User Comments - podster
podster
Posted on: Ways to Break Up
November 28, 2013 at 11:54 AMI think this will be a very interesting separate discussion. I heard from an older Chinese lady recently that one secret to a harmonious relationship is never to look at your spouse‘s texts, and that she never inspects her husbands cell phone. I think some boyfriends get daily audits. 呵呵。
Posted on: Ways to Break Up
November 28, 2013 at 11:26 AMI would guess that either translation could be correct, depending on the context. But I would think the given translation seems more likely. A guy that is not your boyfriend would probably be especially unlikely to be trolling through your cell phone contents. Now you have me curious. Over to you, CPod teachers.
Posted on: Party Dues
November 28, 2013 at 9:46 AMAnother question: If you are "high status / important to the country" but somehow didn't get invited to join, is it fairly easy to join the party?
Posted on: Party Dues
November 28, 2013 at 9:43 AMI wonder if making it a sort of honor to be "selected" brings about some "buy-in" for the party's policies. In other words, "now that I am in the elite, we seem like an even better group than I appreciated before. Hooray for our wise leadership." I imagine it is rare for someone to decline an invitation to join, let alone quit the party or openly renounce membership.
Posted on: Party Dues
November 28, 2013 at 9:33 AMDoes that mean you just buy your party membership on line? Do you get a certificate?
Posted on: Alcoholic Attitudes
November 27, 2013 at 11:06 AMYes, I thought 酒鬼 was just a pejorative, but it seems Li Bai would be referred to as "tippler" whereas someone of my social standing would probably have the word translated as "drunkard."
Posted on: 5000 Years of History
November 27, 2013 at 10:51 AMwell I'm glad you didn't say "grin and bare it" . . . the word erwinh is looking for is, I think, "homophone." 同音
Posted on: Chinese Graded Readers and ACTFL
November 26, 2013 at 10:18 AMNo worries. I am easily frightened by the unfamiliar, especially where technology is concerned. I was afraid I was going to have to master some new technology. Still haven't read the books. I was able to sleep on the flight, thank goodness. Maybe during the holiday I can curl up by the fire with my iPad. Hopefully I won't smell it roasting.
Posted on: Chinese Graded Readers and ACTFL
November 23, 2013 at 3:18 PMThanks; I figured out that its very easy to buy the kindle edition books from a PC on the Amazon web site and they go over to the Kindle app on my iPad automatically (retrieved on the iPad after pressing "sync" within the Kindle app.) I did not need to learn any new words or technology (somehow "whispernet" scared me -- apparently it just means a cloud service where you can access your content from multiple devices). I suppose I could have done the whole thing from Safari on the iPad, but my trusty rusty computer is still my preferred method for this sort of task.
Posted on: Invitation to Dinner
November 29, 2013 at 1:45 PMI come down on the side of "learn the Chinese as it is really spoken" when we are looking at Intermediate or above lessons, but since this is a Newbie forum maybe its worth looking at why it (may) sound peculiar to some of us. When I listened to it, it sounded like the final consonant sound (the "g" in "qing") had gotten clipped off. This is a fairly common phenomenon in certain regions in China, including Shanghai. I'm not sure if this is what Wanda and Jinajohny were referring to when they said "peculiar" or "unclear" but if so I would say, relax (do not attempt to adjust your computer)-- it is normal, even if not compliant with (for example) audio recordings from some university in Beijing. CPod does us a service by letting us hear a variety of speakers using a (relatively) natural style.