User Comments - bill

Posted on: Trick or Treat!

Chocolate is an interesting confection. Here in the US we have the best, for the most part imported from either France, Belgium, Africa, or Switzerland, and the worst is for the most part made in the USA. We are finding more and more US chocolatiers (chocolate makers) that make really good chocolate.

What's interesting is the very dark chocolate, say, 80% cacao, has more sugar than the milder at say 50 to 60% cacao. This is because the former would be intolerable without some sugar to minimize the bitterness. I prefer 70-80% cacao. Great chocolate has all of the subtlety of a great wine, like say, a Yarra Valley Mt. St. Mary's Pinot Noir. That's something else I adore.

By the way, these are not your traditional gooey, chocolate bars.

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent 4

我同意你。I had dinner with some Chinese friends here in the San Francisco Bay Area last Saturday evening, and we discussed 蚁族的课. They smiled and said, hey, you are finally learning something about 中国的文化. And we had a nice discussion on the 蚁族 topic.

我也享受了浴场的课 ...

Posted on: Renting an Apartment through an Agent 4

Is 水电煤 an historical euphemism for water, electricity and GAS, since 煤 means coal. 燃气 is natural gas as you know.

Posted on: Doing Business in the Bath House

我享受读这节课。博客也很有意思。不过 ... I live near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. There is a 浴场 here that is called "The Water Course Way." It's been here since the 70's and is legitimate. The rooms are beautiful, and it's evolved to be more of a SPA. A bathing room is $18/hour, and massages are $90/hour. 太贵！

The rooms are very private, sound proof, windowless, and have beds, showers, tubs and some include either sauna or steam rooms. What goes on in the rooms is also very private of course. But, you need to bring your partner with you.

http://www.watercourseway.com

Posted on: An Introduction to Chengyu

These 成语 are simple enough that they should be introduced at the elementary level in selected lessons.

While John is correct in saying that these expressions are not necessary to speak Mandarin, they are absolutely necessary to understand Mandarin. Introducing them in "nibbles" rather than large bites is the best approach.

When I took Spanish 1 in high school, we were very quickly given "idiomatic expressions," and this continued up through my University years.

When I learned French, and I was self-taught, I watched a lot of French films without subtitles, and actually began to pick up the "argo" or slang very quickly in context. And, just chatting with my friends whose conversations are always peppered with argo, I really learned it quickly.

Finally, when walking around in France and being approached by someone French who asked me a question, their language was always somewhat spiced with argo if my response brought on a conversation.

One needs to be able to expect the unexpected, so, hey guys, bring it on. 玩得很开心吧！

Posted on: Music Corner in the Park

可以下载免费的琵琶音乐。关键词：琵琶

http://music.guzheng.cn/

Posted on: Music Corner in the Park

可以下载免费的琵琶音乐：

http://music.guzheng.cn/search.php?searchKey=%C5%FD%C5%C3&button=%F3%DD%C7%FA%CB%D1%CB%F7

Posted on: Music Corner in the Park

可以下载免费的琵琶音乐：

http://music.guzheng.cn/search.php?searchKey=%C5%FD%C5%C3&button=%F3%DD%C7%FA%CB%D1%CB%F7

听的很好！

Posted on: Mudslide

First of all I must again praise the production crew of the ChinesePod lessons. 我时不时听第一年的Cpod的课文. While the content has always been excellent, the quality of the production has continuously improved. It is now exemplairy.

With respect to the story in this lesson, I think all of us empathize with the suffering these natural disasters bring to people everywhere on our planet. 是的. “今年自然灾害真多!" One cannot help but imagine oneself as "老洪出去找找家人." It's terrifying.

Earlier this year my wife and I visited China for three weeks, and were fortunate to have passed the afternoon at a 中学。我们认识了很多中学生. This was very special.

When these natural disasters hit anywhere in the world such travel experiences unites one even more with the victims so many of whom are children. Tradegy has this power doesn't it ... .

Another unifying force is 学外语. This teaches us that we all are in fact one large family and that our differences are small when compared to the humanness that unites us. Humanness is a common thread in all languages.

In this way ChinesePod plays a major role in making the world a smaller place for those of us who somehow lucked out and found it.

多谢你们。

清好好保重，

Bill

Posted on: The Frog Prince in the Well

我很喜欢“女巫的魔法有哈利波特的厉害吗?" This gives the story telling a contemporary context ... 我的外孙女肯定喜欢又这个故事又道理 ...