User Comments - light487

Posted on: Playing Mahjong

Yup.. I didn't mean to be bashing the first video (in a long time).. :)

Posted on: Dinner with the Girlfriend's Parents

It's possible that at some point we may live in China but the plans for the next 5 years or so are to have a couple of kids here in Australia and not do any traveling (overseas at least) before they are each at least 2 years old.. so that ties us up for at least 5 years. :) During the month after the birth of each child we are hoping for my in-laws to come and live with us to take care of Jiangyue (my wife) while she recovers. Australia isn't perfect but neither is China.. I think there are more benefits for living here than there for the moment, so we will stay here until that changes. :)

Posted on: Playing Mahjong

I was just offering suggestions to help reduce the big file size.. for some (me included) the file size is not an issue.. but for others it may be.. especially on mobiles.

Posted on: Playing Mahjong

20 minutes is twice as long as a regular lesson.. not sure why this one is 20 minutes; also not sure the quality you have chosen to have the video when you consider that you are limiting the resolution in the web player (ie. not allowing it to go full screen). So maybe reconsider the length and also the video quality/size for future uploads.

Definitely found this lessons to be A LOT more helpful in terms of understanding what is going on with ths subtitles appearing in context rather than just reading from the PDF. Found John was a little nervous.. Jenny not so nervous.. but didn't detract from the overall learning experience.

I hope that you continue to make more of these with increasing frequency.

Posted on: Come In, Please

hi Jackson,

there are many lessons on Chinesepod covering all of the subjects you mentioned, over 1800 lessons from different levels. Just make use of the search tool at the top right of each page. Also, in the resources and tools sections you will find pronunciation guides as well as vocabulary lists to quickly look up the words you have asked for. I'm sure you'll be able to find those lessons and resources if you do a search.

Posted on: Taking the Plunge into Intermediate

Thanks.. :) Still can't read Chinese character at work :) haha.. but I can download and listen to new episodes on my phone now.. technically I could login to the site with my Galaxy S2.. but I guess I am still a bit lazy like that when I am at work :)

Posted on: The Kindle

Or you could just email the PDF, using the subject "Convert" (without the quotes) to username@free.kindle.com (where username is your Kindle username)... then it delivers it to your Kindle when you next connect to Wifi/3G.

Posted on: The Kindle

When I was there recently and got my China Mobile SIM, it actually comes with a free eBook service that you can use to download 1,000's of free eBooks directly to you mobile.. I got spammed for the first few days from China Mobile about the service. :)

Posted on: Paying the Bill

This is an old lesson but I have to say that the first few times I went to China I didn't experience this phenomenon at all.. just wasn't in any of the situations where it came up. This year however it happened everytime we went out to dinner with friends. We had to be very sneaky how to pay the bill before the other person did. The usual method we used was the "going to the bathroom" gambit whereby you fake going to the bathroom, or actually go, and then on the way back to the table you find a waiter/waitress and settle the bill with no one the wiser until they bring you the change. :) One of my wife's friends realised what we were doing on one occasion and we we caught in an arguement over who was paying the bill.. it got quite heated from an objective point of view but really it's not like an angry arguement or something like that.. it's just a verbal fight to get the bill paid.. lol

When there is money being given, or money being paid back (except for some situations) there is usually an arguement involved.. lol.. My mother-in-law is very good at forcing people accept money.. lol.. :)

Posted on: Come In, Please

This is a good starting point, to be sure and once you're actually in a situation where you are receiving guests you'll definitely need to know how to say this, as well as how to invite someone to sit. In fact you'll need to repeat your invitation to sit multiple times in many cases. A typical conversation upon a guest arriving, after the usual hello's, might go like this:

Person 1: "Jin lai, jin lai.." (come in, come in)
Person 2 enters.
Person 1: "Zuo ba, zuo ba, zuo ba.." (sit down, relax)
Person 2: "Mei shi, mei shi, mei shi" (it's ok, no problem, I'm fine to stand)
Person 1 gestures with hands at the comfy chair, "zuo, zuo, zuo" (sit here)
Person 2 sits down.

Then you play the same game with drinking hot water, tea and eating.. :) Not to the same extent and not as often.. but certainly the first part above is very, very typical of the "arrival conversations" I've had and witnessed..