User Comments - pearltowerpete

Posted on: Pre-Marital Health Testing

Hi miantiao,

恭喜你的儿子，年轻有为！ 他以后打算学汉语吗？ 语言能力应该蛮强吧-- 有其父必有其子。

我甥女先天缺胳膊。好在国际慈善会“Shriners" 给她做了一个人造胳膊。她现在十一岁，开始学小提琴了。中国人有一句话叫做有志竟成，大概就是这个意思吧。

Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别

Hi maymay262009

Thanks a lot for your enthusiasm. As I mentioned, I'm still happily here at CPod, doing translations and joining discussions on the boards.

Hi darylk,

What an interesting poem. It reminds me a bit of Dylan Thomas' Fern Hill. That's a poem about saying goodbye to your youth and innocence. I can't read the last stanzas without getting a twinge.

Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别

Hi svik,

Thank you for your kind words.

Hi tudigong,

Learning would be no fun if we all agreed on everything! Thank you.

Hi shenyajin,

谢谢你给大家介绍这首诗！

Posted on: Podcast Language 2

Hi rjberki,

I completely agree that as learners we should try not to "leave knowledge on the table." Your careful, analytical method seems very useful for this. I'm not criticizing your technique or aspirations.

My point is that no matter how good you get (even if you are a native speaker, for that matter) you will encounter unfamiliar or unclear words when you read or listen to something. The very skill of deciphering this kind of tricky input is something that takes practice. And as you say, we need a foundation of grammar and vocabulary before we can attempt this.

But I think many, many learners overestimate the amount of background they need. This is understandable-- we are used to understanding 99% of everything we see and read in our native languages. When we're able to get just 40% we naturally feel that we're in over our heads. But in fact even at this level, we can understand an awful lot.

At the risk of sounding loopy, let me mention that the experience of a week-long vow of silence at the monastery had an effect on my thinking about language, or to be more precise, communication. Although we students were not allowed to talk, we were able to make our meaning understood to each other and accomplish quite a lot-- cleaning, study, meditations, etc. To this day I'm not really sure how this worked. All I know is that the actual bits and pieces of languages (characters, radicals, tones, tongue-clicks, whatever) are really just crude tools to accomplish the point of language-- communication. Until we earthlings can accomplish the mind meld, it will have to do.

Please understand that I'm not belittling you or any other poddy. Everyone does have their own style of learning, and I expect to disagree with you all from time to time. This is just my own philosophy. I do hope that everyone continues to share their ideas and practices.

Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别

Hi darylk and miantiao,

Thanks for your warm support. This show was a pleasure to write and produce because of enthusiastic poddies like you.

Posted on: Xinjiang Delicacies

Hi raymondc

Glad you enjoyed the program!

哈密 is a prefecture (地区） in Xinjiang (新疆）.

Posted on: Podcast Language 2

Hi all,

Thank you for your thoughtful comments. We at CPod are getting a lot out of this discussion.

There are a couple points I'd like to develop. First, timslsm's suggestion for better lesson sets is a very good one. The much-discussed technical revamp that we are finishing will allow us to organize and present the existing material in new and interesting ways (for example by tags, by topics, grammar structures, etc.)

Second, I understand everyone's desire to understand every word of the podcasts. But true mastery of any language is reaching a level where you can be listening to something, hear an unfamiliar word and not be thrown off by it. I listen to the news, for example and this happens every day. There will always be background noise, people coughing, etc. Piecing together unclear things from context and that hard-to-attain "feel for the language" is the goal we should all strive for.

Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别

Hi all:

Here is today's poem:

风吹柳花满店香，吴姬压酒劝客尝。
fēngchuī liǔhuā mǎndiànxiāng , wújī yājiǔ quànkècháng
金陵子弟来相送，欲行不行各尽觞。
jīnlíng zǐdì láixiāngsòng , yùxíng bùxíng gè jìnshāng
请君试问东流水，别意与之谁短长？
qǐng jūn shìwèn dōngliúshuǐ , biéyì yǔzhī shéi duǎncháng?

風吹柳花滿店香，吳姬壓酒勸客嘗。
金陵子弟來相送，欲行不行各盡觴。
請君試問東流水，別意與之誰短長？

Thanks again to John and Matt, the sound engineers (Lisa, Joy, Hans and David) and all the good folks who did readings (Jiaojie, Jinxin, Connie, Gu Cheng, Daini, David , Sun Jiabin and Zhang Feng.) You all made this show possible.

Posted on: Introducing Shen Yajin (Helen)

Hi bodawei,

That is a terrifying story. I have heard that the monkey situation is also serious in India. Buddhism (whose legacy lingers on Emei and in parts of India) teaches nonviolence toward animals, which makes effective population control even of dangerous animals quite difficult.

I can't find it now but there was an article in the NYTimes a few years ago about ferocious popular resistance to a PRC animal control scheme in Lhasa. The police were rounding up and killing stray dogs, and the people were not amused.

Posted on: Pre-Marital Health Testing

Hi bababardwan

I just chatted about the 从小 issue with Jiaojie and Connie. They think the minimum age would be about 3 or 4 years. Unlike in the States, where the high school you go to is basically determined by where you live in the city, the high school in China is largely determined by testing (or in some cases, the parents' ability to pay a hefty sum). The point is, the kids probably knew each other when they were young, and even went to the same high school together, although that is not always a given. Note the 连 in the sentence, which implies "even."

The reason I translated it as "we grew up together" was to leave a little bit of vagueness, since in fact we don't really know. We could also say "ever since we were young."

About 避孕 and 节育， you are right about the overlap. 避孕 focuses more on The Pill, condoms, etc. whereas 节育 focuses on when to have a baby, and how many to have. Note: don't get 节育 confused with 计划生育, "planned birth," which is the PRC's single child policy.