User Comments - byronmeinerth
byronmeinerth
Posted on: Teaching English to the Neighbors
February 29, 2012 at 6:11 AMGood on you all! There are certainly a number of people in China who get a kick out of saying "hello" to any random foreigner they see, without any regard to whether that foreigner speaks English or carrying on the conversation. However, that's a minority of people, and sometimes I forget to look for the best in people and assume that they mean well.
Posted on: Teaching English to the Neighbors
February 29, 2012 at 6:08 AMIs this what Dilu says at 7:55? ”对，好不容易电梯到了，然后他就干净走了。“ My dictionary mentions that 干净 can mean 形容说话做事干脆利落不拖泥带水.
Posted on: Subway Announcements
February 28, 2012 at 1:29 AMI was glad to hear Jenny use the phrase 咱们. Does its usage vary from region to region? One of my friends (a foreigner) said he hasn't heard it that often in southern China.
Posted on: Subway Announcements
February 28, 2012 at 1:25 AMI had the same sentiment when l lived in northeast China, but even in Changchun, we had fixed fares. Learning how to read bus timetables in Mandarin was difficult, but really forced me to use characters and ask people when I wasn't sure.
Posted on: Taking the Plunge into Intermediate
February 25, 2012 at 9:46 AMI leared the word 指数, which means "index", as in pollution index, the other day. (This was obviously on a CP lesson, but I can't remember which one.) It's a word I could go forever without using but could definitely help increase my fluency. If I take the phrase 空气污染 as an example of a phrase that an intermediate learner knows, adding 指数 on to that should be quite easy. It's made even easier if the learner knows the character 指 and the character 数. After a while, new words are often just new combinations of characters one has already learned.
Posted on: National Stereotypes
February 25, 2012 at 9:40 AM可能我们米国人就是更开放地说话，不过我们的行动差不多一样的。
Posted on: Snacks
February 25, 2012 at 9:35 AMI tried using http://goulnik.com/chinese/ to find the full transcript for the lesson but didn't have much luck. At 8:25, Jenny says "但是在中国瓜子，外面那个壳儿都是。。。。。。", but I can figure out what she says after that. It sounds like the character 掘 might be in there. Any help would be appreciated.
Posted on: Colors, By Degrees
February 23, 2012 at 1:47 AMI've had a similiar experience. These are all words that I could use more but manage to avoid somehow.
Posted on: Chinese Identity
February 22, 2012 at 3:52 PM"But it is certainly not a place to raise your kids." Where did you grow up? I will try not to make any assumptions, but I'm guessing that you didn't grow up in East Asia. You seem more critical of America in this case than you do of East Asia, which makes me think you know and understand America better.
I think you're also confusing people who immigrate and their children. Regarding the girl who didn't even know that Shanghainese was a language, it was her father and mother who immigrated, not she. You can't expect to her to be entirely Chinese. How could she be (and why should she?) if she grew up in America? I think the girl who was tutored for her whole life is a good example, but she still won't understand a number of things that anyone who grew up in China would understand. I think that's ok though.
Posted on: How to Eat a Hairy Crab
March 5, 2012 at 7:00 AMI also learnt a new English word today, chela (pl. chelae), which is the technical name for a crab's claws.