User Comments - wenjong

Posted on: Zombies: Deader than Ever

LOL!

Not in my line of business, but in daily life with a three yr old one might say "I'm going to kill you! (if you don't come here right now. If you hit the dog with that stick one more time. if you don't get back into bed!)" Not literally kill of course, but I do believe my brothers as kids used that phrase liberally! "mom! he's going to kill me!" "you ate all my candy! I'm going to KILL you!" As a teen: "omg! It is one am? My dad's going to KILL me!" And heck, you can say it to yourself "oh oh, I forgot to hand in that report for the meeting this morning! my boss is going to kill me!" or to that cockroach in the bathtub: "I'm going to KILL you!"

A very practical phrase for all ages. More so than cutting off fingers. And there are always a lot of lessons in language classes and books about passports and ordering in restaurants... here at home in Montreal I don't use those a lot! (most of the waiters speak French)

Posted on: Zombies: Deader than Ever

Hi, I don't understand the complaints. Esp since it says right within the lesson that zombies have history in Chinese culture.

This lesson reminds me of the mafia fingercutting lesson: it is so offbeat that I totally remember it (and I have been speaking French fluently for 20 yrs now but still don't know the names of all the fingers!) This lesson has so many practical terms: hear a noise, pull someone, I'm going to kill you, make yourself afraid... in quirky memorable context.

And believe me, having a 3 yr old son, learning chinese, words for monsters are very welcome! After all, even in Dora we learn about giant chickens and bridge trolls! Thanks for once again giving us something unexpected!

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

Great lesson!

But the last expansion sentence reads:

你可以用我的。
You can buy the cheap one. 1 (You can buy the cheap one.

When it should be "You can use mine."

Of course we'd like to say "You can buy the cheap one" too! ;D

Posted on: The Boy That Cried Wolf

Me too, loved it. It was very challenging (I'm going from newbie into elementary), the little graphic middle section was a nice surprise, and I too would like the transcript. I didn't have problems at all with the "little boy" "wolf" "getting eaten" etc, but with all the sentences about the people who heard him... I didn't get where they were, what they did etc (I know because I know the story, but didn't get the chinese vocab and sentence structure). I would have liked those parts highlighted in the vocab rather than the "little boy" and "wolf"...which are very evident by the time we get to this level. Reading the transcript after watching, and then going back to listen again, would have rendered those sentences comprehensible to me. Thanks to rjberki for filling me in!

Posted on: Riding the Subway

I just love the videos. So clear, interesting to see China, easier to remember vocab, quite fun. Keep the videos coming!

And I love the discussions too. Thanks to everyone who actually asks questions and answers them! (haha, I am usually working (with my hands) while listening... not so good for discussing!

Posted on: Making Negative Comparisons

What a wonderful lesson on making comparisons! Thankyou! So simple! I do agree with nieborak/Eva up there: the only way I could listen to this at normal speed was to click "download". The audio on the lessons page, this page and the popout are all about triple or quadruple speed. The download worked fine, and the rest of the lessons I listened to tonight work fine.

Posted on: Hot Soup

Hi! Fun lesson, and yes, the "scalding" character is the soup character (easy to remember it is the same pinyin) with huo under it... so simple! One problem: in the expansion, all the entries under dianr have dianr translated as "to light" ?!! rather than "a little". Also, the "zhong4" and "qing1" aren't translated (heavy, light) when you hover. Last sentence "kuai" means "quickly" not "a little more quickly" : it would seem the last sentence means "to light a little more quickly" according to the separate components, rather than "hurry up"!! thanks for fixing!

Posted on: Pumpkin Food

Love how appropriate the chinesepod lessons are. Now I can use all this vocab with my newly adopted 2 yr old son when we go out to buy a pumpkin, and when I cook with it later. I agree that pumpkins are a bigger thing here (Canada) than in the UK for example. A friend from London visited and laughed at pumpkins on porches, store windows, jackolanterns, on menus. She asked if we also have a carrot holiday or a rutabaga holiday. :D As for pumpkin soup, there seems to be a lot of African recipes for it. South African, Tunisian etc. Very good. The tunisian one has a lot of great spices. And most soups I make, one definitely needs to chew, so the "drink" is funny. Sounds appropriate for clear bouillon, but not cockaleekie! ;D Thanks for another great lesson and fun discussion.

Posted on: Finding the Teacher

Hi, I am totally learning the characters along with the pinyin (and often find them easier to remember the meaning of), but I started at Chinesepod.com before Christmas (at a relaxed pace, but still reading every newbie and elementary lesson) and I would still like pinyin to be added after characters in the discussion section: It validates if I remember the pronunciation of a character, including the tone (I often remember that funny shape means "bird" but not how to pronounce it), and usually the questions are about unknown characters, or issues of contention, where it IS essential to know the difference between two characters... and this IS a "spoken mandarin" learning site, so I think it is essential we know how to pronounce the characters/grammar in question, which we will only get with the pinyin added. Yes there are all sorts of tools to look up characters, but I am unlikely to use them while skimming through the lesson discussions. Thanks.

Posted on: Turn on the Air Conditioning

Fascinating. I never knew anyone thought you could heat with an air conditioner. I am originally from the Canadian prairies where we have central heating for like, ever, and then sometime in the 60's I think, air conditioning started to come in, and mostly it is not central: it is usually a machine the size of a tv that fits in a window. Here in Quebec, heating is usually separate heaters in different rooms, and air conditioning still a separate machine. Some places have central air systems, but still one would call it heating if hot and air conditioning if cold. Same with cars. One can toggle from hot to cold, but would call it "heating" and "air conditioning": I think of them as separate as an oven and a refrigerator in function! Ken being bemused at this was a cultural eye opener!