User Comments - theblindseer
theblindseer
Posted on: Olympic Excitement
August 19, 2008 at 12:57 AMI have to thank you guys for the Olympic site and all the Olympic lessons. I have just returned from a week in Beijing and it was fabulous to be able to get around with some Mandarin.
The most useful lessons were the one about "that is my seat" and the one about the "huang niu". Everyone tries to move closer to the action so almost everytime you arrive there is someone from the back in your seat (ok I was occassionaly guilty too). Everyone was good natured about it.
I also loved diving into the crowd of Huang Niu (under the footbridge at the south end of the Olympic Green) to negotiate for tickets. I had absolutely no intention of paying their inflated prices (8,000 yuan for a swimming session that was half over, I also heard of a dutchman that paid 2,000 euros for a ticket to the 100 meter swimming final) but I had great fun practicing my Mandarin negotiations. It was the most fun that I had with Mandarin all week.
Beijing is cleaner than I have ever seen it and everyone is so friendly. Thanks again for the well targeted lessons.
TBS
Posted on: Fat Camp
July 23, 2008 at 4:27 AMMany of our eating habits are learnt in childhood. The adults of China today mostly grew up in leaner times. The waistlines of the Chinese may be different as the current one child generation grows older (the oldest of that generation are only 29 now). The rate of growth of obesity related illness (sorry have forgotten if it is Diabetes type A or B) is growing rapidly in China as a more western diet is adopted and wealth increases. As with the west it is likely that as the economy develops the Chinese will move to more sedentary jobs and use transport more and thus reduce physical movement. We are all genetically fairly similar so how much and what we put in reflects on how we look no matter where we are from.
Nice lesson and I liked the commentary on the ability to be more direct in speech in China than elsewhere. It would be interesting to have a lesson on how to vary this directness with different groups of people. In my experience you might be able to tell a friend that they are fat but it wont go over as well if you tell a customer that they are fat.
TBS
Posted on: Using ChinesePod
July 22, 2008 at 1:32 AMIn the podcast John talks about "ke4cheng2" as being the content of a single lesson whereas the exercises show "ke4cheng2" to be "curriculum" (which is a broader term for the plan for the whole subject of study). Which is correct or am I misunderstanding something.
TBS
Posted on: Using ChinesePod
July 22, 2008 at 1:11 AMIn the expansion sentence 你走得那么急，那么急，我根本来不及告诉你。this piece 那么急 has been doubled up.
Same with 大家在论坛里讨论得很激烈。很激烈。in the second to last sentence. 很激烈 is doubled up.
TBS
Posted on: Aussie Rules
July 20, 2008 at 3:08 AMIs there a distinction in Mandarin between Rugby Union (ying1shi4 gan3lan3qiu2) and Rugby League? As far as I know only Union is played in China.
To answer Jenny's question the Chinese Australian ladies that I know all follow Rugby Union rather than Aussie Rules but that if probably a function of them living in Sydney or Hong Kong rather than Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth.
In case anyone is interested the game that the guy is watching is Collingwood v Carlton from earlier this year. Carlton won and the guy that the commentators were talking about, Fev (Brendon Fevola) kicked 7 goals that day. It was a bit of an upset result mainly because I had tipped Collingwood.
Posted on: Olympics and more...
July 18, 2008 at 3:06 AMI will be in Beijing for the Olympics. Real practice for my language. Nothing like jumping in the deep end. I will however avoid the huang2niu2. Thanks for that lesson it has no doubt saved me some money. See you all in Beijing in a couple of weeks.
TBS
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 1: A New Manager
June 23, 2008 at 8:08 AMCan someone explain the difference between wen2ping2 and xue2wei4. My understanding is that wen2ping2 is like a diploma whereas xue2wei4 is a full degree from a University. Is that correct?
Posted on: Olympic Medals
June 23, 2008 at 2:40 AMJohn
Given the central government's recent announcement of an investigation into Microsoft's monopoly you are either prophetic or the government is monitoring the podcasts.
TBS
PS love the new Olympic site, eventually it would be great if you had central sites like this for major topics like Business, food, cities etc (however I am sure that you have enough other things to keep you occupied)
Posted on: Harry Potter
June 22, 2008 at 3:11 AMWonderful idea about the book club. It is difficult for me to know what books to read at my level (low intermediate) and some ideas would be most welcome. I have always believed that reading is the best way to improve language. As my Hanzi knowledge is limited (but improving) I find it difficult to find books that I can read. That is what I use the PDF's for. Reading reading reading. I would love to tackle an easy novel or story.
Posted on: On Location at the Beijing 2008 Olympics
August 31, 2008 at 12:53 AMI agree with the posts about the food at the Olympic venues being bad (or more correctly non existent). A big opportunity missed however the beer was only 5 yuan a can. All the venues that I went to were all well run and functioned well. The taxi drivers were great in that they indulged me by talking to me despite my luan mandarin. Had a wonderful time.
TBS