Hi guys! I'm planning to take up Mandarin or Cantonese studies in college. Are there any good schools in 台灣 ,China, US? Are there any scholarships available for Filipinos to study in Taiwan(specifically), or US, New Zealand?

BTW, what do you call the course for Mandarin studies /Cantonese studies?

Pls. reply and thanks in advance. :)

Graphic artists, photographers, videograhers working in China. I've read a lot about the drive for well crafted design and advertising in China (as you can see in any ditie station, magazine, billboard etc), especially as corporate interests from domestic and international companies continue to gain footing in the country.  However, the pool of freelance artists and professionals that will work for below market value seems to be setting quite an awful trend for those who want to make a living in creative fields.  Has anyone else found this to be true?  It happens in the US also, but usually newly graduated students who try to undercut the market with cheap rates end up not surviving and dropping out of the industry, or producing work that is not on the same level as those who charge market rates and produce high end work.   This is epecially of interest to me, as a creative person looking at the potential of careers in China.  Comments? Experiences?

I'll post up the English next week. Tell me what you all think about it??

I do understand that chinesepod.com is about learning Chinese, but could this or a similar venture have happened elsewhere on the planet, say xhosapod.com in South Africa or hindipod.com in Bangalore or friesischpott.de in Germany??

Or is it due to the vibrant economy, enthusiastic people or other more mundane reasons that China HAD to be the place to get things rolling?

Serendipidity, contingency or destiny?

hey all you.. peoples, dogs, w/evers-

some people think that chinese is one of the hardest lang. out there.. are they right? you answer...

yea chinese is mostly about the culture, wealth, and they use there lang. as symbols to deff. the word they are saying. i can hardly speak a sentence, but let me say-

i liked this one guy from china, and we talked... and talked... and talked for like 2 monthes THEN he stopped. just out of the clear blue sky BOOM! lol haha well i'm over it- thats what i get, we have never met and met over the internet (stupid) (kind of), but the thing is is that some people think that chinese people don't have that much emotions than Americans- is that true???

you can answer....

i have never been to china, ive had one friend he was nice, and SEEN a couple of chinese people. but never been there, i eat chinese food. :) and i watch alot of chinese movies..:) but YEA.

seeing the lang. looks hard, some say that if ya know spanish it helps out alot with diff. languages... WRONG! chinese has no comparrasion wat so ever (my understanding) to spanish HOLA NIHAO!.. no.

-Jlynn B.

 P.S- if i spelled hello in chinese wrong, you can deff. tell how much i suck at it, but whats the fun in being sucky... thats why i'm learning it. :)

hey,

i never knew that chinese pod have  made 1000 lessons. that is amazing! there are so many too!

its not that i hate or dislike chinese people at all. if u have read my recent last post. they are the nicest people out there!

they respet you alot, and try to understand as much as they can. they can help you, and you can help them.

it all works out in a happy circle. :) i still don't know how to put chinese lang. on my key board. you must need a extra tool bar to down load, or special way on the key board, but  i think it is cool to see the different symbols- hehe,

even though i don't know what some mean.

-Jesslyn B.

Hello ,

    I am Golden Chen from China.

    I am looking for some English teachers to teach English in Chinese College, University and school.

    So if you have interesting to teach English in China.

    Please contact me. My email is : sinojob@foxmail.com

    My msn is e3588473747@hotmail.com

    My mobile is 0086-13588473747

    My tel is 0086-591-88989022

    Ofcause if you have any question in leaning Chinese ,you can contact me, I will to help you in my best:)

大家好！My name is Mathew L, and I'm a senior at Syracuse University planning on (a) somehow, someway making a career out of this China infatuation I have, and (b) spending the next few years, prior to grad school, in China.

Which brings me to my dilemma -- I was never given a Chinese name by one of my 中文老师, so I sought the aid of my Chinese history professor, an American. Mathew meaning "gift from god" the name he gave me, in endeavoring to retain some semblance of both meaning and pronunciation was:

吕萌天 （Lǚ Méngtian） -- which I was told translates to 'sprout of heaven'.

