User Comments - Tal

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse

Is it just my imagination, or are parts of the podcast (many of John's utterances for example) much lower in volume than other parts of it? With respect Matt, could be your sound studio trainee still isn't quite there yet.

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 6: Shopping for the Newborn

Personally one of the things I've always liked about CPod is that the fellow poddies here are helpful and considerate. In general we always do what we can to help each other, and it's a real shame when newcomers break the general code of good manners and patience.

teach-beach, if you don't like what some other user says you should just disregard it. There is no call whatsoever for that kind of rudeness.

(And it would help us all to accept that CPod can't make everything perfect instantly, and that of course a big site like this will have technical difficulties from time to time.)

Posted on: The Brocade Zither -- 锦瑟

@mikeinewshot - you know mike, ever since you mentioned "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (in a thread about poetry for heaven's sake!) I haven't been able to stop thinking about Vogon poetry, and of course the scene where Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect are not only forced to listen to and pretend to enjoy the Vogon captain's poetry, but then have to longwindedly (and hopelessly) analyse the 'poem' and say why they liked it so much. No chance of success of course, and they get thrown out of the airlock!

Yes, the original radio series was the best (you really rocked me down memory lane mentioning it, showing my age too), closely followed, for all its faults, by the TV series. The movie was just a waste of time and celluloid (if they still use that!) unfortunately. (I watched it on the plane coming to China. Recovering from jetlag I thought I might have just dreamed it. Sadly I later learned I hadn't.)

And now, err... yes, Pete's poem... oh, just show me the airlock OK? I'll get my coat.

Posted on: The Final Jizhou Pieces

I am haunted by Jizhou. I dream of desolate landscapes where ghostly flutes call me to disappear from the world, the Himalayas looming down, almost close enough to touch. I must go back... must go back... must go back... *shakes head*   Ahh... what was I saying?

Oh well, if you're like me and can't get this intoxicating tale with the disappointing ending out of your mind, you have a chance to return to Jizhou once more, (in the form of an epilogue to the story written by one of my older students!)

Just to clarify further I'll explain that I used the (English) dialogues from the series with a small class of mature Chinese learners, just as a kind of extra fun activity to pad out a series of lessons. One lady simply couldn't bear not to see 赵露 and 建明 reunited, so put together the epilogue I've linked to above!

So you can go back to Jizhou... oh wait... I hear the flute now, just outside my window... *disappears*...

Posted on: City: Mumbai

paulinurus,

thank you! It's just the same for me, I think I'm definitely one of those types who learn more effectively if I can see the language written down as well as just hearing it. Anyway I'm glad that you find my efforts useful!

Posted on: Going to Church

That's a lovely opening line (from the 道德经) isn't it? I recall that (in a battered paperback copy i bought once in a thrift shop) it was translated as:

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
The Name that can be named is not the eternal name.

Sounds so profound and mysterious doesn't it? In fact on reflection it seems rather ambiguous and orientally 'inscrutable' to me, like the whole book in fact! (Your own interpretation is quite different from that for example.) But then any serious contender for holy book status should be like that perhaps!

The universe certainly is profoundly mysterious, though I continue to hope it's not ultimately inexplicable, (or at least not to us humans.) I think it was J.B.S. Haldane who said:- 'The universe is not only stranger than we know, it's stranger than we can know'.

Posted on: Going to Church

@miantiao - absolutely no worries sport! I meant 'droll' in the sense of witty and amusing. Not offended at all, I'm a born-again atheist these days, (although not one determined to upset people of faith. I do hope those folk will not mind a little humour on the subject though!)

How about this: 如果耶稣基督为了我们罪去死了，所以如果我们不犯罪那就辜负他的好意了。Rúguǒ Yēsū Jīdū wèile wǒmen zuì qù sǐle, suǒyǐ rúguǒ wǒmen bù fànzuì nàjiù gūfù tāde hǎoyì le. = If Jesus Christ died for our sins, then it would be ungrateful of us not to commit them.

Will Old Nick give me another point now I wonder? ;-)

Posted on: Going to Church

Well they say 'the devil's got all the best tunes' don't they pete?

yeah miantiao, your sports report interpretation of the great battle between good and evil is very droll. I always thought God and the devil fell out because Lucifer was 'proud' and felt entitled to be worshipped himself, but I guess it depends who you listen to!

Posted on: Going to Church

shenyajin, perhaps your roommate was just shy, perhaps she didn't want God to think she was too pushy and demanding by praying in a loud voice and standing up?

对了，I do believe the deity miantiao is alluding to is none other than our friend 'the devil' who posted above. (I really never thought my Chinese would ever receive diabolic approval. The priests who taught me at school must be turning in their graves! lol)

Posted on: Going to Church

老兄，别怕！我就是凡人！Lǎo xiōng, bié pà! Wǒ jiù shì fán rén! (Don't be scared old sport, I'm a mere mortal!)