User Comments - podster

Posted on: American TV Shows in China

my popup dictionary in Firefox gives "scandal, gossip" for 诽闻， but when I try to type it it does now show up as a recognized compound. It means "slander news" if I translate the parts literally, which seems like a good description of gossip. 绯闻 on the other hand shows as "sex scandal" but 绯 by itself is "dark red, purple silk." I guess in the old days scandalous behavior involved purple silk. Pretty confusing as the characters and pronunciation are so similar. I don't watch TV so can't help you with the context of Gossip Girl. Maybe a show called "Sex Scandal" would be hoped to attract more viewers and advertising sales?

Posted on: Basketball Game

Yes, Jenny, I agree with miskat; the app is not a substitute for the web site. There is no community there and no way to post questions, so to say "see you on the app" would not make sense to me. If you are considering discontinuing or de - emphasizing the web site I respectfully ask that you reconsider. Maybe only a small number of users post to the web site, but I am sure a great many more read the answers to questions provided by the CPod team or by other users. Being part of the CPod community is one of the joys of your service that has kept me a loyal customer. Please don't tell me that I am too old-fashioned ;-)

Posted on: Talking about Mistakes (Part 1)

I think that's good advice. Make it your goal to make as many mistakes as possible. I think some smart people never achieve spoken fluency for fear of making mistakes.

Posted on: Misunderstood Taxi Destination

The newest version of the mobile app has a function for recording yourself and playing back, attached to the sample sentences. Another great feature.

Posted on: Talking about Mistakes (Part 1)

很期待听课程。 这就是算 user provided content 吧？

Posted on: American Chinese Food

Maybe with a blacklight it will fluoresce. Anyway, I know just which sauce John is talking about! Hey, how come restaurants in China don't have "Poo Poo platters" either. Is that a Polynesian word?

By they way, let me put in a plug here for "The Menu Stealer" episodes on CPod. That will be a great supplement to this lesson, especially for those who have access to restaurants serving something other than egg foo young.

Posted on: American Chinese Food

can't wait to do the lesson.  Great photo, baby corn and all.  Food in China is so disappointing -- you don't even get fortune cookies!

Posted on: Bakery Binge

Columbo bread is gone? Say it isn't so. Two of my fondest memories of San Francisco: speaking Chinese and eating sourdough bread ;)

Posted on: Where Do You Live?

I think you will also see "Soochow" for Suzhou, if you are looking at old books or maps. There are a couple of interesting holdouts from Wade Giles in the mainland, like Tsingdao Beer and Tsinghua University.

Posted on: Fake Beggars?

tomtomtom, I don't know if there are a lot of homeless in Taiwan or not, but I would respectfully submit that homeless people and beggars are not synonymous.