User Comments - mikeinewshot
mikeinewshot
Posted on: Always in Chinese: 总是 (zǒngshì) and 老是 (lǎoshi)
December 23, 2008 at 8:47 AMI tried to use 老是 when talking to a Chinese friend of mine in England from Beijing (who teaches Chinese). She said that
a) 总是 is more common.
b) people always(?) shorten 老是 to 老
c) she seems to have no connotation that 老是 was used for bad things.
Posted on: The Person Component
December 21, 2008 at 2:26 PMWell, either this show was too subtile (see Changye's comment above) or was too purile (see most comments). I favour the latter. I fear that it was conceived to apeal to American high school humour which seems not to travel successfully to the rest of the world.
I watched it again! It was not as bad as when I first watched it, but then I had high expectations the first time.
There are lots of encouraging suggestions to make a show with more learning content, and which appeals to a wider range of ability, a wider age range, and a wider geographic demographic.
But your forte is making learning interesting, not being funny. Best wishes for the former
Posted on: Chinese Hospitality and Finding Vegetarian Food
December 20, 2008 at 11:33 AMThe best place for eating vegetarian is India
Posted on: Personal Trainer
December 19, 2008 at 10:03 AMThe link to the vocabulary tab seems broken.
Actually, the Community tab now says under maintenance. It appears that the site is partially available and partially not. Another triumph for release management (Sorry to be grumpy, but I am an IT professional)
Posted on: The Person Component
December 18, 2008 at 5:48 AMIf you want to see a nice way of introducing Chinese Characters, have a look at the animations in http://sonicnovel.com/kanji.html. There is a commentary too.
Posted on: The Person Component
December 17, 2008 at 8:01 AMI found a glimmer of interest when the gentleman wrote 人 quickly， and it became unrecognisable!
I would like to be able to read characters that have been hand written so more of this would be good.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 6: Up-and-Comer in the Office
December 15, 2008 at 10:03 PMIn the supplementary vocabulary, I would suggest that 背后 is better translated as 'behind someone's back' rather than 'behind' and that the way that Jenny uses 专业 it should be translated as 'specialised' not 'major'.
Posted on: The Good Husband
December 15, 2008 at 7:34 PMuser8646
I assume you are an american female who is applying your standards.
Jenny clearly stated that the attitudes here are traditional Chinese attitudes.
You may 'not go as far as to say that it is the man's job to bring home money' but I think that this is the whole point. You may not agree with it but I would suggest that you should not dismiss another culture's attitudes because of your cultural differences.
Posted on: The Good Husband
December 14, 2008 at 10:02 PMSome of Jenny's words from the lesson:
逼疯 bī fēng drive crazy
营养 yíng yǎng nutrition / nourishment
分期 fēn qī by stages / staggered / step by step
教育性 jiào yù xìng instructive / educational
肉体 ròu tǐ physical body
取笑 qǔ xiào tease / make fun of
献血 xiàn xuè to donate blood
合法 hé fǎ lawful / legitimate / legal
责任 zé rèn responsibility / blame / duty
冲突 chōng tū conflict / to conflict / clash of opposing forces / collision (of interests) / contention
Posted on: Being Vague: 大概 (dàgài), 左右 (zuǒyòu), 上下 (shàngxià)
December 28, 2008 at 9:32 AMIt was interesting to hear about 上下 and 前后, which I did not know, but weird not to feature 差不多 which is part of the lesson description!