User Comments - susana9

Posted on: Wang Guan's Busy Day

I'm also curious about the answer to this question. I live in South China and encounter a variety of accents-- there often seems a mix up of things like zi and zh, and si and xi, but often I can't quite pick it out--I just know that for some reason I'm not understanding as much. But it really strikes me when I hear really standard Chinese, I suddenly feel at home--even if I can't understand the vocabulary, I FEEL like I can understand. I have no doubt it's because I spend so much time listening here and other Mandarin learning sites.

Posted on: Raising the Rent

Yes, wow, lot's of stuff! Thank you! Most of it's upper-intermediate, but think it's good for me to stretch out a bit over my current limits. By the way, I've often been stumped on how to translate zhuang xiu into English. When it refers to converting the empty shell into a real apartment, I don't feel that refurbishing is correct--because that word assumes it was already "furbished" once. I often say that we don't HAVE a word for it, and when speaking English, simple use the Chinese word! But perhaps I'm wrong--does anyone know a suitable English word for converting an empty shell into a livable apartment?

Posted on: An Interview for a Private Driver

You were questioning the usefulness of this lesson--but, in addition to those who want to hire drivers,  there are, actually, quite a number of us foreigners who do drive in China and all of it was very useful!  Some lessons on car insurance, taxes to pay, buying a car, guarantees on cars, repair, annual inspections, what to do when you have a fender bender (almost unavoidable--everyone I know gets a few scrapes a year), etc would all be welcome.

Posted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat

I may be wrong, but after long experience with this need of Chinese for fresh air, I had come to the conclusion that they felt it was unhealthy to be breathing each other's air in too close quarters for so long--and that they consider it unhealthy because it's easier to communicate illness that way. This doesn't just happen when there's an air-conditioner on--friends visiting my un-airconditioned living room in hot or cold weather will often throw open my balcony doors--rather unconsciously--assuming I must also feel it's stuffy.

But even if there isn't a thought-out logic to it, it's all what you're used to. And if you are brought up with mother throwing open the window every so often to let in fresh air because she says it's healthier, then you naturally feel concerned and worried when you don't have fresh air.

Posted on: Raising the Rent

Useful lesson--thanks!  Would really appreciate (soon) a lesson on buying an apartment with vocab and expressions about size, interior finishing, what's included, not included (as compared to sample apartments), orientation, and complaining about not telling us how much the parking spaces will cost or including such things in the contract...

Posted on: Complaining to the Waiter

Still in my trial period and though there are many good things about this site, one problem I have with it is the poor quality of the acting in many of the dialogues.  Good acting has two important influences--one is that credible emotional impact tends to sear vocabulary into the brain and second, is that bad acting (as well as boring dialogues) makes listening again and again an onerous task.  Listening to bad acting is as painful as listening to someone singing off key.  This site would be perfect if you would pay a little more for qualified actors and slightly more professional script writers.  Funny, interesting scripts don't just make learning more enjoyable--it's really all about learning impact--impact on the memory.  Anyway, was really taken aback with the incredibly poor acting in this dialogue---to the point that, at first, I thought it must be a joke--that nobody could act that badly deliberately...