User Comments - cinnamonfern
cinnamonfern
Posted on: Product Localization
April 5, 2011 at 6:12 AMThat's one of two things I have not seen here in Hong Kong that I like - Reese's peanut butter cups (though they seem too sweet now) and cinnamon-flavored gum.
Hee hee. I was traveling on the train in China and gave a piece of my cinnamon gum (that my fantastic mom had mailed to me) to a 南京人 on the bunk beneath me. The face he made was amazing. I told him he could spit it out. My friend from Hunan though likes it, which isn't too surprising I guess. She told me when she was young they had a brown-colored candy that tasted like that.
Posted on: Delegating Tasks
April 5, 2011 at 6:03 AMThanks Chris! But don't think too highly of me because I didn't mean that I understand all the dialogue - mostly because there are so many new words that I don't know yet. But yesterday I did understand a lot of the lesson banter. I'm still dreadfully lost on the UI's, though. But I've only listened to four - haha.
Yeah I think that my improvement is because of some new things I've been doing in the past three months besides listening to the lesson dialogue and review: 1) adding vocab words outside of what is in the lesson vocab lists - I've added over 1800 new extra words since January - not that I know them all, but I'm working on it; 2) reviewing all my vocab words with Skritter (since January - reading comprehension has improved exponentially) and with my newly made Anki flashcards (last three weeks); and 3) lesson transcription.
You're right that lesson transcription is a great learning tool - but it can be sooo time consuming! Taking a 30 second chunk isn't too bad though. *hint hint* :) I've learned tons of new words, have gotten used to the 那s and 呢s that are scattered throughout normal speech but aren't in the lesson dialogue, and have reinforced some of those "connection words". It has also forced me to really pay attention. In the Intermediates it is too easy to simply rely on the English and glaze over on the Chinese bits of the banter. And I think it's kind of fun to transcribe...but I find strange enjoyment in monotonous tasks. :)
Posted on: Product Localization
April 5, 2011 at 5:07 AMHave they ever tried Reese's peanut butter cups in China? (I don't even know if other countries have them outside the U.S.) I haven't seen them, but if they made them a bit less sweet, I bet they'd be a big hit since peanut in various forms seems to be rather popular.
Posted on: Product Localization
April 5, 2011 at 4:56 AMAlso KFC and Lays.
Posted on: Delegating Tasks
April 5, 2011 at 4:25 AMI agree - keep going! Try to memorize what I call the connection words that you don't understand in the Intermediate lessons, you know "actually, normally, naturally, in that case", things like that. Just keep plowing through the vocab - cram them into your head and review them. That's what has worked for me. I'm at 44 Intermediates and yesterday was the first where I felt I understood most of what they said in the lesson (but not necessarily in the dialogue).
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 5, 2011 at 4:18 AMWell, I think free is in my price range. In truth, with what I gave you I was expecting something pretty awful. Awful is more fun anyway. :D
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 5, 2011 at 4:08 AMWow - that's terrible! :D Why does it seem that psychoanalyses are so rarely flattering?
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 4, 2011 at 4:02 PMWell, I'm not sure what you mean by them bringing their children home everyday after school and how that implies they might be lazy. I have relatives, friends and co-workers (American) who have had to work during the day and left their children at childcare - they had no choice. But they might work odd hours to be able to pick their kids up from daycare at an earlier time.
But I agree with xiao_liang that it's probably a cultural difference. I've noticed from my Chinese friends that there doesn't seem to be the cultural freedom to be a stay-at-home parent. You have to work, and if you don't work, I think other people view you as being lazy, or not trying your hardest, or you just couldn't handle the work.
Posted on: Help with the Baby
April 4, 2011 at 2:23 PMHmm..well, if I lived in a bog, I'd want to be a pitcher plant. (Which they sell as potted hanging plants here in Hong Kong. I really want to take one back to the States with me, but I think Customs would steal it like they stole my 德州扒鸡.) And I would definitely prefer a bog to a swamp, all that lovely sphagnum. (Ever go walking on a bog? Lots of fun - like walking on a waterbed.) Plus there's less competition from other plants because of the low nutrient environment. :D
So that should give you some really good fodder. Psychoanalyze away!
Posted on: Product Localization
April 5, 2011 at 6:18 AMI liked the lesson too! Wish I understood more of it! :D
Hey - what sorts of localized-to-China products have people tried - ones manufactured by non-Chinese companies? You could mention ones that you thought would be bad, but were actually good, and ones that were just strange and you didn't like?
Ones I've liked were green tea flavored Sprite (Coca-Cola), grape juice with aloe jellies in it (Minute Maid), and barbecue beef flavored potato chips (Lays).
The last one sounded bad, but was surprisingly good - and it did have a meaty flavor. Has anyone tried the light-flavored potato chips? I think they had green tea, blueberry and some others, but they did not sound at all appealing.