User Comments - byronmeinerth

Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子

Any thoughts on comparisons between Taiwan and China, north and south, in terms of drinking?

Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子

I've found that one of biggest cultural differences between North Americans and Chinese is our different concepts of face. I can't say that Americans don't care at all about reputation, but it manifests itself in a very different way.

Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子

I'm adding this to my list of phrases to use in the next week. I find these type of phrases really help keep language learning exciting and from getting tedious.

Posted on: Words of Encouragement

When John and Jenny first said 小陈, the way they said it sounded the same, but when John repeated it, he said it differently. (At least to my ears it sounded different.) The first time seemed like a pinyin "ch" plus a pinyin "en", but the second time sounded more like "cheng" without the nasal velar, 后鼻音.

When I pronounce the words 陈 and 成, the way I pronounce the e is also different. In the first one, the e sounds more like an "eh" sound, whereas in the second it sounds more like an "uh" sound. One of my foreign classmates corrected me on this and said they should both be like "uh", but I've never had a Chinese speaker correct more. (To be fair, I've been corrected for tones more than I care to count.)

Do Chinese speakers not notice a difference between the two pronuncations? If that's the case, then both my friend and I may be correct.

John, I already have high expections for the linguistic knowledge you can bestow on me.

祝好

Posted on: Exchanging Dollars for RMB

Agreed. I look forward to more lessons with him. 哥们儿，恭喜你！

Posted on: Exchanging Dollars for RMB

I know "depreciating" was mentioned towards the end of the lesson, but as the exchange rate (RMB/$) decreases, the RMB actually appreciates when the exchange rate decreases. Hence, the increasing value is what attracts people to invest in it.

Posted on: Asking for Sick Leave

用人不疑，疑人不用。A boss should trust his workers. If not, he should fire them and hire ones he trusts.

Posted on: The Correct Usage of Correct

Great verb. I'm definitely adding that to ones I need to remember.

Posted on: An Interview for a Private Driver

Specific, perhaps, but it's great to see these characters in different contexts. It helps with remembering them.

Posted on: Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Did any other Americans find John's pronunciation of "museum" interesting? I found that he pronounces his "e" more like a long "a".

Also, the points on 优惠 were extremely helpful. I only knew it as an adjective before, even though one of my friends would frequently use it as a noun.