User Comments - barto

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

生物資源暨農學院　College of Bio-Resources and Agriculture

農藝學系 Agronomy

生物環境系統工程學系 Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering

農業化學系 Agricultural Chemistry

森林環境暨資源學系 Forestry and Resource Conservation

動物科學技術學系 Animal Science and Technology

農業經濟學系 Agricultural Economics

農業經濟學系─國際專班 Agricultural Economics – International Program

園藝學系 Horticulture

獸醫學系Veterinary Medicine

生物產業傳播暨發展學系 Bio-Industry Communication and Development

生物產業機電工程學系 Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Engineering

昆蟲學系Entomology

植物病理與微生物學系 Plant Pathology and Microbiology

食品科技研究所 Food Science and Technology

生物科技研究所 Biotechnology

中國文學系 Chinese Literature

外國語文學系Foreign Languages and Literatures

歷史學系 History

哲學系 Philosophy

人類學系 Anthropology

圖書資訊學系 Library and Information Science

日本語文學系 Japanese Language and Literature

藝術史研究所 Art History

語言學研究所 Linguistics

音樂學研究所 Musicology

臺灣文學研究所 Taiwan Literature

Perhaps these will be of some interest to everyone.

Posted on: Philosophy: a Useless Major?

我思故我在吧

Posted on: Guests, Interns and the 4th of July

Taiwanese is cool, but it'd need it's own pod (I think)

I live here (in Taipei), and it's like...what Taiwanese do you mean? Fujian, Taizhong, Gaoxiong style? It's all a little different, and the tone sandhi...there are eight tones and they all change in relation to each other constantly, it's like a cycle, it's much, much more difficult than Cantonese. The worst part is, even the best native speakers have no idea how to write it down or how to explain the tone changes, there's some professional teachers working in the government on it but their efforts have yet to bear fruit. I would be really impressed if Chinesepod could pull it off though!

On the plus side...Taiwanese can be a totally manly, gangster language :)

Posted on: Guests, Interns and the 4th of July

Dear Chinesepod,

Now that the Shanghai language episodes are finished, I assume you will be moving onto other special features. Although, as an aside, I think it would be interesting if Chinesepod took the chance to continue providing Shanghai language education, something that's incredibly difficult to find in such a well organized and produced format as these last few episdoes. In any case, I hope there will be more dialect lessons, and I especially hope for more things that are Beijing related. I love anything Beijinghua related and hope to see this kind of content at some point!

Thanks!

Posted on: Describing a Girlfriend

I'm really enjoying this series. Great production values and nice Romanization. Hope y'all can continue it beyond this intro!

Posted on: Thinking of my Brothers by Moonlight -- 月夜忆舍兄

Qu Yuan is a little difficult because it was written so early in the history of Chinese literature, right before the fall of Chu. As you can see above, the language is radically different from what you see in the average Tang poem. Why? Because it's a different language, using different vocabulary, and a different (now lost) phonology. Here's the first line of Li Sao:

帝高陽之苗裔兮，朕皇考曰伯庸。
攝提貞于孟陬兮，惟庚寅吾以降。
皇覽揆余初度兮，肇錫餘以嘉名：
名餘曰正則兮，字餘曰靈均。

A prince am I of ancestry renowned,
Illustrious name my royal sire hath found.
When Sirius did in spring its light display,
A child was born, and Tiger marked the day.
When first upon my face my lord's eye glanced,
For me auspicious names he straight advanced...(etc.)

A very interesting piece...but florid and difficult to understand. Probably not the easiest thing to have a go at here!

http://www.chinapage.com/poem/quyuan/quyuan-e.html

Posted on: Two Poems about Music -- 弹琴 and 听筝

Hey Pete,

I like your idea, 无视 gave me some trouble, but once you say "blindly," I think that works quite well!

Posted on: Two Poems about Music -- 弹琴 and 听筝

A good suggestion for modern Chinese poetry (well, Taiwanese) is席慕容 here is one of her well know poems:一棵开花的树

如何让你遇见我
在我最美丽的时刻

为这
我已在佛前求了五百年
求佛让我们结一段尘缘
佛於是把我化做一棵树
长在你必经的路旁

阳光下
慎重地开满了花
朵朵都是我前世的盼望

当你走近
请你细听
那颤抖的叶
是我等待的热情

而当你终於无视地走过
在你身後落了一地的
朋友啊
那不是花瓣
那是我凋零的心

And here is my poor translation of it:

How might I make you come upon me,

At my most beautiful moment,

For this, I have already implored Buddha

Five hundred years,

Implored him to let us entwine together

An earthly destiny.

Buddha then transformed me into a tree,

And grew me at a roadside you must pass,

Under the light of the sun,

I cautiously bloomed full of flowers

Each and every bloom,

Is the longing of my last life.

When you walk past, please listen carefully,

That trembling branch is my expectant passion,

But when you’ve at last sightlessly walked away,

Ah, friend, behind you, that which covers the ground,

It isn’t flower petals,

It is my withered heart.

Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights

Ya, I just want to say, knowing a language means knowing EVERYTHING about a language. Maybe you can order food, flirt with the waitress, and even talk about the movie you took her to in Chinese, but if you can't talk about absolutely any topic that might come to mind and use the specialized vocabulary we've picked up as we grew up learning English, then you just don't know the language. So, Chinesepod's more out there lessons are just the thing we all need to become fluent speakers; they're filled with things you wouldn't find in a textbook, or even necessarily hear from a language exchange partner or friend. It's all useful stuff, but, as always, the most important element in the equation is YOU. I can tell you these lessons have had some interesting and useful words I've had a chance to use (living in Taiwan), and it's not that they're not useful, it's that you're not trying hard enough. So, buck up, my man! Put your nose to the grindstone and see what you can make of what you've been given.

:)

Posted on: 中国和西方的农民

我很愛那個聼起來是個muppet的那個男生。