User Comments - light487

Posted on: Taking the Plunge into Intermediate

Well I've been away from cPOD for a while now, over a year I think, and during my recent visit to China I realised that even though my Chinese is good enough to get around the country by myself, have short and basic conversations to get the essential information to and fro (basically Elementary - Lower Intermediate language) as well as picked up some slang and catchphrases that people respond to.. my level is not enough to have decent conversations with my new family in China.

I want to be able to have conversations with my wife's sisters, who are now my sisters; I want to be able to chat with my wife's parents, who are now my parents and so on. I can see that they also want to be able to talk to me without having to resort to using my wife as a translator 95% of the time. So I am back here at cPOD. I did try a few other offerings around the net.. but none had the professional level and sophistication of the content that cPOD does.

I've signed up for 2 years, on the Basic plan, because I am serious about taking my Chinese to the next level. The basic plan because I also realise that a lot of the learning I am going to be doing is not necessarily on the site here.. but I need to have a constant input that cPOD can give me.

The plan is to start speaking only Chinese at home once my wife passes her English test, hopefully in March, and to get out my old Beijing University books and really put some effort into the learning.

Posted on: Dinner with the Girlfriend's Parents

Haha.. yes, married January 22, 2012. :) Went to China on February 1st to meet my new family along with "baba" and "mama" :) We did the "day after the wedding" reception deal with them and what seemed like the entire village. In fact over 120 people of a township that is roughly only 1000 people big... and I did the whole "kneel down in front of your new parents" thing.. I forget the Chinese term for this..

..suffice to say, they are now "baba" and "mama" to me from that point on. :)

Posted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat

The simple answer is to wear layers. If it's too hot, strip off a layer or two; if it's too stuffy and you need to open the window, then you can leave your layers on and open the window for a little bit. Having recently spent some time in very small town within the Hebei province during the tail-end of winter, I know the difference between having air-con (proper heating) and having fresh air all the time. You get used to it very quickly.. and then you head back to the big city and almost die from the heat in the shopping malls and other buildings. :) haha

The most common thing I heard in places like that is "leng bu leng?" (are you cold?).. every time someone would meet, come over to visit or whatever, that little catchphrase would come out.. no "ni hao ma", no "chi fan le ma", no "gan me ne".. always "leng bu leng" :) hehe.. After spending time there, everywhere I went seemed warm (or hot) by comparison. Even the sub-zero temperatures around the iced over lakes of Chengde seemed to be bearable when the sun was out; Beijing was didn't feel cold any more (except at night) and Hangzhou/Shanghai were like paradise by comparison.

I'm back in my office in Sydney now and the 21 to 22 degrees (celcius) we constantly have in the office feels cool.. and at times a little chilly when you sit on teh air-con for so long. It's interesting how the body can adapt so quickly.

That double "le" sounds very logical but I'll have to explore it in a little more depth before I get as confident to use it as I do my "yòu (adj) yòu (adj)" and other set syntax chunks. Are there any other lessons that use this double "le" in the same way so I can hear it used more?

Posted on: What's That Website?

I didn't learn this "yao" thing until I met my wife last year.. :) Now it just seemed natural to me whenever I am telling people a string of numbers, or they are telling me. When you start to use little words like this, you begin to sound a lot more fluent than if you just use "yi". "yi" is still, almost, correct.. but it sounds strange even to me now.. :)

Posted on: Buying High-Speed Train Tickets

Just to clarify, they print the ID number on the bottom of the ticket. So I assume that when you are buying online, you have to enter your ID information and it gets recorded on the system and then on the ticket when you collect it from the automatic vending machines.

Posted on: A Leggy Joke

I get laughs.. but just because my Chinese aint great so I make jokes about common expressions.. you know like.. "Before I came here, I didn't understand that.. but because you ask me everytime I see you, now I understand." :)

Posted on: Dinner with the Girlfriend's Parents

Just remember, after you get married you stop calling your father-in-law shushu and your mother-in-law ayi; instead you start to call them baba and mama. :)

Posted on: Dinner with the Girlfriend's Parents

When you meet your girlfriend's parents, yes.. but you wouldn't call every man shushu and every women ayi. When it comes to the family and close friends of the family, you use these familiar terms.. other times not.

You may however have small children calling you shushu/ayi.. but that's something kids do.

Posted on: Dinner with the Girlfriend's Parents

Haha yes.. I just listened to the one about buying HSR tickets (which we did just recently for the first time) and now this one... I just went to China to meet my wife's family for the first time :)

Posted on: Buying High-Speed Train Tickets

Went on the G14 - Shanghai to Beijing earlier this year. Was 555RMB per ticket for 2nd class, which is a lot like business class in the slower trains. And everyone, regrardless of the train type, must show their ID for tickets. My wife, who is Chinese, had to show her ID as well as me every time we bought a train ticket. This has really slowed down the process for everyone but it means people can't go buying 100's of tickets and reselling them.

When we were on a train from Hangzhou to Shanghai, a few people had tickets that did not match their ID. They had to buy a new ticket while on the train so effectively would have bought two tickets.. there was a bit of a commotion at the time.

As for lining up.. it is certainly getting a lot better in the bigger cities. When I first traveled to China, it was rare to see people in a line.. but now it's unusual (but not rare) to see people cutting the line.