User Comments - bill

Posted on: Reporting a Loss

A final note on "holy moley!" for non-native English speakers. I think the only place I've ever heard that expression is in Batman films. It's obsolete in day-to-day conversations. It would work fine for someone attending a Halloween party dressed as Robin.

I'm thinking "我的妈呀!" is like "Wow!" which is fairly commonly used, or Charlie Brown from Peanuts saying, "Good grief!"

Bill

Posted on: Reporting a Loss

urcto,

Your analysis of Josht's story is an amazing Chinese lesson. Well worth studying.

` Bill

Posted on: Reporting a Loss

Hi changye,

Here in the states on an application, say, for a driver's license, or admission form to a University, etc., we use race rather than ethnic group.

One might find race, nationality, religion, etc. Here again, race and religion are usually optional. It varies.

I'm thinking one day a sample of one's 脱氧核糖核酸 may be required for various idenity cards given the current state of affairs. It can be embedded in a 身份证 as a very personal bar code. Probably happen in the UK first ...

Ethnic group is a cultural reference. I've never seen it on any application.

Bill

Posted on: Remembering that Day on the Creek -- 如梦令: 常记溪亭日暮

Hello from very sunny, Menlo Park, California,

Nice weather to sit outside and read poetry while catching up on one's vitamin D winter deficit.

As I become more and more familiar with Chinese poetry, I really sense the impact of each carefully chosen character, and their order in each line seems to me to be much closer to experience. It's almost like freeze dried strawberries. So, much conveyed by saying so little.

This style can also be accomplished in English and even more so in French. Gary Snyder and William Carlos Williams come to mind for poetry in English. And for those of you who read French, "Tout le monde se ressemble," or "Everyone resembles one another," is a beautiful anthology of contemporary poems in this style.

In this anthology, the poets try to describe what we experience without the interference of either rhythm or grammar. So, word order is as close to what is perceived as possible, rather than manipulated to fit a rhythmical/grammatical form. Here's a very short example:

"Dans la court, plantains cinq." or "In the courtyard, banana trees 5." The idea here is that when one enters a courtyard, one first sees the trees, and THEN one counts them. A bit bizarre. But, I like it.

Bill

Posted on: Munich

It's a lazy Saturday morning here in Menlo Park, CA. Our house is flooded with sunshine for the first time in several weeks, and the roses in our garden have awakened from a dormant winter dressed in new leaves ... 春天在这里总是很早.

Read some email, and then listened to this lesson again. Super lesson ! 我越来越听 "street talk." For example: 我要白的!

We same the same thing in English, say, when referring to wine: Do you want red or white? Red. I imagine one can simply say, "要红的" or "红的."

People rarely speak in complete sentences.

好。我马上就要起床了。今天中午要看网球赛. 住在Menlo Park很幸福了！

Bill

Posted on: Munich

Hi paulinurus,

I was just thinking after reading your thoughtful response that maybe ChinesePod could make 妈妈 flashcards for us:

On one side the 汉字 and 拼音, and on the other a picture of the meaning or concept.

Bill

Posted on: Munich

paulinurus,

Interesting thought. Have you ever thought about how Chinese children learn Chinese? How you learned English? In each case the learning was quick and one did not forget because of the reinforcement of day-to-day living.

What we all really need is a 妈妈 to help us dissolve the unnecessary link between concept and word:

How do we learn: (-: <=> smile <=> 笑.

How do children learn: (-: <=> 笑.

This leads to spontaneity where one never asks oneself, "How do I say X," and just says X.

Right, I realize this is difficult to accomplish since we don't live in China. But, it does hint at how to facilitate a rapid takeup to speaking and understanding. Writing always follows.

I'd love to have a pile of Children's books with pictures and characters, and little buttons to push to hear each word in *Chinese.* This can build to sentences and more "mature" books.

Also, one could just move to 上海 for a year and bite the bullet (-:

Bill

Posted on: Munich

我二次去德国了，一次去慕尼黑了（henning (-:) 大家知道德国啤酒很好喝，但是我想德国白葡萄酒更好！莱茵河沿着有很多葡萄园. 真漂亮！也有很多酒店. 优质葡萄酒是便宜 ...

Probably a few errors (-: But, hey, one needs to practice and errors help us learn.

I really enjoyed Munich, and even visited the Mercedes (奔驰) home office.每员工都开梅塞德厮奔驰. I think one can just say, 奔驰.

But we really adored traveling along the Rhine in a small river boat with my wife. We stopped at so many 葡萄酒园. I couldn't find the word for "wine maker." We met one or two and they always offer samples for free.

Bill

Posted on: Stopping at a Friend's Farm -- 过故人庄

ilearnben,

山行 (shānxíng or Mountain Hike) by 杜 牧 (Dù Mù) is really beautiful. I'm not familiar with his poems but this one really touched me. 多谢！

pretzellogic,

I did a character-by-character translation of the above poem and my imagination filled with images, I felt connected to the poet ... I read it aloud, I've not yet mastered the tones, and yet sensed a resonating feeling of joy.

Have you ever listened to an Italian Opera? One need only listen to the music. Even without a translation one can feel what the composer intended.

The renditions of each poem in this group are the same to me, and I'm sure to others.

I just read a quote by William Shakespeare this morning: Poetry is this music that every person carries in himself.

I think one thus begins with the music of each poem as it is read, then takes in Pete's literal translation. Then on the 2nd reading magic can happen, really.

Try this several times over.

Bill

Posted on: Stopping at a Friend's Farm -- 过故人庄

bodawei,

The reference takes one right to the link where I purchased the book last week. I guess Amazon.com doesn't deliver to 上海 )-:

pete,

For each poem in the Anthology (the current one included) there is the Chinese, a literal translation with the tonal patterns marked, and a less literal translation.

The poems are classified by their structure, e. g., Five character regulated verses, Five character truncated verses, etc. This may be explained on your link for those interested.

But to be honest the mp3 provided with each poem here along with the discussions say much more to us. And for a good reason. As you've mentioned, these poems were intended to be spoken.

The author has a decent paragraph on this including the derivation of 诗 where the radical is yàn meaning speech, and also notes that the phonetical part, 寺 （sì), was originally written as  志 or zhì meaning "feelings in the heart."

Thus, poetry was speaking of feelings in the heart.

That's nice info.

Hey, 现在是十一点四十五 ... lights out gang,

Bill