User Comments - light487

Posted on: I Want This

I was trying to remember the word used after "wo" today and I kept on hitting on "xihuan" instead of "yao". Is it ok to use xihuan in the place of yao in this context? ie. wo xihuan zheige?

Posted on: Traffic

It's because it's a FLV (Flash Video) not actually h.264 but either way still you will need either a Flash Video (FLV) player or a codec installed as javcau suggests. I'm pretty sure I have the ffdshow pack installed on Vista but it wasn't called that when I downloaded it, even though the ffdshow ivon appears in the system tray whenever I watch videos now.

If you don't feel like installing a codec, no real reason not to, you can always find plenty of free FLV Players around to get the job done.

Posted on: Pretty Clothes

Hrmm.. Even in Australia the Chinese hair salons are cheap.. Certainly not that cheap of course but by comparison to other stores, I'd say up to 80% cheaper and in some locations where the rent is obviously a lot more expensive for the store, even 50% off what you would normally pay.. and they all do the "wash, massage, cut, style" without even asking for it. I can get in and out in no less than 30 minutes.. so definitely not the place to go if you want a quick hair cut.. but you certainly get your money worth.

There's a hair salon down the road from my new apartment that I haven't tried out yet but from the look of it, I would say I will have the same experience. I'll have to try it out and see if I can learn some mandarin there.. hehe.. the only thing is that most of the people (i'd say 90% of this suburb's population) around here are Vietnamese.. so some of them speak mandarin but a lot of them, obviously, speak vietnamese.

Posted on: Pretty Clothes

@checkingoutchina:

I do remember there being a lesson on this.. I just can't seem to find it now. The old cPOD lesson search allowed you to search by specific function as well as keyword. Now it's all lumped into one big mess of lessons, vocab, glossary etc making it really hard to find specific lessons in a lot of cases.

Posted on: Ending Your Sentence with 吧 (ba)

Which lesson was it? All the ones I have listened to say that it means to "soften". Changing something from a "command" into a "suggestion" would be softening the command. Even if it is a strong suggestion, through the use of inflection, it is still not a command like one would use with a disobient child.

Posted on: Getting Nationalities Straight

The one word that has really stuck out to me over the years is Aluminum/Aluminium. I can understand the spelling of nouns and adjectives being changed to suit the culture.. but a proper noun?.. It's an element.. a scientific word.. it has always baffled me how that one can be changed.. but.. it's just the way it is.. :)

There's a really good article about it here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/aluminium.htm

Posted on: Changes on ChinesePod

Why the September Changes?

Click on the above, this podcast and also the above conversation may have all the answers you are looking for.

Posted on: Getting Nationalities Straight

@juanmaso70
Relax. As an Australian who has used the internet for over 17 years, I am used to the American dialect of English being the usual online form of the language. I don't see how the chosen dialect of English on ChinesePOD could possibly detract from the learning of mandarin here. It's just the way it is...

Posted on: Pretty Clothes

Hehe.. John likes to get "gussied up in saloons"? :) I'll remember that one. :)

Posted on: The My Minefield

hehe.. but I write, play and record my own music, matt. :) So I actually do literally own it. :) So, as Connie said, this would be more accurate: 我创作的音乐 :)

I've been wanting to write a substantial article about the similarities of learning how to play guitar and learning to speak Chinese for some time now.. You'd be surprised, or may be not, at how many there are.