User Comments - mark

Posted on: 玉林狗肉节

Another lesson with a video clip and no transcript, pah!

I watched, and did learn that 70%+ Chinese people think dogs are ok to eat and 20%+ can't get around to seeing Fido in the pot.

I think dogs socialize particularly well with humans.  So, many people feel dogs should get special treatment.  I'm not terribly sympathetic to that point of view.  On the other hand, people are animals, but I can't quite accept eating people.

Really, it is easier for me to understand not eating any animals, than it is to see giving some animals special exclusions.  

Posted on: Red Wine

I think Jewish people don't have special tastes in wine. That particular brand is just marketed as kosher. I think they wouldn't sell very much if they marketed it on taste.

Posted on: The Plight of a Designer

I'm not sure the context, but I would translate it as:

But, she read a character wrong.  Never mind.

Posted on: Red Wine

I once drank a whole bottle of Great Wall white (grape) wine (the Chinese locally produced wine).  I didn't get drunk, but I did 拉肚子 the whole next day.  Had I drunk a whole bottle of 白酒， I might not still be here today, but I couldn't make the "I didn't get drunk" claim.

As to old world versus new world wines, I think the European wine making skill has been transmitted to the new world, pretty well.  I couldn't really make any contrast in tastes on that basis alone.  If you want to compare tastes, I think, it is best to look at the variety of grape used, and the vintnor.  One difference is that when I was in France, some of the cheap wines where really excellent.  At home, in California, you have to pay more to get an excellent wine, but the cheap ones are quite drinkable.

New York has a vintor that specializes in wine for jewish people.  It tastes like grape cough syrup, but I think New York doesn't have a good climate for wine grapes.  So, they do what they can.

Posted on: Physical Examination

My own accent mostly influenced by Northern California, with some mid-western under currents, like r's are barely pronounced. So, no end of people mistake my name for "Mike".

Posted on: Physical Examination

I have never pronounced it "pro-NUN-ciation", nor does anyone among my circle of friends and relatives pronounce it that way. There is probably some regional variation. Actually, that way sounds like the upper class twit variant. So, I'd be kind of embarrassed to say it like that. 就是我个人的想法。

Posted on: "Warm" and "Speechless"

A small request: It would be helpful if David could repeat the phrases he suggests during the examples.  If the phrase is new to me, I find I've often forgotten what is being described before the description finishes.

Otherwise, I like the new qw format.

Posted on: 舌尖上的中国

I would like this lesson, if there were an easily obtainable transcript of the portions of the video that are played.  The subtitles are not a substitute for that, and I don't pay my subscription to look at pretty pictures to the sound of Chinese I don't understand.  When there is something I don't understand (which there often is, because the commentator likes to speak very elligantly), I have to watch the same scene several times to copy them down accurately, and  I can't easily make a copy to discuss with my 家教.  

The lesson is a reasonable recommendation of another source of Chinese input, but I hate to see a whole lesson taken up to do that.  Media lessons only come once a month, and are precious to me.  There is oodles of Chinese sources of input out in the wild.  I just don't see showing us a sample as a core service of ChinesePod.

ChinesePod had a period where they did this a lot.  Most of those lessons that are in the archive are pretty useless, because the links are dead, and it is just a lazy way to make a not very good lesson, in my opinion.

Posted on: A Difference of Opinion

My earlier message containing the response I get when I try to listen to the lesson dialog was taken down, but no response on the underlying problem for two days.

Posted on: Putting Documents on the Cloud

Since when did CPod sign the Ramones as their house orchestra?  Last week the intro and outro music made me think I'd been flown to Mexico and my pina colada would be arriving any minute.  It might be that the old tune was getting a little warn, but the recent replacements don't strike me as a good fit.