User Comments - jiajie
jiajie
Posted on: The 80/20 Rule
August 29, 2008, 06:38 AMChangye,
你写中文写得太厉害!
我注意你引证一本调查报告说在中国百分之零点四的家庭竟占有百分之七十的财富. 我并不是吃惊的因为在中国到处贫富差距就很明显.可是达到那些数据举例说明的程度我就没想到.
I hope that makes some sense, I am still struggling with Chinese grammar in writing. It is a very interesting topic. In fact a report was released in New Zealand yesterday showing the gap between rich and poor within NZ had narrowed last year by 1%. This is the first time in decades for the trend to head in that direction but it is still a very significant gap. Even some of the more egalitarian societies suffer this plight. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out in China as the country in general gradually becomes as wealthy as the OECD countries in the decades to come. Let’s hope there are some new, brave and visionary policy makers that have ideas to solve what could be a major cause of unrest and the dilution of social cohesion which of course will lead to an array of further problems.
In the mean time I hope I can learn to write Chinese as well as you.
Cheers
Posted on: The 80/20 Rule
August 29, 2008, 05:26 AMJennyZhu,
Working with business professionals to write content is a great idea. In terms of format I think it is best to keep them as dialogues, this way the input language is in a form that we are more likely to be able to use.
You could always provide a case study to start off a new series and then have a series of dialogues relating to the situation. E.g.: a case study about a business project such as the start up off a new company. Then have dialogues relating to this case study such as dialogues of the management negotiating contracts, staff meeting to discuss market entry strategy, negotiating a property lease, discussing government policy regarding the industry, meeting with suppliers or potential business partners etc.
However do try to keep them relatively short and maybe add some drama to keep them interesting.80 percent of the time things will go to plan, but the 20 percent of the time that they don't will require 80% of your effort to resolve??
I am very interested in Chinese language for Business development and project management but obviously it is important to develop social Chinese language at the same time particularly given the importance of 关系 in the Chinese business environment.
However, I think Chinese pod is on the right track and I found this lesson and the one about 电子商务 very useful and I have noticed other old business related lessons that I have not looked at yet, so I am sure there is plenty more relevant stuff for me to learn from your existing materials. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Posted on: The 80/20 Rule
August 28, 2008, 05:53 AM感谢你们注意我们商务中文的要求.
I was just talking about this a couple of days ago but did'nt know how to explain it clearly in Chinese. I was making very clumsy sentences to try to convey this idea. Thanks.
Its great to see more and more business related topics here this is the one thing my university course lacked. And when I asked for more the Korean and Japanese classmates all complained, they wanted to talk about dating and stuff! I guess I was the odd one out!
Cheers
Posted on: Language Power Struggle
August 27, 2008, 03:33 AM"哪里哪里" I have had many Chinese friends tell me that this language is somewhat quaint and old fashioned. Apparently it is not commonly used now other than by 外国人。Maybe that differs between regions and between generations and subcultures?
I find that 还差得远 is often met with even further exaggerated comments on the skill of my Chinese. that’s when I try to explain that I really do believe that the 差 is still very 远。 And that I genuinely need to improve a lot before I can use my Chinese effectively in a professional context. But many Chinese just say, 你可以交流就好. Which I feel means that they think there is no need to have a high standard of Chinese. I’m not too sure how to interpret the true meaning of this. And how do I explain my genuine sentiment without them continuing to minimise?
Is 还没过关了 suitable here? Some have told me this can't really apply to language. ??
Posted on: Language Power Struggle
August 26, 2008, 04:17 PM这节课挺有意思虽然新词不多不过情况有特别真正的感觉. 我自己也遇到了那种使我沮丧的处境. 这样的局面对我们要练习中文的人来说真是不利的.
我从来也觉得 ’咿,我更说的就是一个很简单的句子,她这么知道我的中文很厉害?” 然后呢, 我也觉得如果他认为我汉语这么好的化她为什么还是继续用很差的英语跟我说话?
可是并不是说所有的中国人是这样不过当然不同的中国人有不同的态度, 有些就很一根筋的,要把他自己的英语提高好.有些就太自大的, 以为他英语的水平比你汉语的高得多所以用汉语交流就不好用.可是有很多另外的中国人不管他们的英语水平怎么样还是喜欢用中文跟外国朋友谈话.
