User Comments - johnrash

Posted on: Using 除了。。。以外 (Chúle... Yǐwài)

Pete

我明年3月打算去上海。希望你能给我介绍在上海最好吃素菜的地方。

ＪRash

Posted on: Get in line!

I was in Shenzhen in May for the passing of the Olympic Torch.  As you can imagine, the entire city came out for this event.  The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder for hours waiting for the torch.  When it was over the rush was on to find a public restroom.  I managed to see a Starbucks close by and waited in a really orderly line until I was next in queue. When the door opened an old Chinese woman tried to cut the entire line.  I looked at her and practically screamed "外婆，排队你不知道吗？".  Everyone in line laughed...  maybe at me, maybe at her.  All I know is I entered the restroom according to order and the old lady had to wait.

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 5: Wang Tries to Excel at the Office

I use Adobe products way more than MS products.  How about a PS-focused lesson.

I would love to learn some Photoshop terms such as:

-Selection (marquee)

-Dodge / Burn

-Mask

-Layer

-Hue / Saturation / Luminance

-Blur / Sharpen

-Tonal Curve / Histogram

-Paint Brush

-Vingette

-Grayscale / Monochromatic

Posted on: Chinese Characters and the History of Sex in China

It seems a lot of my mainland friends (native Chinese) are taking to learning traditional Characters 繁体字 as a means of expanding their knowledge of their own history and language.

I have soley studied simplified characters 简体字 thus far, but have found that traditional characters are most commonly used in the Chinatown areas, and most restaurants scattered about the USA.  It is possible to pick up a newspaper written with simplifided characters 简体字, but much easier to find one written with traditional characters 繁体字 on most occasions.

I find I can sometimes work my way through traditional writing based on the simliarities and shared characters, but only in very basic and short exerpts.   I would love to leap over to traditional at some point, but feel I'm still working on learning enough simplified to actually read and understand a newspaper.

Posted on: Street Food Buffet

Sweet! I always thought peeking into someone else's iPod is a little like looking into their diary or medicine cabinet...  you might find things you also have, but maybe a few surprises.  My iPod is full of Maiden, Priest, CPOD and some late 90's metalcore, and possible some unmentionables.. or should I say guilty pleasures.  The CPOD lesson on sound check was OK, but what about a lesson on heavy metal?  Might have a narrow audience I suspect...

Posted on: Street Food Buffet

Vikram

First off, I think it's awesome you're sporting the Iron Maiden CPOD composite art I put togehter well over a year ago (or was it two?!!!).  Thanks man!  Sounds like the insdie of your iPod might be alot like mine.

I'm also vegetarain and found there are street foods available.  You might check the lesson on 糖炒栗子 (sweet roasted chestnuts).  I was told that I was one of the only foreigners who actually enjoyed eating 臭豆腐 (stinky tofu) which is also a popular street food found in many parts of China.   In fact, considering fruits, sweets, and the plethera of tofu options vegetarian street food is quite accessible if you're willing to look.  I even found that vegetable 包子 (stuffed buns) were easy to find in Beijing.

Posted on: Los Angeles

The "lyrics" tab embedded into the lesson review has the dialogue text and not the review terms. Might not seem like a big deal, but once I'm on the bus in the morning using an iPod to study I can't get back to the computer to manually insert them myself. Hope we can work this out in the future.  Thanks.

Posted on: Chinglish in Reverse and University Culture

Read John Pomfret's book "Chinese Lessons" for an interesting non-fictional account of what it was like to be one of the first American students allowed to study as a university student in China (in 1981).  He turned down the dorm room for westerner's and lived with chinese students in the dorms for local chinese.  I'm pretty sure you won't find this book in China, but everywhere else in the world it should be easy to pick up at the local bookstore.

Posted on: On Location at the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Concerning Beijing Taxi drivers.  There are many many unknown small hotels and hutongs still in existence in Beijing.  Unlike Shanghai, the Beijing Taxis were not utilizing GPS or computers when I last visited in May.  If you choose a cheap hotel in a slightly remote area of Beijing you can't necessarily expect the taxi driver to immediatly know the location.  Besides, being a little bit out of your comfort zone is part of the fun of international travel as far as I'm concerned.

Also, I should mention that Beijing taxi drivers are very kind and have gone well out of their way to help me above and beyond their mere duties as drivers.  One driver accompanied me to help order food in a baozi restaurant (with the meter turned OFF none the less!).  Of all places I've visted in China (7 cities more or less), Beijing people were alway the most hospitable and friendly, especially those working in the service sector.

Posted on: Chinglish in Reverse and University Culture

Dedsall78

Firefly (later revamped into the feature length film "Serenity") functioned on the premise that in the future English and Chinese are interchangeable in everyone's regular speech. This was mostly due to those langugages belonging to what was ultimately the largest superpowers (in the universe?). Most of the phrases were swearing, so be warned before you reference my links.

Here are a few items connected to that show I dug up.  The pronounciation is pretty terrible so I would not suggest trying to use this as a way to learn Chinese:

FIREFLY PINYINARY Reference and Translation of Chinese used on Firefly (actually kind of well made)

And then (*be warned this clip does containing swearing):