智商和情商,正常的人适量都需要啊！

laogong must be hinting at something, otherwise why not just announce, 我去睡觉啊！Surely, he knows what to do if he is tired.

No, it is good, useful dialogue. I will use it tonight.

I was reading all the previous posts and I didn't think that I needed to say anything more, but then I thought better and so here I am.

My life has changed considerably in the last year or so, (for the better I hope). ChinesePod.com has been a part of this change, and I am grateful to everyone there. I am making progress with my Chinese language, but the best part is getting to know everyone here.

I have enjoyed it all and will into the future.

Beyond 2000!

您好 is a respectful greeting given to someone who demands your respect, someone who is your senior, for example. The correct response is 你好 as this acknowledges the respect that has been shown. Two equals would always use 你好.

I was interested in your discussion on 酸梅, and I looked it up in my dictionary and it said that this was a smoked plum. This is obviously a way of preserving a plum, but 话梅 must be a different process. I looked up prune, (dried plum), also and the dictionary did not make a distinction between this and a plum, and called it 每字.

I am a big fan of anything to do with the 西游记 story. This comes from watching Monkey Magic many years ago, and then seeing the Chinese version on TV when I was holidaying in China. I said to my local friends, 'look Monkey Magic', they of course did not know what I was talking about. They knew nothing of the Japanese series. I watched it even though I did not understand anything of what was being said. I bought the entire show on vcd and I still watch it, and I can understand a lot of it now. Both versions are great, and I wanted to discuss all things 悟空 with like minded people, so I started a group on the topic.

This may not seem to have anything to do with today's lesson, but there is a horse and a pig in the story.

I was reading the comments, and I asked myself, Does Chinese have the same ambiguity as English in sentences like, 'Look there is a man eating dog"?

If it is written you can tell if the man is eating the dog or the dog is eating the man, but not necessarily if spoken. I suppose there is a Chinese word for man-eating which is not just two words tied together.

Just food for thought....

having a pet giant panda would be great while small, but could you imagine having one of those adult giant panda's eating all you bamboo shoots and lying around sleeping all day?

I find it interesting that the name panda sounds Chinese, but they don't call them by this name. Does anyone know where it comes from?

I realise now the mistake I made. I assumed that I knew what  在 meant, but I didn't at all. Armed with this new knowledge I will apply it, and also question other things that I have taken for granted.

I always am confused by translations. In the dialogue the person says, 我在洗澡. It is translated as, I am taking a shower. I would say, I am having a shower. The point I am making is that the Chinese person says, I am in the shower, so why do we change it to something else?

To add to my confusion, the supplementary vocabulary says that 在 means currently. Does this mean that 在 can be substituted for 现在?

Thank you. You supplied me with a conundrum to solve. I wanted to know what your post was, so I put the words that I did not know in my dictionary. The three characters 日全食 did not co-locate, so I was at a loss to know what it meant. But I was thinking along the lines of the theme of this lesson. When I looked again today it dawned on me, (slight pun intended), it means 'total eclipse of the sun'! I am glad I did not have to ask.

I am very happy, in a taxi, if I can tell the driver where I want to go, and actually get there. Making small talk is a leap, but I will try next time.

Johns,

I think that it is a matter of formality. If you are going to your friend's house, you would say, "I am going to see my friend", but if you were going to your mother's house, you would say, "I am going to visit my mother". Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

他来了 means 'he came', to express 'he is here', you would say, 他这里, or 他这儿。

I have a shortened English translation of the book by wu cheng en. It is just called 'Monkey', and is published by Penguin Classics. The English translation is done by Arthur Waley. The 'Monkey Magic' series is also very good. It is of a slightly different style than the 西游记 series aired in China, but I think the producers of the show watched the Japanese series when they created their characters. I may be wrong about this, but if you watch it you can make up your own mind. The group icon is a picture of the lovely young Japanese actor who played the part of the priest Tripitaka in Monkey Magic.

I have changed the group to private, (I don't know if this is a good idea or not, does anyone know about these things?), I thought it would be easier to keep track of of group conversations.

I would like to open up discussion to include anything Chinese, or of anywhere else for that matter.

I have heard back from spongebobmay, and it may be a good idea for us to introduce ourselves.

I am Garry from Sydney Australia. I came to ChinesePod to improve my mandarin listening skills, but I have found it has helped in many ways. I have been to China four times, and I am now married to a lovely woman who lives in Chengdu. We live in seperate hemispheres, but not for long I hope. When learning 普通话，it makes it difficult when trying to communicate with someone speaking 成都话. But she speaks English a bit and I speak Chinese a bit and we get along okay.

Does anyone have the DVD's of the Chinese series, or the book 西游记? If so, we can start at the start.

第一集
猴王初问世

In the first episode, we are introduced to the origins of the Monkey King, and we learn he is very ambitious. First he becomes king of the monkeys, then goes off to seek immortality in the land of men. He finds a teacher and learns of enlightenment and magic. He is the best student, but due to his antics is told to go home by the master. He finds his monkey subjects have been attacked by some local demons and has to regain control of his mountain. He needs clothes and a weapon and gets these from some neighbouring gods. All the while, the Jade Emperor is watching and is displeased and so 孙悟空 is invited to heaven and is given a post as the Stable Master. Being ambitious he is eager to discover where he is in the heirarchy of heaven and is most displeased when he finds that he is right on the bottom. He complains and is given the job of Master of the peach orchards. The peaches are only to be eaten by the nobles at the peach feasts and of course are magic. They provide those who eat them with powers of strength and Immortality. So he gourges himself with most of the ripe ones. When he finds out from the fairy maidens that a feast is planned, but he is not invited he is angry and goes there early and causes great havoc before the guests arrive. Everybody is angry with him so he goes back to his mountain and gives himself a new name. The Great Sage Equal of Heaven. All efforts to control him are foiled and he is summoned to heaven by Buddah. He informs Buddah that he thinks that the Jade Emperor is hopeless at his job and tells Buddah that he could do a much better job, and so Buddah gives Wukong a test. If he can fly out of the hand of Buddah he can be Emperor of the Western end of Heaven, but if he can't then he will be buried under a mountain of rocks. Monkey is ambitious and confident so accepts the challenge. He flies to the end of the universe where he finds 5 pillars. He writes some grafitti, relieves himself at the base of one of the pillars, and flies back to Buddah. He boasts of his acheivement, but is shown that the 5 pillars were the fingers on the hand of Buddah, and is then subjected to the punishment promised. This in itself is not enough, and Buddah has to add his seal on top of the mountain to hold Sun Wukong, where he waits to be released.

This is a brief summary of my understanding of the first episode. I look forward to hear your comments.

I was reading your comment today and I found that when I moved the cursor over '你喜欢打网球吗？', the pronounciation and meaning came up in a yellow box. Wouldn't it be great if this happened with everybody's comments written in Chinese.

Thanks everyone, though I am not a golf player, I enjoy the dialogue.