User Comments - gaylon
gaylon
Posted on: Winter Fun
December 1, 2007 at 12:54 PMAwesome thanks Goulniky! Many thanks too for including some useful examples. Now off to 现学现卖！
Posted on: Winter Fun
November 29, 2007 at 6:09 AMThere are several words in Chinese used to describe "to experience" -- in this lesson there is 感受 but perhaps someone can help me better understand the differences (if any) in context/use between these few: 感受gan3shou4, 体会ti3hui4, 体验ti3yan4, 经验jing1yan4, 经历jing1li4. I'm sure there are more words than those but I'm just not remembering them right now. Any examples much appreciated!
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 6:19 AMMark, environment makes the difference. After studying for a year in University, I took my first trip to China and ran into Rob. At that time I could only speak very basic (Rob's my witness) but now with a total of over a year and half of living in China, my Chinese naturally has progressed a lot. It all depends on what you really want to do with the Chinese language in the end though. Learning in Chinese things such as medications, ingredients, etc. may not necessarily be needed ya know? I decided a while back that I want my career to involve China in some way or form, so here I am doing that. Like today for instance, my girlfriend and I want to make dinner and I had to say random stuff like "Italian bread crumbs" 意大利式面包粉, "chili beans" 辣椒豆, etc. There really is endless vocab and you'll never learn it all. Learning 阑尾炎 "Appendicitis" may not really be needed. Just have to draw the line somewhere haha.
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 3:57 AMOh and Mark again - When I think of my "level" in Chinese it's kinda of hard.... "Advanced" to me is an educated, adult native speaking Chinese person. In that context, I'm no where close haha. But for Cpod lessons, 90% of the lessons I listen to are the Advanced and Media topics. I can follow most of those lessons without too much struggle, though naturally they are loaded with new vocab/sayings for me. On a speaking sense, I can get around in all kinds of different scenarios, BUT if it's something I've never said before or tricky vocab etc, I can't roll it off the tongue as smoothly as native speakers can. That's what I'm working hard to improve on now personally. So to help with that, naturally I try to speak as much Chinese in my days as possible, but on my own, I like to read Chinese (news, kid's novels, etc.). My reading ability is around a 4th/5th grader's ability. I know this because I have a Chinese neighbor who's son is in 5th grade and I sometimes read his homework hahaa. So my reading is my "weakest link" but steadily improving over time. Hope that gives you an idea!
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 3:46 AMHello Mark - I personally studied my last year in college to get the basics in grammar, tones, pinyin, hand full of characters, etc....really just the basics. After that I've had the chance of pretty much full immersion in China (well mostly Shanghai with Shanghainese so not exactly the BEST place but it sure does beat Austin for learning Chinese) for a little over a year and a half. So in total my Chinese studies is around the 2.5 to 3 years mark. Granted, my time in China has been working in an office with nothing but Chinese staff (meetings, emails, etc. all in Chinese) so that naturally helped. As for the flash cards -- I personally feel that writing them myself rather than buying a pre-printed set is the way to go. Like mandommikey said, it just seems to "stick" better. Of course flash cards don't compare with a real dialogue but it does build vocab which is a necessary evil no matter which way you look at it. HOWEVER, what I do with my flash cards may be a bit different. I write a new word or idiom on the one side, then on the other I write that word again with the pinyin/character/definition BUT I also add at least one example sentence that puts that word into use. This is where Cpod's "expansion" examples is gold too. Living in China you run into SO many new words/sayings that you may understand but next time you try to use it yourself, you may not know exactly where it's appropriate to use that word/saying. Hope that makes sense and hopefully that helps!
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 23, 2007 at 1:24 PMWoot! Rob we're famous!!! Haha. Thanks again Amber and the Cpod team. You guys rock and keep up the good work! I study all the time and sometimes feel like I have no structure to the chaos but if you ever have any questions please feel free to ask. I often run into crazy sentences/sayings just about everyday so in the future I'll start sharing those and we all can learn together. Cpod geeks ftw! /wink
Posted on: We Answer
August 14, 2007 at 3:09 AM你好Amber! 你可不可以帮我理解怎么用“才好”的说法？在对话当中我听到了这个例子：“。。。想该怎么回答才好“。有没有其他的例子你可以给我们分享一下？
Posted on: Buddhism and Taoism
August 6, 2007 at 8:59 AM有没有人能帮我把 “由”和“被”比较一下？它们的用法有什么差别？谢谢！
Posted on: 谈判和合同
July 3, 2007 at 5:44 AM哥们儿！你最近怎么样！？Hey bro how's it going?? Check your inbox and keep in touch!
Posted on: 漫画《三国演义》
March 11, 2008 at 12:32 AMThe main download (128) seems to cut off in the middle. When you please upload the full version. Thanks! :)