User Comments - bill
bill
Posted on: Checking Baggage
September 16, 2008 at 6:23 AMPeirceandpeirce,
I think our initial experiences in learning our native languages are reflected in the "vocab tours." Here we have visual+audio cues. When Jenny passed through the market selecting vegetables I thought of my childhood and accompanying my mother to the store. She did exactly the same thing.
ChinesePod is becoming a total learning experience. I really appreciate all of these additions. 请问 is super too!
Bill
Posted on: Los Angeles
September 11, 2008 at 3:21 PMFor those of you interested in Peet's Coffee you'll find it's history here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peet%27s_Coffee_&_Tea
Peet's opened its doors in Berkeley, CA., in 1966.
Speaking of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is my alma mater, and while I'm not particularly a fan of LA (too much smog, traffic, etc), a very close friend of mine from my UCB days has been a full prof of math at UCLA since 1972, and so my visits to LA have been highlighted by Peet's coffee in the a.m., treks to Disneyland, Malibu or Newport beach in the afternoon (our children always traveled with us), and sitting around watching old movies and drinking even older very good Calif. wine in the evenings. My friend had what I thought at the time was a very weird penchant for collecting good cabernet sauvignon as a grad student. Those wines are still very very good.
I do know one person who went to LA because she already had a job in a film. She was a neighbor and my daughter's best friend. Her name is Courtney Thorne-Smith speaking of "Melrose Place." Courtney is an amazing woman and never got caught up in the Hollywood thing in spite of her successes. She and my daughter are still friends ...
I rarely go to LA now, and my math buddy, his wife and I and my wife meet somewhere between LA and Menlo Park, CA.(where we live), say Edna Valley, Santa Maria, or the Big Sur/Carmel area. No traffic, no smog, great scenery ... we bring Peet's coffee and a couple of bottles of great wine and kick back to watch old movies and take long quiet walks.
Funny, we rarely discuss mathematics (-:
Bill
Posted on: Hanoi
September 8, 2008 at 5:29 PMJust sitting in the airport after a super vacation in Canada (Lake Louise) and catching up on my lessons. My wife Joan is enjoying a 30 minute massage ...
I really loved it when Jenny said, "This is very twilight zone." I thought, WOW, her English is superb.
Super lesson. We plan on going to Hanoi very soon.
Bill
Posted on: Language Power Struggle
August 26, 2008 at 9:18 PMI do like goulniky's observations, and note that his written English is excellent given that French is his maternal language. It's clear that 辛苦 pays off !
One technique I used for learning to listen to French and now also use for Mandarin is to rent films and turn off the English subtitles, and listen to Mandarin popular music while driving.
In the beginning I understood very little. But over the past year my comprenhension has really improved. There are still gaps but I know with patience and 辛苦 I will arrive.
Remember also to speak to native speakers even if your language skills are weak. You'll make errors and most often they are corrected very politely and your effort is appreciated.
These habits do jump start one‘s learning and improve one's abilities.
Bill
Posted on: I Want This
August 15, 2008 at 5:29 PMAfter reading qiren's note I really understand what a struggle it has been for qiren. After a year and one half qiren is finally giving up because the audio explanations in English are just too difficult, and in particular the accents.
qiren would love to have a ChinesePod with French as the language used for teaching rather than English.
qiren: Moi je vais en France une fois par an depuis 1990. Je suis rentré de Paris il y a trois semaines et j'ai entendu d'un ami qu'il y a de plus en plus de cours en Mandarin en France.Tout à fait j'ai parlé Mandarin dans un resto chinois à Paris avec une serveuse et sa maman qui est le proprietaire!
Bonne chance et bon courage (-:
The italics say that I spoke Mandarin in a chinese restaurant in Paris with the 服务员 and her 妈妈 who is the owner.
They prefered Mandarin to French. Amazing !! And thank you Chinesepod.
Bill
Posted on: The 是...的 (Shì...de) Pattern
August 11, 2008 at 8:54 PM明白了！真有用。谢谢你们。
Posted on: Moscow
July 2, 2008 at 5:35 AM有意思...今天我们决定明年要去莫斯科。We'll take a 12 day trip from Moscom to St. Petersburg on a river boat.
Bill
Posted on: Checking Baggage
September 16, 2008 at 6:28 AMHi Chris,
Here in the states where we speak American, I'm almost always asked, "Do you have baggage to check," or "How many bags will you check?" On the other hand when we approach the counter we are "checking in."
Bill