User Comments - lordstanley
lordstanley
Posted on: Chinese Input Methods
June 04, 2013, 02:43 PMI've sat for a couple of New HSK exams recently and at most test centres now the exams are computer-based, right up to Level 6 (top level under the new system). This makes a big difference for the writing section, because as long as you know Pinyin and are able to pick out the right character from a choice of 5 or so that a Pinyin entry yields, you'll be able to get through it. There were a half-dozen Chinese input methods you had the option of using during the test. If I recall correctly I chose Microsoft's, but Sougou and Big 5 were also options as well as one based on bo-po-mo-fo. Not sure if Google was or not.
Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey
January 04, 2011, 02:55 PMRumor has it that there was an internal debate within the ChinesePod office whether to have a lesson on ice hockey or one on cricket. The ChinesePod person who favored ice hockey dropped his gloves and punched the ChinesePod cricket supporter in the face. The cricket supporter then took off for a tea break. Upon his return, the hockey fan clubbed him over the head with a hockey stick. Decision made. So the point is, if you want there to be a lesson about a sport you like, you have to really want it and be prepared to do what it takes.
Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey
January 04, 2011, 01:08 AMI agree, Jbowes, I have often spoken to Chinese people about hockey. And more often than not, they brought up the topic not me. Snow, Da Shan, hockey, and "my cousin is studying in Burnaby, do you know that place?" seem to be the four most common discussion points once they find out that I'm from Canada.
Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey
January 03, 2011, 05:08 AMA source of hockey-related Chinese vocabulary (especially if you have the Pera-kun plugin) are Vancouver's Chinese newspapers which cover hockey quite extensively. Here's a story on Crosby, Ovechkin and the Winter Classic from Sing Tao.
http://news.singtao.ca/vancouver/2011-01-02/sports1293957936d2931707.html
Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey
January 03, 2011, 05:02 AMYes, I'm Canadian, pretzellogic. But grew up within an hour's drive of Joe Louis Arena, and many people from my hometown have played or coached for the Wings. Have been a fan since the Dead Wings era of the '70s. I'm a fan of all the Detroit sports teams, even the Lions. Besides, the Wings have a very international flavor - Americans, Canadians, Swedes, Russians, a Finn, a Czech, a Slovak, a Slovenian, and a Belarussian.
Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey
January 03, 2011, 03:25 AMBest, most useful, most long-awaited (from the days of Colleen and Amber) lesson in the history of ChinesePod!
By the way, at one point Canada's national broadcaster, the CBC, was broadcasting its weekly Hockey Night in Canada game in Mandarin and Chinese. Not sure if that's still the case, although they still telecast in Punjabi. The Chinese broadcasts were available online at cbc.ca, but maybe available to Canadian IP addresses only.
And I just have one more thing to say .... GO WINGS!!!
Posted on: China Street Smart with John Chan
September 06, 2009, 04:07 PMThe launch of this show is great news and I look forward to listening regularly. It has very good potential.
Posted on: The Final Show
June 11, 2009, 05:53 PMMost of us have changed jobs more than once in our careers and, unless we completely change fields, are more likely than not to end up working for a company that is a competitor in some fashion to the former company. Once you join the competitor - whether you were headhunted or were proactive, whether you did it before or after you left your previous position, whether the competitor is a strong direct threat or of less concern to your previous company - you're in a bit of a no-win situation. If you don't tell your old clients (or listeners or customers or whatever the case may be) about your new position, you could be perceived by some as hiding the truth.
But on the other hand, if you do tell all your old contacts about your new position, you could be seen as stealing or exploiting proprietary information (ie., your former company's client base). To her credit perhaps, Amber did not use this thread (or even her blog) to promote her new venture and the fact that her new job took so many people by surprise suggests she didn't do an email blast of the news to CPOD users either. It probably would have been a smart and courteous move for her to have notified her old employer of her new position as a head's up, but that may not necessarily be obligatory or even standard practice.
Amber has earned enough goodwill to be given some level of benefit of the doubt at least; exactly how much benefit of the doubt is appropriate is up to you to decide. I don't see how any user should feel entitled to have been told by Amber of her new position, unless you knew her in a non-CPOD context. CPOD as her former employer, on the other hand, might be a different story and would depend on facts known only to them and to Amber. That is between them, not really any of our business.
Posted on: The Final Show
January 12, 2009, 04:52 PMAmber will be missed. The day the music died, the whistler stopped whistling.
Posted on: Chinese Input Methods
June 05, 2013, 04:04 AMBaba, from investigating online it seems that Hanban's objective is to eventually make it computer-based at all test centres. I've read speculation that the reason there are some sites that are still paper-only is because not all centres already have a, say, 50-seat computer lab.
John, I believe it could, although because allowing PC inputs has transformed the writing section from the hardest of the 3 sections to the easiest for Westerners (I've heard that Koreans and Japanese don't necessarily feel the same way), for now a reasonably well-prepared person should have enough time to complete the writing section even if they stumble for a couple of minutes figuring out the input system. What will be interesting to see is whether Hanban makes the writing section harder (i.e, lengthier compositions rather than fill-in-the-blanks and rearranging words-sentence order like it is for Levels 3 and 4 currently) now that PC input is allowed.