如果你对你互连学习的朋友有比较好的关系你可以实施一些规定 比如说: 周一我们用汉语,周二是用英语的. 或者是: 我们在咖啡店的时候可以用英语, 在中菜的餐馆要用汉语, 在吃寿司就能用日语等等.
I have to take many long taxi rides in Shanghai so I get many opportunities to practice my spoken Chinese with the drivers as most of them speak next to no English. Many of my colleagues although mostly possessing reasonably high standards of English are still quite happy to chat with me in Chinese. Before I came to China I use to do some language exchange with Chinese people learning English in New Zealand and found that setting up some rules did help, even if you decide on having one conversation in one language then the next in the other it can work. For those that mentioned listening problems, I use to watch the Chinese TV channel in NZ once a day for at least twenty minutes. I’m sure most countries have a Chinese TV channel or Radio station or two these days. The trick is not trying to watch for too long and if possible watch one of those “teenage news” type shows or a cartoon with 汉字 subtitles before moving on to the faster and more challenging news. Another good show is the one called 快乐学汉语. Don’t try to understand every word, just see how many of your recently learnt words you can pick up. I also recommend getting an HD DVD recorder so you can watch the same show a few times checking your vocab in between. I did that for at least a year before coming to China and found my listening skills to far exceed my speaking and certainly writing ability.
Speaking of writing; I would really appreciate any feedback on my Chinese writing above, I have put writing to the side for so long and now I think focusing on production of grammatically correct and natural Chinese writing should go some way to helping me improve my speaking from fluent zhonglish to something more similar to native sounding 普通话.
Thanks J
Posted on: One-on-One Basketball
May 29, 2008, 04:05 PMNice stuff,
要你说！can I say 要我说 ？ as in "duh, or like I need to mention it!"
I like basketball but don't know too much about the terminology, does "pickup basketballl" simply mean one on one basketball?
More sports lessons would be cool, 我最喜欢的是航行和橄榄球可是我认为你们另外的学生大概都对这两个运动不太感兴趣了。
谢谢
Posted on: SBTG: Confucius
May 28, 2008, 07:12 AM学论语非常有意思可是想要掌握好的话却不容易！
Thanks for the interesting lesson :)
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
May 27, 2008, 05:07 PMYes, I agree with longdehua, although the lesson is useful in analysing the differences, the examples are fairly neutral. I would like to see a lesson like this, perhaps at upper intermediate level with heavily accented dialogues exploring the difference. Communicating with the older people in Shanghai is fun indeed! Thanks.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part II
May 26, 2008, 01:07 PMMaxiewawa, I agree with your sentiment on accents, as a Kiwi I find that most Europeans think I'm from Australia, most Americans think I'm from the UK but Chinese generally have no clue, they just guess, American? British?. Yet when our school sells classes to corporate client some of the clients specifically request American trainers as though they have some standard accent. Load of 垃圾 if you ask me! :) . If I don't tell them where I am from they often tell me they like my English because it is very clear and easy to understand. so I think someone with a regional Chinese accent can communicate clearly if they want to. I studied Chinese for 3 years at University in NZ and I can understand most of the Upper Int and some of the avdanced listening material on Chinesepod and can also have quite fluent conversations with some Chinese. But as I have been living in China for only two months and I am in Shanghai, I really do struggle sometimes to communicate even simple instructions to taxi drivers. Some of the people in Shanghai use 普通话 with a very 上海话 influenced accent, which as you say is not wrong but it certainly presents a challenge for me. This kind of lesson is great, more please, how about one with a Shanghai taxi driver?
Posted on: Public Speaking Tips
October 11, 2008, 01:00 AMThis is a great lesson Thanks. This would have been very helpful to me a couple of years ago. I managed to get second place in my category at the Auckland Chinese Language Speech Competition. Maybe with the help of Chinesepod I could have got first place!
The biggest challenge I find when speaking like this in Chinese is that when I try to put emphasis on words I end up ruining the tone. basically L1 interference. Any tips on dealing with word emphasis in Chinese?