us' and 'them'. It's a sensitive issue in Shanghai given the city's snobby tendency. Even the word 外地人/wai4 di4 ren2/non-locals can be edited out or blocked by cyber nannies.

Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy

@tvan,

If we can sexy up bikes to be the new status symbol, I reckon many Chinese would go back to 2 wheels. Paging Don Draper from Mad Men.

Posted on: Clean Energy in China with Dennis Bracy

@dennisbracy,

Great to hear from the man himself. A few days ago, a report on CNN said that investing in clean energy research would be a lot cheaper and productive than simply trying to cut emission. What's your take on that?

Posted on: Away on Business

@ptsmith,

Yes, it's common for city names to end with 州, because 州 means 'state'. 广州/guang3 zhou1, 苏州/su1 zhou1, 杭州/hang2 zhou1 just to name a few famous ones. Of course they are not a state, but it probably evolved from how geography and territory were defined back in the days. We also refer to American states as 州，e.g. 纽约州/niu3 yue1 zhou1/ the state of New York.