User Comments - jhfjhkj

Posted on: Asking for Sick Leave

Posted on: ChinesePod Hall of Famers

it was again a podcast,which -as jenny.ca put it -"(that) was really sweet". May I add the remark,that you, JennyZhu, are not only an extraordinary teacher, but you always show and manifest this remarkable,rare,respectful and touching quality of kindheartedness, fondness, empathy, which we call in German "Menschenliebe".Great!

Posted on: What to Expect

Hi Hennie,

"..equally important for me is the secondary values of being an excellent motivator and a lot of fun that gets better over time.."

this is absolutely an important point, I do agree. Having fun is always THE great motivator

Posted on: Boxing Day

thank you benchannevy,

so 大拍卖 should only be done in an 拍卖商 pāimàishāng(auction house) or is it also used for sales actions in malls/ shops?

Posted on: Boxing Day

thanks a lot yuanbao

Posted on: What to Expect

Hi Veronique, I became very modest through my experience of inefficient learning...BTW have a look at the study group blogs. There you can find some more personal reports about how to learn efficiently: i.e.Study Group " study & language".

Posted on: What to Expect

Hi wsnake,

you do live in Sweden, don't you? If you are not living at the countryside, there should be some Chinese students eagerly wanting to communicate with you. You might also use Skype to communicate with a Chinese student.If you look the comments of EnglishPod you may find a Chinese Poddie who likes to learn English with you while giving you the chance to chat in Chinese in exchange.

Of course you can use the excellent CP "Speaking Class" program which I did before spending two weeks holidays in Shanghai. Speaking Class is a really professional help and in my opinion not costly at all regarding the time-efficiency relation.

Remember: a native speaker must not automatically be a good teacher as a matter of fact.Make a good choice.

Enjoy!

Posted on: What to Expect

hi everybody!

Being a long term adherent to ChinesePod I'd like to communicate my experience in learning Chinese.

I found out for my learning style that I had made a big mistake in progressing too fast to elementary and intermediate level. At the beginning I was content to be able to understand the translation of the sentences and went on briskly to the higher level of CP.Which was rather wrong.

I did not take into account that Chinese is totally different from the European languages I 'm able to speak, but approached Chinese in the same way as those languages.

Now, the construction,prosody, tones, melody, pronunciation demand a much different and more careful approach.

So what was said by Jenny and John in this lessons holds true. And of course what Ken Carrol was pointing out in earlier lessons, especially regarding  " patterns",  "lexical chunks" and "key words in context" are of paramount significance.

Learn it like a child: listen many times to the short sentences  before imitating the native speakers.

Listen again and again the short sentences( Newbie) until you know them by heart and master them.

At the same time start immediately with the CP pinyin chart drill. Here you must speak out loud!

Then follow John's (Sinosplice site) and CP tone and pronounciation drill. It is a drill!!

Make your one rule for lesson repetition: p.e.after one day, three days, a week, a month.

Find a chinese native speaker with whom you can start to formulate your own personal simple phrases.

In a second step add the caracters. Write the caracters with your fingers " in the air" while listening to the simple texts.Cling to it.

While listening to the lessons try to make out as much as you can before looking at the pinyin or the caracters or the translation( Ken's advice). You will then procced faster.

Good luck. It's rewarding to approach this wonderful language and culture.

Posted on: Boxing Day

大家好

in the dictionaries there are other words for the here used 'sales = 大减价':

销售 xiāoshòu and

甩卖 shuǎimài

大拍卖 da4pai1mai4

could anyone possibly tell the differences?

Posted on: Boxing Day

One explanation is the following:

Servants were required to work on Christmas. They were responsible for making the holiday run smoothly for wealthy landowners. They were allowed to take leave on December 26th and visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses. In addition, around the 800s' churches opened their alms boxes (boxes where people place monetary donations) and distributed the contents to poor.

Another theory says:

In feudal times, Christmas was a reason for a gathering of extended families. All the serfs would gather their families in the manor of their lord, which made it easier for the lord of the estate to hand out annual stipends to the serfs. After all the Christmas parties on December 26th, the lord of the estate would give practical goods such as cloth, grains, and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would get a box full of such goods the day after Christmas. Under this explanation, there was nothing voluntary about this transaction; the lord of the manor was obliged to supply these goods. Because of the boxes being given out, the day was called Boxing Day.