User Comments - drhu
drhu
Posted on: Haggling Like a Local
April 23, 2010 at 11:06 PMI have had a similar experience. I studied German for many years, but stopped a few years ago to learn Mandarin. Recently while at the airport I was having a small conversation with someone in German when suddenly Mandarin started coming out of my mouth. I was extremely embarrassed so I then switched to English :) Interestingly, I still have no trouble reading German. But I don't dare speak it without rehearsing beforehand in my head.
I guess looking at it from a different perspective, if you were speaking a mix of German, French and Mandarin those within earshot would probably have a really hard time eavesdropping - you could say what you like :)
Posted on: Kungpao Chicken
May 1, 2009 at 12:08 AMGreat job on the new lesson series!!! I love the format, including a little bit of history, transcript PDF and expansion sentences.
While spending a few weeks in China recently, I quickly realized that my food vocabulary was not as good as it needed to be. I eventually found myself searching for restaurants with an English menu, or otherwise having to order one of the same few dishes who's name I know. After a while this got a bit frustrating. Next time I'll be prepared!
I'm looking forward to more lessons in this series!
Posted on: Haggling Like a Local
April 24, 2010 at 3:47 AMI'm quite excited about the Shanghainese series! I can't wait for the next lesson to be posted. Having lived in Shanghai for a while, I had the opportunity to hear it being used everyday - both frustrating and interesting :) At the time, I found very few resources for learning the basics of Shanghainese, but really wanted to at least learn some fundamentals.
I found only one other resource designed for foreigners, it is a small book and CD package titled "Shanghai Dialect for Foreigners" ISBN 7-88422-064-4 by Shanghai Haiwen Publishers. I bought the book in Shanghai at the foreign language bookstore on Fuzhou Road. For those serious about learning, you might want to consider picking up a copy - that is of course after studying the upcoming lessons on ChinesePod!