User Comments - bill
bill
Posted on: London
February 27, 2008 at 6:51 AMHi MikeInLondon, If you like authentic Cantonese food, then there is an excellent restaurant you should try. I forgot it's name but it is on Baker Street just off of Portman Square close to the intersection of Baker Street and Robert Adam Street. This definitely is not for tourists ... And hey, everything in London is expensive except Wimbledon Tickets if you know the right people (-: Bill
Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 7:35 PMHey Rich, super explanations ! 多谢 ... 不要，伦敦 ... My wife and I've been to London about 15 times since 2000. 每次都很好吃！ Really. Over the past 8 years the variety and quality of food one finds is restaurants has significantly improved: There are outstanding Chinese, Thai, Indian (always been great), and French restaurants ... Right, 太贵了！For us in particular with the American $ at an all time low. Still, we will return this Summer along with our usual week or so in France. Bill
Posted on: I Have Class
February 18, 2008 at 3:33 AMHi lihuilian, I'll add to your 2 cents： I've several friends born in 北京 who write the 好 exactly as is on the green board in this lesson. Chinese like all of us have huge variations in handwriting. Character recognition like word recognition doesn't require all of the strokes to be precise. Our brains fill in quite well for what is not there. 我同意你 .. (wo3 tong2yi4 ni3).
Posted on: I Have Class
February 17, 2008 at 10:12 PMI was just going over this lesson with my wife who is now getting into learning Mandarin. In the expansion exercise 上午 was translated as early afternoon rather than morning or late morning. 怎么样？ Bill
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 5:35 PMChangye, John, et. al., Before I posted my "adverb" note I actually checked in a Chinese dictionary (http://www.zhongwen.com) because of this feature of chinese "words" to play multiple grammatical roles. Sure enough, it had 现在 as an adverb (副词). I just now checked a 2nd Chinese dictionary purchased in 北京，and yep, it's a noun there. Ah well. That is what makes 中文 so much fun !! And for those of us who are mathematically oriented, this one-to-many mappings are fascinating. Bill
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 7:07 AMHi changye, Actually, 现在 is an adverb. Bill
Posted on: Pedestrian Peril
January 20, 2008 at 6:23 AMChand, What you say is true. Patience is required. 1.5 years is just a small amount of time for learning a language. I recall when I was learning French, and then would go to France, and someone on the streets would ask me some thing. It was NEVER what I had learned. After about 3 years I was much better but still missed a lot. At about 5 years the language really began to reveal itself to me ... I read a lot, went to many movies and ALWAYS covered the subtitles so as not to mix English with French. Just listening and building ones vocabulary on the side really helps. I find Chinese somewhat slower for sure, and read a study where it said that Chinese is the most difficult learning curve, and that reasonable fluency arrives on the AVERAGE at about 7 years of continued practice. This varies from individual to individual for sure. When you find yourself getting the jokes, really feeling the humor spontaneously, then you are really there! I would guess that comes at about 10 years or so. And for sure, moving to China for 6 months would be a big win. I've been to France more than 40 times since 1990 when I began my French adventure. I've essentially lived there nearly two years in small pieces. I'm very patient. Bill
Posted on: No Kidding
January 18, 2008 at 7:17 PM这篇课很有用。我现在知道什么不说！ My preferred ending is: 是啊，这些五星级酒店都是小偷！ Bill
Posted on: Too Picky
January 12, 2008 at 6:11 AM挑剔， 挑剔， 挑剔！How many times have we heard this. Me, I just drop cultural dining preconceptions, close my eyes (sometimes hold my nose) and go for it. 99% of the time it is a pleasant surprise. I remember our first time in France in 1990. We visited the parents of a good friend in Saint Malo. A beautiful city in Bretagne on the coast. The French have some 355 cheeses and we were offered a good twenty. Some were ugly, others smelled horribly and others looked just fine. Paired with the right wine each was superb ! Right, sometimes a couple of glasses did the trick. After that who really cared (-: It seems to me that cuisine evolves this way. It's not some accident, and our palates can adapt to really appreciate each of them ... and in this way we come another step closer to cultural closeness. Otherwise, we are leaving Hawaii tomorrow for home. Wonderful time in Kona. Tonight we had our third Chinese dinner in a row. 很好吃！For some reason 中餐 has something special for 3, 7, 30, and 60+ year olds. Bill
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: History
March 1, 2008 at 5:10 PMHenning and RJBerki, Hmm ... I had a brief intro to Chinese history as a freshman in high school in my world history class here in the SF Bay Area (1955), and they had plenty of Chinese history courses at UC Berkeley as part of the Asian studies program. One of my roommates took a few of them and introduced us to the highlights of the various dynasties down through the ages. But you are correct that while Western Civilization was required for all of us, Chinese history courses were not. One took one or two of the later to fill a "letters and science" requirement, or as a requirement for major in history or Asian studies. Henning will be happy to know that I opted for a German history class at UC Berkeley. Bill