User Comments - light487
light487
Posted on: Cats Are Cool
February 28, 2011 at 9:04 AM我也不喜欢猫。。 for the same reason as Jenny.. they just freak me out.. not in the way a horror movie would freak me out.. they just.. I dunno.. look at you.. and stuff.
Posted on: Working in a Chinese Office
February 20, 2011 at 4:11 AMI think we do need to worry about "face" in the west.. we just don't call it "face".. If you lose face in front of your colleagues too much, you will quit the job.. whether you are Chinese or not.. while we may not put the same cultural/social "focus" on face.. it is certainly not an alien concept in the western world.
Posted on: Movie Theater Seats
February 14, 2011 at 8:47 AMIn Australia, in some theatres, we also have assigned seating.. it's not often that people will sit in the wrong seat but even when they do, most people aren't too worried about it unless the theatre is full.. or they are really picky. They even have "couples" seats too where there is no armrest between the two seats.
In the "Gold Class" cinemas though, the seating arrangement needs to be strictly followed because you order your restaurant-style food and drink (incl. alcohol) before the show starts and then the attendants bring it to you at times that you have arranged with them! :) It's really great.. but expensive :)
Posted on: Making the Most of 最 (zui)
January 26, 2011 at 7:36 PMCan 倒数第一 also be used to talk about the youngest son/daughter in the family? Like, my eldest brother is 第一哥哥 and my 2nd eldest is 第二哥哥.. then there is me.. so, could it be said that I am my father's 倒数第一儿子?
Posted on: How to Address Someone
January 26, 2011 at 7:22 PMOne of the great things about conversational language is that you will be corrected if you say the wrong thing.. then you learn from that correction. Just like when children are learning, they put phrase out there and see what kind of response they get. If they essentially get ignored, it generally means they didn't get it right, nor near enough to being right that it can be understood.. "goo goo, gaa gaa" baby talk. If they get it right, they are praised with doing a good job and if they get it wrong but it's close, they will be corrected.. :)
The same can be done with adults learning a new language.. just remember to always wear your "learner" hat and you'll do fine.. :)
Posted on: National Day Holiday
January 25, 2011 at 7:42 AM请问：
Ok.. so of course National Day is essentially the same as saying "China Day".. so for Australia Day, I could say the same thing 国庆节 but I am looking for something a little more specific.. Wikipedia would have you believe that it is 澳大利亚日 but my friends, who are Chinese and live in Australia, say it would be 澳节.. I am curious what ChinesePod would say this would be? I am of the opinion that it would be 澳日节..
Posted on: National Day Holiday
January 25, 2011 at 7:42 AMWhile I personally don't have any problems with the B word (especially in the context it was used here), we should be mindful of those who do, such as denav and I'm sure others would also see this kind of language unacceptable or more importantly unnecessary...
Me personally, I love the openness and honesty of ChinesePod (ie. keeping it real) and feel that too much political correctness and watching what one says would ruin the whole feel of what makes ChinesePod, ChinesePod (ie. it could potentially become not real and stuffy).
Posted on: How to Address Someone
January 24, 2011 at 8:43 PMI think the best way to overcome any of these sorts of questions that you may have for yourself is to use the most honorific term you can think of and then allow yourself to be corrected if necessary.. It's better to overdo it with praise than to under-do it :)
武术大师 a kungfu grandmaster, 大师 being the "grand master" keyword there..
Posted on: Welcome to ChinesePod
January 20, 2011 at 11:16 AMEnglish can be learned at EnglishPod:
Posted on: Getting to the Bottom of 到底
March 12, 2011 at 9:28 AMhrmm.. there's also another similar sounding word that is pretty high frequency, it is: dàodì - 道地. It means "authentic" or as we would say in English "real", like in this MacDonalds TV commercial, it is used to ask if people have "Real Coffee".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2PKaydqHTA
I love watching TV commercials with spoken Chinese.. not sure why but maybe it has something to do with the way they repeat terms a lot and it's generally pretty basic language to get the message across clearly.