User Comments - cinnamonfern

Posted on: Fasten that Safety Belt

In Hong Kong they have seat belts on some of the minibuses (which are privately owned), but not all of them. And I haven't seen them on the city buses. On the minibuses with the seat belts there are signs stating that you will be fined if you do not wear them. But no one pays any attention to the signs. I usually put on my seat belt when it's available because the HK minibus drivers are CRAZY...and it seems to me that they drive crazier when their bus has a seat belt.

Posted on: Your First Mooncake

Here in Hong Kong they sell frozen mooncakes.  I thought they would be like ice cream...but really they are just like a mooncake stuck in the freezer.  Still tasty though.  :)  Fresh made mooncakes from a bakery = the best.

Posted on: Pinyin Section 16

Thank you so much for this series!  I have been having some difficulty because I can't hear much difference between Ch/Q, Sh/X and Zh/J.  Because of this (if you don't take into account the difference in tones) I was pronouncing shuǐ 水 and xué 学 pretty much the same.  My friend laughed and said I was pronouncing xué (学) wrong.  I tried to listen to both sounds on ChinesePod, but still couldn't hear a difference.  And because of this I couldn't fix it.  But now at least I can fix the placement within my mouth, even if they still sound the same to me.  :)

On a side note, I work with people who are learning English as a Second Language. And really, compared to English, pinyin is so much easier in terms of consistency of pronunciation.  Crazy English!  :D

Posted on: Guilin Mifen

Wonderful video!  I love that the history of the dish is mixed in as well.  I'm looking forward to the next episode!  :)

Posted on: Swimming Pools and the Beijing Accent

This was a great podcast.  I have a friend who's from Malaysia and the other day he was teasing another friend, who's from Beijing about, as he called it, the "wanr" accent.  Now I know what he was talking about.  He gets teased about his 'southern' accent all the time, so I suppose it's only fair.  :D  Sometimes I can't understand his Mandarin, even though later I realized that I knew the word.  Maybe you could do another podcast on the southern/canton accent.  :)

Posted on: Traffic

I love these vocab tour lessons!  Thanks for helping me build up my vocabulary!