User Comments - mark

Posted on: We Need to Discuss My Allowance

My impression is that 介意 is more likely to be used when the speaker is asking permission to do something that might offend: "Do you mind, if I smoke?", "Do you mind, if I sit next to you?", that sort of thing.

Posted on: 屈原与渔夫 Qu Yuan and the Fisherman

I didn't realize singing was one of Fiona's talents.

Posted on: Learning words with 然 rán：当然,虽然,竟然,果然,不然

I'd asked for a qing wen on this topic a long time ago.  The wait was worth it.

Posted on: We Got Skills: 技能,技术,技巧

I like Constance's banter.  It is good counter-point to Fiona, and having Constance speak in Chinese and Fiona give the English explanations, works well for me.  Although, I can follow what Constance is saying without Fiona's help.  Fiona sometimes adds details, and sometimes the English just gives my brain a break to absorb the Chinese.  So, all good.

Posted on: Saying You're Angry: 生气

English can express many degrees of angry: annoyed, furious, ... murderess rage, and with different degrees of formality: ticked off, really pissed, spitting fire ...

I'd be curious about taxonomy of similar Chinese terms.  I have a vague notion of a few.

Hulk 生Loki的气 - Loki ticked off Hulk.

Loki 让Hulk很生气 - Loki really pissed off Hulk

Loki 让Hulk火冒三丈 - Loki infuriated Hulk

Loki  让Hulk的杀气腾腾  - Loki put hulk into a murderess rage

Is that about right?  I'm sure there are others.  说说吧。

Posted on: 失言风波

Yes, there were some explanitory details I missed the first couple of times I listened to the lesson.  However, I still think more context would be helpful.

I have no objection to the difficulty level of the lesson, in fact, appreciate that part.

Posted on: 失言风波

This is another lesson where the specialized language is very helpful to know, but the context of the dialog is a little misterious.  I always have trouble understanding Chinese news casts, and the pointers about news cast catch phrases are all very welcome.  Conversely, I have no idea what the mayor in this dialog said to cause an uproar.  If I had a more specific context, it would be easier for me to follow the dialog, and guess the meaning of  the new vocabulary from context.

As it is, the mayor made a statement about something.  What the something was, and what he said are unexplained.  However, the statement itself caused some controversy.  It is again not clear what was controversial in what he said.  However, at the point we are plunged into the seen he has called a news conference to explain himself, and the talking heads back at the TV studio aren't satisfied with what he said.  Then the dialog ends and Fiona and Constance discuss the language used in this scene.

I think more character and plot development would make this lesson both more accessible and more interesting.  Again, I think broading our language horizons in this dimension is laudable, but the execution could use some refinement.

加油！

Posted on: 人间蒸发

This lesson was more difficult for me than most advanced lessons, even after listening a few times, and reading the transcript.  I think the recent tendency of Chinesepod lessons to launch into dailog with the context unexplained was a contributing factor.  The guy seems to have been selected to enter some kind of science fair competition, or some such, and they both seem to be soon to graduate and select their majors.  This has to be gleaned from their banter.  I have somewhat mixed feelings about this style.

If I want to eaves drop on strangers, this is very good practice.  I often overhear conversations in Mandarin that are difficult to follow, because I lack shared context with the speakers, but it would be pretty rude to jump into such a conversation without knowing the participants.

If I were involved in a bantering conversation, I would know the background already and would be focusing on the banter rather than trying to extract the circumstances from what was said.

Anyway, I think the exposure to this style of language is good, but the delivery of this kind of lesson could be improved.

Posted on: Let Me Speak to a Human Being

A net friend from the mainland pointed out a few Taiwanisms in this lesson without any prompting from me:  西元 》 公元， 井字键 》井号键， 米字键》星号键。

Posted on: 5000 Years of History

曆is most likely the traditional form of 历。