I've since run the name by a few Chinese people and their reactions to it have been underwhelming. The first, my current Chinese language teacher, wanted me to drop the 天； she felt that 萌 and 天 made no sense together, one being about plants the other being about sky. The second person told me the name struck him as a girl's name at first glance. So this was worrying.

Anyways, sorry this post is so lengthy -- I'm hoping you all, and particularly the native Chinese among us, will be able to give me some feedback on the original name -- does it make sense? does it sound alright? does it give off an effeminate vibe?

谢谢你们，

Matt~

I just thought I'd post this in case anyone was intersted. Its a link to the flickr photo set of my recent trip to Hangzhou

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27292029@N02/sets/72157616738679172/

• Do you struggle with relationships? How about relationships outside of your own country? Getting harder? Of course it is.

• When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in China, do as the Chinese do, or go broke!

• Our new site is taking a brand new angle: www.MindsetChina.com
  

Hi!

Sorry for cluttering the board with this post but I just got to have a place where to put my thoughts. My head is spinning.

The day before yesterday I took my chinese friends for a trip in my tiny sailboat. When we were sailing the guy asked me if I wanted to go with them to China in 3 weeks. I was stunned. -I'll think about it, I said.
Later on that day he asked me again. I had repressed it. Stunned again. -I have to think.

Go, go, go! I hear you all poddies say; but you remember I'm not a globetrotter. I travel abroad one time per ten years... It's the longest trip I have ever done if it comes true.

At the present I'm still a bit confused. Do they really want me to join their trip? They are living at my place and are going to visit some relatives in China. We have been friends for a few months. The woman has not asked me in personal to come with them, so I wonder if the guy wants to 请 (qing3) me join but the woman don't want to or is not too excited about it. I really don't want to go if I'm considered a burden to anyone of them.

How can I figure out if they both are frank about this? Spending 2 weeks together is a bit more than a casual 10 minute chat in a restaurant.

How to identify Chinese antique furniture--Huanghuli wood

Thanks for the source from
www.antiquescn.com
www.orientantique.com
www.folkartcn.com

Background of Huanghuli wood:
The Chinese term huanghuali literally means "yellow flowering pear" wood. It is a member of the rosewood family and

is botanically classified as Dalbergia odorifera. In pre-modern times the wood was known as huali or hualu. The

modifier huang(yellowish-brown) was added in the early twentieth century to describe old huali wood whose surfaces

had mellowed to a yellowish tone due to long exposure to light.

The most qualified huanghuli furniture was made during Mid Ming dynasty and late Qianlong Emperor of Qing dynasty.

Since mid Qing dynast, the materials of huanghuali became less and less to almost dispear. So the furniture made of

huanghuali was not produced any more. Till now few huanghuali furniture left. It's the most precious and expensive

member of furniture family at present. 
   
Huanghuali furniture can usually be classified as Beds; tables; chairs.
Beds: frame bed, babu bed, arhat bed
Tables: square table, strip table
Chairs: folder chair, cap chair, hanging chair, round chair.
 
Beds classified:
There are three kinds of beds: frame bed, bubu bed and arhat bed.
They can be sold at 20 to 40 hundred thousand USD or higher per piece in the international market. 

This piece is an imitation.
There is no natural old evidence nor a thin sheet of film. So we can know that it was made in late time or present

replicas.

For pictures and details, please go to:
http://www.orient-curio.com/antiques.knowledge/program6/program6.huanghuali/program6.huanghuli.htm
http://www.antiquescn.com/knowledge/huanghuali.htm

Contact us via the web form at:
http://www.antiquescn.com/contactus/contactus.htm
Homepage: www.antiquescn.com

If this program can give you a little knowledge and help, I'll be glad to haven't wasted your time. And if you are

kind enough, give me some comments, suggestions requirements or any feedback.

