User Comments - wesleywongphoto

Posted on: Bad Cell Reception

March 05, 2009, 02:21 AM

Hey Jenny,

Off the subject of Chinese for a second and regarding your comment about "What we have here is a failure to communicate". Yes Jenny, your movie trivia knowledge was exactly correct. That is one of the famous quotes from the movie classic  "Cool Hand Luke" with the late and great actor Paul Newman. To refresh your memory Paul Newman is a prisoner working on a "chain gang" digging ditches and the chain gang boss get's angry at him because he's not doing what he's suppose to do........(kind of like my teachers and me....hee hee) 

It's a phrase still used commonly when people are pissed off (angry) at each other....i.e. Girl friend says to boyfriend, Parents says to child, teachers say to me....ha ha ha.

How to say "What we have here is a failure to communicate" in Chinese" ? I would love to know...

Particularly with my qian2 nu3 peng2you. She only spoke Chinese which was great for my Chinese but often I couldn't understand her so I must have said, "wo3 bu4 ming2bai2 about a thousand times. Wo3 xiang3 zen3me shuo1 a different phrase.

Funny thing is when my Chinese got better because I actually did understand her most of the time, but wo3 bu4 min2bai2  became a very useful phrase when I didn't want to do something she wanted me to do....... ....ha ha ha 

Great lesson as usual........I don't think it's possible for ChinesePod to give a bad lesson.....

Wesley

Posted on: Illegal taxis

February 10, 2009, 02:21 PM

rjberki,

Thank you for reminding me that it's a little different here in Beijing because they don't make their money  through "xiao3fei4"  tips......Although I know they won't refuse them either. I'm not sure because my Chinese is very basic but from what I can gather they receive a salary I think. But I really don't know and your right that's a great idea for Cpod to do.......

Anyways I am only going from my past experiences as a taxi driver. By the way it's the best and most fun job I have ever had. I don't know a job where you can get paid just to drive somebody somewhere and talk B.S. at the same time....ha ha ha...

But I still would rather take a legitimate taxi than one of these illegals because one of the things that I know for sure is that the real taxi drivers generally have a good idea of where they are going because they are constantly driving the city. Where as these illegals sit on their butts half the time and only go a few places in a day because they can't necessary pick up passengers when they drop you off. Which is why they always want more money than what a taxi would charge. What I am trying to say is that they usually don't get lost where as this has happened to me many times with the illegal guys.........

Ciaomein !

Posted on: Illegal taxis

February 10, 2009, 03:41 AM

 

Regarding the illegal taxis, yeah these guys hang around my building complex all the time where I live but I only use them for very short trips. THEY ALWAYS want to much money  then the trip is worth and will take advantage of you if you don't know the price of that distance in a taxi. The other thing is most of these guys are or at least the ones I have used are incredibly DUMB DUMB DUMB about where they are going. With longer distances they always say they know but then they ALWAYS get lost.

My favorite story was when I asked this one guy I used in the past for short trips to take me to this famous Hotel in Beijing on the other side of town. I ask him if he knew and he nodded his head up and down and kept saying ...dangran, dangran, dangran.........(yeahhh right...)

Less than 5 minutes on the freeway he is asking me for my map.......ha ha ha .....then when we almost get there he stops in the middle of no where  and gets out of the car scratching his head and looking around as if he was lost......the best part was that he just started walking in the opposite direction down the road which runs parallel to the freeway and didn't say a word to me.(as it turn out we were only 3 blocks away at the time) .....

God at the time I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.ha ha ha.....I have had more than my share of funny rides with these guys and so I find the legal taxi's cheaper, quicker and safer of course.

The flip side of the coin is that because they're illegal they totally screwed if you don't want to pay them. My big wig business man brother took one of these guys from the airport to his hotel in Beijing. The guy tried to take advantage of my brother because he didn't know how to speak Chinese. My brother being a real hard ass just got out of the car at the Hotel with his bags and didn't pay him and walked away laughing........guess it work both ways.....

 

Posted on: Illegal taxis

February 10, 2009, 03:31 AM

Being a former taxi driver in San Francisco I liked to dispell a few myths about taxis and taxi driver. First of all you DON'T make extra money by driving a longer way and any driver who does is not to smart. But all taxi drivers know that the first initial charge (in Beijing it's 10 kuai) is where you get your money. For example a driver will make that initial charge even if he drives only for 5 minutes or just a few blocks. So the idea is to try to get as many "pick ups / passenger" as you can per hour. Now from where I live it cost about 35-40 kuai to get across town in Beijing and usually anywhere from 45min to a hour or more depending on traffic. So the longer the trip the LESS the guy is actually making (if the trip is taking more time) because the fare only goes up in price very little proportionately to the distance. In other words it's much better to get the passenger to his destination as quickly as possible because also the next pick up could be a longer fare (like say to the airport). The "longer distance fare" particularly in Beijing is always a bigger risk for the drive which is why they don't always jump for joy when you ask them to go a long way. I have NEVER had a driver drive intentionally the wrong way and even if they did drive a mile or two the longer way they would be "shooting themselves in the foot" because they would be losing money this way.......Mingbai le ma ?.... 

I have always found the drivers trying to do their best and there have only been a few rare occasions where this was not the case.......Read my next comment to find out why I always use legal taxi's............ha ha ha

 

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing

October 29, 2008, 04:48 AM

Jenny and Ken,

Greatttttttt listen and I couldn't stop listening to it cause I live in Beijing........God I love listening to Jenny's voice.....I could listen to it all day and all night...... ha ha ha. And Ken is got to be the witties guy on the net.......My comments are more about how great you two work together........the dialog between you two is so smooth like you can almost predict what each other is going to say before they say it. That's what make all of your lessons so great and fun to listen to. I usually dont listen to the lessons that are sent to me right away but now I am going to have to do this more often because I was listening to this lesson all morning 

Yang1rou4chanrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! I still remember the word "chanr" from one of your other Hungry Traveller lessons because I play that lesson all the time to my Chinese students learning English. ChinesPod by the way is a great way to teach English because it's so entertaining. Most of my students can't believe that the learning material I use is so entertaining.........! Back to your lesson though, I think this lesson is typical of why I use and recommend ChinesePod to everyone. It's fun and entertaining, very very clear and easy to understand the pronounciation of the Chinese  and the most of the all the dialog is so wonderful between Jenny and Ken........GOD I think Jenny's voice is so greattttttt did I say that already.....and yes Jenny you have the face of an angel as well. As for Ken's face.........hmmmm I'd better not go there..........hee hee hee (just kidding of course Ken .....)

Keep up the great work and hope to visit ChinesePod if I ever come to ShangHai....would love to meet the "Dynamic Dual"......Hey have you ever thought about doing a live T.V. Show.....I think it would be fantastic.....!!!!!!!!