User Comments - chinesecatherine

Posted on: A Simple Tour of the Office

Can I ask about 'excuse me'?  I work in an office with an English Language school upstairs, and many of the students are Chinese.  But they do sometimes gather in the corridors when I want to get past.  How would I say 'excuse me' in terms of 'would you please move out of the way?'

Please bear in mind that I'm British when you answer - we apologise to others when they step on our foot!

Also - if anyone knows the Mandarin for 'will you please shut up and stop making that infernal noise when I'm trying to work' then it would be appreciated - but less urgency on that one for obvious reasons :)

Posted on: Taking the Plunge into Intermediate

I'm still at ele, but decided to listen to this lesson to see expectations for the next level, and to perhaps help me judge when I might be ready.  I was surprised to hear that this is the level where you really need to start to learn characters.  My experience is probably different, but it was characters that drew me in to Chinese in the first place, and I've just kept learning them as I go.  For me, to not know the characters would make it harder.  I struggle more with speaking and listening than I do with reading and writing, probably just how my brain works.

So, back to application, hard work and study - and I'll maybe see you guys up here in intermediate again in a few weeks/months/years!

Posted on: Character Amnesia

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Skritter (under the Vocabulary tab).  My brain seems to work by needing to be able to 'see' the character in my head as I'm hearing it, so Skritter is an important part of my learning of Chinese.  I love the way it lets you try, get it wrong, then helps you out but makes you go back to the character later until you do get it right.  And, it takes my scrappy looking characters and makes them look neat and tidy. 

I do appreciate that not everyone's brain will work in the same way as mine though!

Posted on: Chinese Names

Thank you, that's great!

Posted on: Chinese Names

I'm Catherine, and was told KaiLin was good - but I don't have the characters for this anymore....  nor am I sure what they mean!  Anyone have any ideas?  All help appreciated!

Posted on: Understanding China's Geography

Thank you suburbanite, really useful. I think when I listen to something I'm really not understanding then I have to wonder how much I'm getting from it. But I've done Qing Wen on an 'as needed' basis i.e. when they fit with something I'm studying and look interesting - maybe I should try the same for BST instead of trying to listen every week.

And thanks Jenny - obviously! :)

Posted on: Understanding China's Geography

Loved this show, really interesting.  But it highlights an issue I have with Beijing Standard Time as a series.  As an Ele learner, my Mandarin is far from perfect, and I've found a couple of the BST lessons have gone straight over my head!  I will probably return to them when I get better, but I was wondering if I should be subscribed to BST at this stage.  Then we have a lesson like this one which I found really useful!  Would it be possible for you to give an idea of the level of each one, or maybe have an 'easy' and a 'hard' stream for BST?

Posted on: Useful Phrases 2

This lesson is really useful (perhaps one to remake as a 'new' newbie?  But on the exercises, the sentance reorderng is a little bit redundant, surely? :)

Thanks for all your help in dragging my English brain into Mandarin!

Posted on: A Chinese Take on Language Learning

I agree that it can be useful to hear blocks of Chinese like this, but as I'm still at the lower level I felt I only got half of a really interesting lesson.  What's the plan for BST?  If you're going to keep doing it this way then I think I'll unsubscribe until I'm at a higher level.  Or could you give each BST a level so I know if it's one I'm ready for yet or not?

By the way, being British, BST to me means British Summer Time (daylight saving from GMT).  But, I'm enjoying BST on ChinesePod while being in the BST time zone in the UK!

Posted on: Come on up!

I'm still having trouble with plurals. On the expansion there is:

他没有汉语书 - which means he doesn't have Chinese books.

I first read it as he doesn't have A Chinese book. Would that be ta mei you YI BEN han yu shu? And if so, can you assume that if there isn't a measure word, it's more general?