Thanks for your support.
-----------------------------------
1Stop Orient Antique Furniture Co.
http://www.orientantique.com
http://www.orientantiques.com
http://www.antiquescn.com

Ok so it's really not THAT serious. But basically my friend has come up with the idea to go to China and for me to accompany him. So I just have a couple of questions and figured this would be a good place to ask them. I did try checking the boards, but couldn't really find anything, if this has been discussed already, please direct me with a link and I'll be appreciative! :)

But basically, just a couple things we want to get a general idea of real quick. 

1. For a 30 day trip, taking the train to about 5 different cities, staying at relatively cheap hotels/hostels, and not eating at touristy places (except I might have to grab a Starbucks once or twice :D ), how much would this run? Excluding airfare to and from. (which by the way I'm figuring is going to run around 1500 bucks, as the dates are going to be mid Dec through mid Jan)

2. Is it recommended to book most of your hotels/hostels beforehand, or just do it when you get there? Cheaper doing it there right?

3. Any other suggestions for low-budget college students are greatly appreciated! I'm basically planning to just, well plan this thing out myself without a travel agency as we're really low-budget.

Mom, print this out.

Everyone today has a person in their family who is learning Chinese.  Maybe it’s your immediate relative and every year at Christmas it is too hard to figure out what to get them.  You don’t speak Chinese and you probably don’t understand why your family member or relative is interested in speaking Chinese.  But you want to get something for that person who is learning Chinese or is interested in China.  So here is the list of 11 Christmas gifts to get the Chinese Learner in your Family...

See the rest at www.MandMx.com

We had the pleasure of entertaining friends from Lanzhou earlier, one of whom is originally from the Boston area (if you're from there, think Merrimack NH). The former Bostonian mentioned how much he missed Starbucks, McDonalds, and basically something different from the diet he was enjoying in Lanzhou.  He came to Beijing and seemed refreshed after a few days' worth of lattes.

I have observed that in Beijing, you're usually about a mile away from a Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC or some other fast food joint.  Also, on the consumer front, you're about a 1/2 mile away from a store that sells some American consumer product, like Legos, or Motorola phones or something.   On the German front, maybe you're about 5 miles away from a BMW, Porsche, Audi, VW dealership, and 1/2 mile from a store selling a German toy. 

I don't think that it's all that interesting that in Shanghai or Beijing, with lots of foreigners/westerners, that American, German or western things are available to westerners.  What might be interesting is how far interior China is from these types of products, and whether or not they want them.  The view from Lanzhou was that there were at least 2 KFCs in town. Pondering when Lanzhou, Ningxia, Xining and any other place not Beijing/Shanghai would get more of these products is something else entirely.

I just added a comment to a Conversation.  A conversation with myself in more ways than one - first it was a post I made a couple of weeks ago and it used to appear under Conversations: bodawei. Second, this post made a couple of minutes ago appears nowhere except on the original Conversation - it does not appear on the Dashboard under Latest, and it does not appear under the Conversations tab. So I cannot even see it myself unless I scan through my old posts and remember what I called the post.  I called it China the Beautiful, totally without irony.  ;-)  

Can anybody explain this - how do I get such a post to appear on the boards.  A new post will appear but a comment on a post will not.  right?  

A Radio show about China!  Every week we scour the web, far and wide, to find great little tidbits about China being talked about in articles or on videos or in audio.  We then neatly package it into a simple, quick and easy to listen to radio show and podcast for everyone on the web.  You can participate if you want to!  You can e-mail us your comments or topics that you wish us to cover.  We strive to be somewhat a-political because we don’t want to be blocked in China.  You can reach us at Radio at Mandmx.com or via twitter here. If you have a comment you can use twitter “@MandMx”  and then your comment and we’ll get it!  We might even feature your tweet on the air!

here's the link:

http://www.mandmx.com/2010/04/17/m-and-mx-radio-science-fiction-and-no-more-cctv/