User Comments - weibwo

Posted on: Calling People Names

Your attempts at pinyin don't seem to match.  You pronounced "you" as "neng" or something close to that I think.  Yet the pin yin has it as "no" I believe.  As I follow the PinYin for the Shanghainese portion the romanization does not match the pronounciation for some reason.  I think you can come closer than that.

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

Relative to cheating. I have helped numerous Chinese students in the US rewrite their PHD theses, Masters theses, and papers for undergradute History and English Composition classes. However, I draw the line to rewriting their ideas. Rather I try to pry out the ideas which they can express in Chinese quite adequately, thereby getting them to understand how the Chinese logic can be converted into Western logic.I haveused the time honored Socratic method of discussion with great success I might add, to get the Chineser students to where they need to be. I recommend all Chinese students who want to study in the US or Europe that the first class to take is logic. In this way they can get an understanding of how their ideas in Chinese need to be restructured to meet the logical and syntactical requirements in US or European Universities. Also the Professor's in the west are not going to hold your hand like the Professors in China. They want you to express you own ideas, and to be prepared to discuss the topics in the classrooms. Based on the Rote Memorization epistimology in China this proves to be a real culture shock to Chinese students. Chinese intuition about truth is just not going to cut it here. You need to provide sound reasons and evidence as to why you arrive at certain conclusions.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Shanghai

Where are the 大閘蟹? Shanghai is famous for this crab. Also the soft shell turtle is excellent.

Posted on: An Introduction!

Can't wait to get into the lessons. Great job guys looking forward to speaking some Shanghainese.

Posted on: Discussing Contract Renewal

Tal:

I learned the traditional characters when I was in university.  I could even read a Chinese newspaper.  Unfortunately I was unable to continue studying Chinese characters for several years and forgot almost all of them.  If you don't read Chinese characters everyday they go pretty fast.  The PinYin seems to stay.  Plus I can write PinYin in Shanhai and get along just fine.  I have nothing against learning the characters but since I don't have a lot of time the spoken language will have to do and Pin Yin aids in this proces.  I think that most working people just don't have the time to learn the characters.

Posted on: Discussing Contract Renewal

Why don't you use 老板 (lǎo bǎn) and 雇员 (gù  yuán) instead of A and B.  I never know who is talking and there position in the dialogs. It is an important part of listening.  Often the dialogs don't make sense until you explain it in the dialog discussion. 

Another request is the abiliity to pronounce a word after hearing a native speaker and have my pronunciation recorded and played back until I can duplicate the sound.

Furthermore list the vocubulary with the parts of speech.  Noun, Verb, Adverb, Pronoun, and so on.  One of the most difficult things for CSL speakers to determine is the parts of speech in Chinese.  I helps to know the parts of speech.

A further request, when I make my comments let's say 2 days from the lesson I don't think you people read them.  I can tell this by the lack of response.  If you want people to participate you need to provide feedback.

Another issue is the number of Chinese speakers who contribute to the comments in characters.  At the Intermediate level they need to provide the Pin Yin also.  Some of us don't have the time to spend learning the characters and rely heavily on the Pin Yin.

Posted on: Passive Verbs and 被

I knew the Chinese had to develop a quick way to express the passive voice.

Posted on: Finishing Work for the Weekend

In The United States leaving work is not formal at all.  Usually we say "see you next Monday".  Because the Americans are very direct and informal just "see ya" is enough.  Because work in the US is fairly arduous due to the high unemloyment, same work load just less people, we often say:  "I'm outa here!!!!"

Posted on: Flying a Kite

I was in Shanghai at the People's Park and while walking I looked up and this bird or what I thought was a bird was flying right at me.  I ducked out of the way.  Turns out it was a kite.  The kite flyer was incredible.  He could make that bird kite act exactly like a bird.  The best kite flyers in the world are in China.  Also I had a parafoil and I was flying it in heavy winds on the beach in Long Beach, Washington.  The parafoil lifted me right off the ground and I flew for several feet.  Kite flying was developed in China.

Posted on: Visiting the Hospital with a Fever

huan9:

That is a blood Glucose monitor for testing blood glucose levels in the photo.  I have 糖尿病 tang2niao4bing4 and use one 4 times a day.  Somone in the production company must have 糖尿病.  Jenny or John how do you say blood glucose monitor, glucose and syringe in Chinese?