User Comments - podster
podster
Posted on: Upgrading Software
January 29, 2013 at 11:59 AMIts exactly because of software piracy that viruses are especially problematic in China. I would definitely pay for anti-virus software. As you re-up so shall you sow.
Posted on: Do You Want to Go Together?
January 26, 2013 at 2:14 AMyes, this is a Taiwan / Mainland difference, although I am not 100% sure that people in Taiwan do not use an abbreviated form as well. I think that some of the "simplified" characters adopted in the mainland were just making official some of the commonly used abbreviations, including those still used in Taiwan.
You may have seen 甚麼 , or 什麼， in Taiwan. in the mainland it would always be 什么。
Posted on: Making Soup
January 22, 2013 at 11:18 PM为什么是 我现在就想吃，而不是 我现在就想喝？
Posted on: Making Soup
January 22, 2013 at 11:17 PMHave to agree with you here. I remember a tip I got on cross cultural issues from someone who told a story about a failed home stay by an exchange student. The student thought things were going great, while the host family eventually declared the situation intolerable. The straw that broke the camel's back was leaving a wet towel in the wrong place. But the student had actually asked if it was "okay" to do so. The solution? The student should have asked "where SHOULD I hang my towel?" rather than "is it okay if I put it here? " because in the culture of the host family they did not want to say "No, you can't do that." So when they said "uh, well, yeah, I guess you could put it there" the student heard "yes, that's perfectly fine" when in reality the host family was disgusted. So the moral is to ask "open-ended" questions.
Posted on: 人工受孕
January 22, 2013 at 3:35 AMTry refreshing iTunes. I have this lesson in my iTunes now. Are you using iTunes 11? I was just starting to understand the old version. For a company famous for ease of use interfaces I really marvel at how confusing iTunes is.
Posted on: The Wives of Gay Men
January 21, 2013 at 2:08 AMokay I finally looked at the translation. I have to agree with you guys, it was "too clever by half." The attempt to preserve the humorous confusion of the speaker by extending the double meaning of "beard" should not have won out over the needs of language learners for a more literal translation. For the most part I am finding the translation quality remains good though.
Posted on: The Wives of Gay Men
January 19, 2013 at 12:10 AMHere's an extended definition, including the Woody Allen movie, if anybody cares: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beard_%28companion%29
Posted on: The Wives of Gay Men
January 18, 2013 at 1:06 PMI learned the term beard from a Woody Allen movie years ago, but don't think I have come across it since. It was not a homosexual context, but just meant a "stand-in" for a real partner. (Sorry if I am confusing the issue with yet more idiomatic speech). Anyway, in my experience beard is not a very common term with this meaning of fake partner. (PS: I haven't gone through this lesson yet, so I'm not quite sure where the translations diverge).
Posted on: Taking a Shower
January 14, 2013 at 4:38 AMVera,
The word I learned for tub is 浴盆。 浴盆 有没有浴缸一样的流行？
谢谢。
Posted on: Registering for 3G Service
February 18, 2013 at 4:11 PMIf you live in a big city you are probably equally likely to be satisfied / dissatisfied with China Telecom or China Unicom. China Mobile is not an option for 3G with an iPhone, as Apple does not make any device that uses their version of 3G. I would be curious to hear about your experience of activating the phone once you get it. Since you are choosing a carrier I assume you ordered a phone that is already unlocked.