User Comments - calkins

Posted on: I'm pregnant!

maliya, I think CPod would agree with your points about pregnancy, but it's probably a bit too broad of a subject to fit into a 12 - 15 minute lesson.

I don't think there's anything disrespectful about a lesson on the more specific subject of morning sickness...it's a natural fact of pregnancy in many women.  And it's another testiment to CPod's courage in creating real life lessons (like the lessons on tampons, clogged toilets, buying condoms, etc.).

_______________________________

P.S.  If you search the word "baby" in the search field at the top banner, you'll get a good list of lessons on babies.  Not specific to pregnancy, though there is a DA on post-pregnancy in China.

Actually, these would make a nice lesson set :)

Posted on: I'm pregnant!

Great lesson, I really enjoyed it.  Jenny's 没有 to John‘s 老师 question was classic.

mikenotinjubei, I agree that the expansions are pretty amusing.

你先躺下来，我帮你检查一下。
(Lie down and I'll look you over.)

I assume the speaker is a doctor of some sort, but still hilarious.

Posted on: Using 'Almost'

Thanks Gregg!  I find a lot of useful info. from many sites...MDBG, YellowBridge, nciku, and a number of other Chinese websites, as well as desktop applications and good old paperback books and dictionaries.

nciku is fairly new, but I'm starting to use it more and more.  It's where I get a lot of example sentences...great for picking up chunks of grammar.  It also has a nice little character handwriting recognition tool, which is very useful when you can't figure out a character (not as good as PlecoDict's recognition tool, but still good).

99% of all the sites, software, and tools I use have come from other CPod users' suggestions.  Another example of the community's immense value.

Posted on: Using 'Almost'

Following are some examples I found for 差不多 chàbuduō:

1. about the same; similar

姐妹俩长相差不多。
jiěmèiliǎ zhǎngxiāng chàbuduō.
The two sisters look very much alike.

他们俩高矮差不多。
tāmenliǎ gāo'ǎi chàbuduō.
The two of them are about the same height.

2. just about right; just about enough; not far off; not bad

麦子熟得差不多了，该割了。
màizi shú de chàbuduō le ，gāi gē le.
The wheat is just about ripe enough to be cut.

3. almost; nearly

我差不多等了两个小时。
wǒ chàbuduō děngle liǎng gè xiǎoshí.
I waited for nearly two hours.

你比我差不多高一头。
nǐ bǐ wǒ chàbuduō gāo yītóu.
You're almost a head taller than me.

差不多一半同学都学过英语。
chàbuduō yībàn tóngxué dōu xuéguò yīngyǔ.
Nearly half the students have learned some English before.

Posted on: Reading Faces and Shanghai Architecture

That was very interesting sushan, thanks for sharing.  Some pieces I found interesting:

- China is approx. 20% of the world's population.

- Of all the world's resources, China only has 7% of the arable land, water, and energy resources.

- China consumes half of the world's concrete and 30% of the world's steel.  Wow!  That's some serious construction.

It will be interesting to see how China embraces sustainability in the future, both in the cities and rural areas.

Posted on: Traveling and Chopsticks

I also thought it was great hearing Henning's German accent...and he's just as articulate speaking English as he is writing it here.  Impressive.

Bazza did have a cameo on DA...here it is:

Bazza and Dating Chinese Girls

He'll say he didn't do a good job, but he did...he's just very modest!

Posted on: Riding the Subway

Cassie, 你的采访不要忘掉。我们需要听我们的CassieLin！

Posted on: Riding the Subway

Sorry everyone for taking up so much space above...I should have reduced the image sizes.

bababardwan, no problem at all.  As far as not having a PDA, I actually went out and bought a Palm TX solely for the purpose of using Pleco.  Now I use the Palm for other things, but you can get a list of fairly inexpensive PDA's that will run Pleco here.  P.S. I'm not getting kickbacks from either of these companies (unfortunately!).

I'm going to copy and paste these related comments into a new PlecoDict / ZDT conversation, so I don't take up anymore space here.

Posted on: Riding the Subway

Hi Gregg,

PlecoDict is an amazing dictionary/flashcard program for Palm OS and PocketPC handhelds (soon to work on iPhones as well). 

It also has a great character handwriting recognition tool...excellent if you want to quickly look up a character that you don't know. 

There are many great features to this software, like importing your own vocabulary lists to add to the flashcards section (that's what I've added above).  Many here will swear by this software.  It will set you back a hundred (US) dollars or so, but it is invaluable.

ZDT is a free flashcard program that you can run on your computer.  It has lots of useful features.  There are a few similar programs out there, but this is the one I'm familiar with.

If nothing else, I would highly recommend PlecoDict...there's nothing out there like it.

Posted on: Riding the Subway

Great job Jiao Jie and Connie (and the rest of the behind-the-scenes team)!  Riding the subway ("L") in Chicago is one of the favorite parts of my day....people watching, reading, listening to tunes, sleeping, and of course studying CPod-style.

Here are the vocabulary .txt files for this video lesson, if you want to import them into ZDT or PlecoDict (just right-click the links below and "Save Link As").

ZDT

Pleco (Traditional)
Pleco (Simplified)