User Comments - bill
bill
Posted on: All About the Lesson Content
August 29, 2010 at 11:05 PMHi, I always download the CD quality lessons. I listen to them while riding a stationary bicycle, and the sound quality is ideal. I also have synced them to my iPod touch. I've a Bose system with an iPod dock, and so, I often listen while wondering about the house, etc ... The iPod also has many Chinese popular songs so I have a psuedo-中国 immersion experience at home ...
Posted on: Politely Declining an Invitation
August 24, 2010 at 11:36 PM谢谢，Jenny. I'll remember that when speaking to them.
Posted on: Politely Declining an Invitation
August 24, 2010 at 2:44 AMStrange, Whenever my Chinese friends write to me they will say, "玩得开心." I've never seen the diǎnr in such a message. Hmm ... laziness I guess.
Posted on: Help at the ATM
August 11, 2010 at 2:59 PMI've never seen either "Advice Note" or "Advice" used in the US. It's always "receipt," or "Would you like to see your balance?" Here balance refers to how much money is left in your account. If I'd seen, "Do you want to print advice?", then I would've thought, hmm, what did I do wrong thinking this was asking if I needed some kind of advice or help to continue.
Posted on: 4S Dealership
August 11, 2010 at 5:42 AMIn France there is "La Académie Française" or The French Academy that controls the official French language. They play hardball but nonetheless recalling that 40% of English is in fact French (Guillaume III d'Orange became the king of England in 1689 after a successful invasion, and brought the French language with him), and ignoring those words, one finds the younger generation peppers French with modern English. It's more like official (The Academy) vrs spoken French. The Academy, for example, says one must not use the word email or e-mail for "courrier electronique - literally "mail electronic," or electronic mail, and invents the word "courriel." Everyone uses e-mail.
One also sees this phenomena in fashion magazines, advertisements, modern novels, etc.. and as I mentioned "American computer speak" is common. We, my wife and I, have been to France more than 40 times, and observed these small changes since about 1990.
不过我在这里可以看台湾电视。我要试试找到外来语 ...
Posted on: 4S Dealership
August 10, 2010 at 11:17 PM你一定听到中文听得清楚.
“十五percent” would completely confuse me! But, then again, "percent十五" is even weirder. I'll stick with 百分之十五 ...
Posted on: 4S Dealership
August 10, 2010 at 10:59 PMmasterkrang, 我同意你的主意。I speak French fluently and like you, when I'm in France or speaking with my French friends, I never speak franglais (français + Anglais or French + English).
There is one exception and that is if the discussion is technical, i. e., about computing, then many English "computer speak" words are used in these discussions. The French have adapted them to simplify doing business even among themselves. I still keep these to a minimum.
As for Mandarin, I'm still at the stage where pure Mandarin is what I read, write and speak. I imagine I'll stay that way too.
Posted on: 4S Dealership
August 10, 2010 at 5:17 PM你博客的时候我总是又读又喜欢 ...
Posted on: 4S Dealership
August 10, 2010 at 5:55 AMWell, I can sympathize with you but you are definitely fighting a losing battle. You'll find that the English technical language and in particular computer speak is showing up in most languages. Then there is the famous F-word that seems to be everywhere in Europe, and actually, not understood in some cases.
Once my wife and I were taking a bus from our Hotel on the outskirts of Rome to the city center and saw an amazing movie poster. This was in 2001 and there was an American film entitled "Loving Laura." As we neared the city center we saw posters for the film everywhere, and yes, "F-ing Laura," was the name of the film. The F word was correctly spelled by the way.
So, yes, English will creep into other languages, and Mandarin Chinese will also creep into English by he way. Nearly all of the grammar schools here have Chinese classes as do most of the high schools. I'm sure 你好 will be heard everywhere. 你好 dude, what's up?
Posted on: All About the Lesson Content
August 30, 2010 at 12:54 AMWhen I study the lessons I try to avoid all English. Right, I cannot do this with some the lessons because of the teacher's discussions.
I no longer use the ChinesePod translations(*), but rather, if I have a difficulty, then I look up the individual 汉字 elsewhere. I do the same with the expansion exercises, i. e., turn off translations. I am at the Intermediate+ level, and I find that by studying as I do that my "ear" for the language is rapidly improving. In the intermediate lessons I find Jenny's discussions in Mandarin very useful, and that John adds just enough clarification in English to make the lessons flow beautifully.
I also have a Guided+ weekly session (20 minutes), and soon after I began these my comprehension took a quantum leap forward. The guided teachers are excellent, and learning to understand Mandarin over Skype while at times a challenge with the static, actually begins to fine tune one's listening ability.
(*) While these translations are very good English, they tend to distract me from what is *really* being said in Chinese in the dialogs.