User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: Ice Cream Run
July 13, 2011 at 9:55 AMLearners with a flexible mind and attitude have better learning experiences in my opinion. What is a waste of time is getting annoyed at the learning material that "taught you to say the wrong thing" every time you're in China and get that live feedback from people or hear something different on the street. Flexible learners (and I think it's also the quicker path toward fluency which is what we all want, though some of us older learners don't care as much as you about coolness; the thought of occasionally sounding a bit formal and "proper" doesn't horrify us. I understand though, by "cool" you mean you want to know what to say to be best understood immediately by the locals.) take those and have numerous aha! moments every day that help fix their learning in their memory, because they can see the connections between class- or textbook-learned material and the live, real stuff they hear in the street.
The other thing is, with regard to CPod it's often very helpful to go through and read the comments in the lesson discussion section in addition to listening to the podcast and noting the vocab introduced in it. Poddies in different parts of China and with different experiences contribute what they hear and know. Often these contributions will vary from what has been taught in the lesson and I think they are an essential supplement. The ChinesePod lessons wouldn't be truly complete without the discussions.
Posted on: Ice Cream Run
July 13, 2011 at 9:19 AMYes but I learned--please someone correct me if I'm off here--that 巴士 bāshì (bāshi) is bus but long-distance, one that would go on the highway (freeway) like a Greyhound bus in the US for example. A city route bus I learned is 公共汽车 gōnggòngqìchē (then later I was also taught 公交车 gōngjiāochē). So one or the other, 巴士 or 公共汽车/ 公交车, really would not be appropriate for the kind of bus you want to talk about.
For city route bus I think after learning 公交车 I tend to use that all the time, because it feels more fluent to me than 公共汽车.
Posted on: Ice Cream Run
July 13, 2011 at 3:54 AMPlease stop right here, listen to yourself for a moment. Baba isn't confused. You haven't made your case all that well and he's helping you clear it up. As far as I can see you've come to CPod with all these grievances (you've been impatient and pissed off for years) that aren't their responsibility. How does any language learner conclude that the China experiences you mention with the bank tellers, at the restaurant and among your friends are evidence that he has wasted time studying? Those frustrating kinds of moments that put a dent in our confidence and self-esteem are exactly when we learn, become a tiny bit closer to "native speaker". Golden opportunities. I've never before heard anyone complain about them.
How do you think you got to the point where you can ask all those questions, have those discussions and compare your textbook and CPod learning with the real stuff you hear out there in China, the point you hear your friends speaking "cool" and can understand what was said? Not just by stepping off the plane and drinking the water there. Right?
Posted on: Car Decorations and Bumper Stickers
July 10, 2011 at 2:40 PMHey Baba, I think it's 着急.
Posted on: BBQ and the Little Trumpet
July 7, 2011 at 10:14 PM同意！ The different levels of candor in it make this a tense and very interesting dialogue.
Posted on: BBQ and the Little Trumpet
July 6, 2011 at 8:12 PM这个对话我很喜欢，是谁写的？也是演得很好。
Posted on: Separable Verbs
July 4, 2011 at 6:10 AM06：11 ~ in the podcast (you can usually go to the Dialogue tab for a quick answer).
Also see gomanly‘s comment above：
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/separable-verbs#comment-187338
Actually this is better--from Connie：
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/separable-verbs#comment-188861
Posted on: Retired Life
June 29, 2011 at 3:25 AM“后事”这个词我蛮喜欢。很简明的婉言，很中文。
Posted on: A Tearful Farewell and Warm Welcome
June 25, 2011 at 4:34 PM啊哈哈 John and Jason 05:06~ was funny．"I will NEVER do that." I guess at times I may have been one of those guys John impersonated, but 希望你不是太介意的 Jason. Sounds like you have a lot to look forward to, best of luck in your studies. And welcome Greg, we may whine a bit about stuff now and then but I do always have a lot of respect and sympathy for translators. And you get to work on a lot of fun material!
Speaking of which. Multi-talented David's also a really good voice actor. I think he could quit his day job and do fine!
Posted on: I'm gonna be Late
July 13, 2011 at 1:29 PMHi Jenny, I agree that if we do point things like this out we should do so in a constructive, positive manner.
Personally I don't care about the word in question. Actually what it is to me is dissonant, coming from a Chinese host in a lesson. But I'm not offended by it.
When you say you are avoiding even borderline impolite language here though, some poddies may want to know why then you go ahead and publish a lesson containing such a word that may be made an issue. If you see no issue with this word I'm sure you would have simply said so. Yes it is hard for someone whose native language isn't English to make the call. Perhaps you or John could take a little time with the Chinese hosts who do speak English in the podcasts and run through those less obvious terms you at CPod consider better avoided. After all I don't think it's the poddies' job to point these issues out to them. Isn't it better for your hosts too, if these things got discussed and clarified internally before they go into the studio to record? Dilu's a good host and easy to listen to. No need for her to be put on the spot or for her confidence to take hits on the boards.
Again though, if all such feedback were more friendly and just nicer in tone we wouldn't have a problem. Patience should go both ways. I can only imagine how awful many of us often sound when we attempt to include slangy, flip expressions in our Chinese.