User Comments - Grambers

Posted on: American Chinese Food

Aaarrgh, another UI lesson so soon. That's two in the space of three/four days, right? For someone who tries to keep up with the lessons as they come while juggling other work/family committments, this is hardcore. A bit too hardcore, perhaps. Can I ask how what the policy is on releasing new Upper Intermediate material? Do you, say, have a quota per MONTH, or is it per WEEK, or is it more random than that? This is the fifth UI this month which, for my money, is about the limit I think!

Sorry to complain about having TOO MUCH content. Not the way it normally works, I know:) 

Posted on: The Glorious 了(le): Part 2

I guess the same principle would apply. If you PREVIOUSLY needed something, but now did not, then use 不用了，谢谢. However, if you are refusing for the FIRST TIME, then 不用，谢谢 would work.

Posted on: The Glorious 了(le): Part 2

A few ideas spring to mind....

You could try the '早就' formation....so....我早就知道了

Or perhaps you could make clear something is very obvious using 谁 ('everyone').....so....这件事谁都知道的

That said, I'd be keen to hear from a native speaker on this above question. Obviously the two examples above would only work in certain contexts (but I think both kind of fit into the context of an argument where you are stressing the 'obviousness' of something you knew).

Posted on: Sales Part 3: Handling Difficult Leads

To add a bit of balance to my last, somewhat negative, comment, can I just say that I loved all the hesitations and fillers (就是，就是说 etc.etc.) in this dialogue, as it better represents how Chinese is spoken in real-life. I think using these kind of linguistic tics are so crucial to sounding reasonably fluent in a foreign language, but they're so hard to pick up when living outside that language environment (and, ironically, so EASY to pick up when you find yourself immersed). 

Posted on: Sales Part 3: Handling Difficult Leads

A plea to Jenny: though I love you lots, and though I know it must be hard given your bi-lingual education and current position within a heavily internationalised city and a global company, please, please, please try and restrain the urge to mix English and Chinese within one sentence. I can't speak for the entire community but I personally find it really unhelpful for language learning (as well as a little, tiny, incy-wincy bit annoying).

'比较friendly这种感觉‘

'更emphasis'

‘这个topic都讲这个sell‘

In all of these examples, a listener at Upper Intermediate level would have easily known the English words. I'd even have been happy to hear 'Korean Peninsula' and 'Six Party Talks' rendered in Chinese. It's all part of the challenge. The problem is, when you mix languages, you immediately make it much, much easier to follow the conversation, which is all good and well within the safe, language-learning bubble, but doesn't really prepare you for full-blown Chinese exposure. I think at this level, most learners are probably trying to improve their ability to decipher relatively complex Chinese dialogues WITHOUT the linguistic props of English popping up every other word.

Maybe Jenny was lulled into a false sense of security by the linguistic promiscuity on show in the dialogue. However, though this hybridity may fly in the world of marketing (not to mention with the social elites of Shanghai, Hong Kong and the entire Indian sub-continent), I really feel it's not that helpful in a language-learning environment.

To repeat, I know what I am asking will be difficult for Jenny for personal and social reasons. Moreover, I don't want to come across too much like a 'stroppy customer'. However, I'd ask that Jenny's better pedagogical angel tells her, before recording begins, to try, try, try NOT to blend two languages, at least while the tape is running!

Posted on: Interviews: Obama or Romney?

"The inner workings are not visible at times"...

C'mon, RJ, my good man. That is beneath understatement. Can you name one single time when the inner workings WERE visible? If not, you surely must agree with my assertion that the inner workings are ENTIRELY opaque and not understood by a single outsider.

I note your use of the verb phrases 'will likely', and 'expected to'. I think this proves my point. To bastardise and badly misuse a quaint little phrase about summers and swallows, blanket media coverage does not understanding make.

Posted on: Interviews: Obama or Romney?

No-one seems to have pointed out the obvious fact that the reason Chinesepod can't discuss the China's leadership transition isn't because it's sensitive, or awkward, or a can of worms. It's because they don't know, 1) who's being elevated/demoted and 2) the process behind it. And nor does 99.999% of the Chinese population. And nor do I. And therein lies the slight ridiculousness of it all.

Posted on: The Price of Marriage

I don't quite get how 在。。。看来 can translate as 'apparently'. Surely it's something like "In.....'s opinion", or "From.....'s perspective,"...?

Posted on: The Price of Marriage

The interesting word in the dialogue for me is 传统. I'm surprised that something which seems so bound up with the recent dash for wealth can be seen as being 'traditional'. Obviously the requirement for the 男方 to have a house would have caused no extra pressure in the Mao era as housing was provided to everyone and very few (if any) single men would have had an expectation of having their own private residence. But how about before 1949? Were men encouraged to go and make money and buy or build their own places in order to get married? It's difficult to imagine how this might work, and therefore difficult to understand how it's a 'tradition', rather than a recent innovation and product of the massive changes in China's material circumstances.

Posted on: The Mysteries of 而 Revealed

I am not a gamer myself but am led to believe that much computer gaming takes place 'socially' these days (albeit much of it via the web which admittedly makes things more ambiguous), so I'm not sure the one key difference you identify is actually that much of a difference. But even assuming you're right, then - fine - you've identified one difference, but one substantive difference does not mean two things are not comparable. Badminton and snooker are very different but the underlying competitive commonalities mean they can still both be deemed 'sports' and discussed, compared and contrasted as such. Similarly, avid mahjong and computer gamers can legitimately be lumped together in terms of the propensity of their participants to hide from the light, waste days at a time playing spiritually eviscerating and totally meaningless contests, distract themselves from the rigours of the real world and spend an unhealthy chunk of their lives doing everything other than actually living. Jenny is not being outrageous to declare computer playing boyfriends as deserving the 'loser' label. I'd hazard that having a mahjong playing taitai would present a similar problem.

I have several strands of evidence to support my case. The Hong Kong/Shanghai based films of Wong Kar-wai would be one. Another would be the fact I once lived in a flat above a mahjong playing household (this was Guangdong where windows are usually kept open all year round) and, ahem, let's just say those guys kept hours that anyone attempting to hold down a job/raise a child would deem 'extreme'.

Put another way, though mahjong - like the XBox - is in itself an interesting and worthy amusement, it does tend to attract players who are content to waste a scary amount of their lives and (crucially) their budgets playing what would, in a better universe, be a rainy-day distraction at best. If that ain't a pretty decent definition of 'loser', I dunno what is.