User Comments - Fiddler1954

Posted on: Making a Dinner Reservation - Part 2

Hi Jenny,

If it's on Google it will not work normally, or maybe not at all!

I have lived in the mainland for 13 years (came in 2003) and over the years I have watched how more and more useful tools such as Google, Youtube, facebook, etc have been shut out of the Chinese sub-net!

I think people should lobby the government to be more easy going regarding the NET!

Browsing is not fun in China, fact 101!

Fortunately for me I do not need to use Skritter as I have no interest in learning to read and write Mandarin.

I am just passing on some facts and feelings of many foreigners that live and work in PRC.

Regards

Paul

Posted on: Making a Dinner Reservation - Part 2

Hi,

Yes I agree with jacob because this I find confusing:

 电话号码多少？

What's your phone number?

diànhuà hàomǎ duōshao

I thought that 多少 was only used for items like money, and other object, but certainly not phone numbers!

Isn't it more normal to hear:

你的电话号码是什么

I am sure this is what most people say where I live in Guangdong!

Assuming they speak Putonghua that is, and not one of the many other languages spoken in China!!

Regards

Paul

Posted on: I Can't Finish My Food

Hi robertkjr3d,

Not at all!

The Chinese never waste food, trust me I know, having lived here for 13 years and married to Chinese.

They always order enough to food to feed an army, even when there are maybe only half a dozen people sitting at the table!

So when everyone has finished eating left overs are taken home to probably eat the next day.

Regards

Paul

Posted on: I Can't Finish My Food

Hi matman1115,

This is nothing to do with this dialogue, but can I ask how you got the photo from Google?

I live in the mainland and I cannot access Google at all!

So I am guessing you either do not live in the mainland or if you do you are using a proxy server, yes?

Maybe you don't live far-east Asia at all!

Regards

Paul

Posted on: Class Is Over Now

Hi Chinesepod team,

Looking at some of the sentences in the expansion tab on this podcast and many othersI think that as they are meant for Newbie it might be a very good idea if you rephrase the English translations to more closely represent the Chinese. Yes I agree the language will be strange but a newbie learner stands a better chance of using the correct Mandarin in the right order.

For instance this sentence is very confusing if you read the English and then want to work out the Chinese:

可乐没有了，有果汁。

We have no cola left. We have juice.

kělè méiyǒu le yǒu guǒzhī.

'We', does not appear in the Chinese!

Better to print:

Cola not have. Have juice.

Yes the English is terrible but none of us are here to learn this.

I recently spent some time looking at another site that does this and it makes things much clearer for we beginners. Unfortunately it was a site for learning Guangdonghua!

Regards

Paul

Posted on: Buying a Second Hand Car

Hi Fiona,

You make a lovely couple, and I am sure you will be very happy together.

Congratulations on the car, but to be honest I would never buy a new one because of the amount of tax applied to purchases of this type.

However I do agree that the second hand car market in China is very poor compared to the UK where you can buy very good used cars.

I have lived in the mainland for 13 years, but I have never driven.

I will look forward to the new Qing Wen covering the subject of 本来 原来.

Regards

Paul

Posted on: Buying a Second Hand Car

Hi Fiona & Gwilym,

Interesting lesson with much useful language.

Thanks, but can I be noisy?

At the end of the lesson you talked about you two buying your first car, but the language was a little confusing, unless you guys are husband and wife!

You said we opted to buy a new car!

Now this either means you are married or decided to share the cost of one new car between the two of you, or you both bought a new car on the same day.

Which is it?

Also in the dialogue there seems to be two different words for, originally,: ben3lai2 and yuan2lai2, what is the difference, or are they interchangeable?

Regards

Paul

Posted on: Nope, You Cannot!

Hi,

Like the site, but I think that Vocabulary Review should be spoken much more slowly, after all this is for Newbie.

Doing this allows the student time to think, especially us older ones!

I also think that the review sentences should be kept a bit shorter to allow for easier comprehension.

Regards

baoluo (Paul)

Posted on: If Not You, then Who?

Hi Fiona & Gwilym,

In the 'exercises' questions, (1),(5), & (8) are missing, funnily enough the multiple choice answer are there though!

Took the test but only scored about 85% because of the above problem.

Could somebody sort this out please.

Regards

Paul/baoluo

Posted on: Everything and Nothing: Question Word & 都 [VIDEO]

Hi Fiona & Gwilym,

Very useful video, but I noticed that the last question word you added, 'zen3me' was kind of overlooked in the video, and the PDF download.

It's only a small thing, but I thought it best to mention it so it can be corrected, thereby bringing your website still closer to excellence.

As a final comment I have to say that I am not often impressed with language learning sites, but in this case I am.

Having lived in the mainland for practically 13 years I have tried on numerous occasions to learn, but have given up due mostly to the lack of really good resources to study this most complicated language.

Well now I am retired I have much more time to focus on learning, and with your help hopefully I will succeed this time.

Regards

baoluo(Paul)