User Comments - light487

Posted on: Lesson Preview, New Team Member

Ahh I get it now.. thanks! :)

Posted on: Don't Never Say Never

中国。。　ahh.. I thought "they" had changed the character on me... but your characters must be traditional characters.. he he.. I did that once before with other traditional characters.. it makes me scratch my head and wonder how I hadn't noticed the character before because suddenly there is a completely new character for the same thing I already learned.. ha ha.. :)

Posted on: Don't Never Say Never

@checkingoutchina:

Do you mean 臭豆腐？ (chòu dòufu)

Posted on: Lesson Preview, New Team Member

Sorry.. may be I misunderstood.. can you explain that 4-column thing to me? I'm looking for a cheap but effective way to drill myself on all the new words and mini-phrases I am learning. One of the battles I have is retaining all the chunks to be used at a later stage.

You said 4 columns.. then you said 3 columns the second time... and that there is an extra column for pinyin.. not sure how you're meaning that it should be done..

Posted on: Teaching English in China

Hrmm yeh.. may be when I am over in China later this year or early next year, I will be able to knock on some doors and see if there is a chance to do it without the extra TESOL and similar training. I have a fairly decent grasp of grammar anyway as I have written guidebooks as well as written regularly for magazines in the past.. Just a matter of getting that across to a potential employer...

Posted on: Lesson Preview, New Team Member

I think half the battle in speaking another language is taking on the role of the person.. I mean.. when I learnt Gaelic (for about 3 months), it really helped if I "acted" like a scotsman as I spoke. Acting skills really help a lot because you let go of your inhibitions and take on the role of whatever it is you are acting for. It's the same with language skills, in my opinion, you need to let go of your previous language, mannerisms, accent etc.. and, in the context of mandarin, become Chinese. I think you can hear this in the way Pete spoke here in this podcast.

I still appreciate hearing the sounds that non-Natives make, when they speak not so perfectly, because it allows me to hear things I might otherwise miss if I only listened to native speakers. However, it really makes a huge difference if you can get into the part.

Posted on: Don't Never Say Never

How about "I never say bad things about people 'except' when I am joking around"?

Posted on: Teaching English in China

Thanks for the replies.

It seems to be the general consensus that I will need at least a TESOL certificate. My mother said the same thing when I was mentioning it to her. As for money and paying bills back home, I have a small property I can rent out to pay the real bills, so no problems there.

Apparently there are two teachers in each classroom, one who is a native English speaker and one who is a native Mandarin speaker. They work together to teach, so I can understand why there would be little need for the English speaker to know much mandarin.

Now it's just a matter of finding the time and money to do a TESOL course. I think there is a University here that offers it by correspondence..

Posted on: Street Food Buffet

小笼包 - xiǎolóngbāo

I assume this is the generic term for small buns.. but what is in them? There are probably a hundred or more different kinds of buns and bun-like things in China, and each province seems to have a specialy bun or two.

So how do I say: "What kind of buns are they?" Would it be: 这个内装什么？ (zhègè nèi zhuāng shénme?) Or something more complex like： 这个什么中的包？ (zhègè shénme zhōng de bāo?)

Posted on: The Expat Show and a Jingle Contest

谢你！：）

Now I have a foundation to work on for the Chinese portion.. It may end up just as 新闻和特辑。。 so that it fits.. but will have to see how it goes.. art is not a science, so can't always have exactly the "right" things.. :)