User Comments - mark

Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners

I like the Qing Wens that are about differences between similar words.  I always learn something from those, but sometimes I don't know what I don't know.  So, I don't know what to ask.  Ok, I have one.  I always have trouble with the X然 words (e.g. 既然、果然、翻然。。。）  Could you do a lesson on what 然 means and some of the common X然s？

Posted on: Playing Mahjong

I like seeing you guys during the lesson banter.  I don't like that I can't listen to the lesson banter while driving or commuting on the train (my smart phone seems not so smart about the video.)  Thanks for including a written transcript of the lesson dialog.

Posted on: An Urgent Call to the Embassy

The part that is not real is that a 5.7 quake is usually not that serious. The parents in this episode are totally over-reacting. It will knock some things off shelves very close to the epicenter, and give everyone in the area a good fright, but it is usually not life-threatening. I've experienced several earthquakes near this magnitude where I live. They are hot topics of conversation for a day, or two, but then people get on with their lives. Someday, we will have "the big one", but these aren't it.

Posted on: The Secret Cash Stash

I used the at sign, because I was lazy about separating my thoughts into two messages. One was general to the discussion thread. One was in response to your comment. @username is a convention I picked up from somewhere for indicating that sort of thing.

Posted on: Wheelchair Access to the Great Wall

In regard to wheelchair access to 八达岭， when I went there to become a 好汉 the summer before last, I only noticed a gondola to near the top.  One would still have to go along a fairly wheelchair unfriendly path to get to the base of the wall, and the wall itself would be impossible to negotiate.  I guess wheelchair accessible wasn't high on 秦始皇's agenda.  There was a fortress area lower on the wall, that may have had elevator access, but not having been there, I couldn't promise.

Posted on: The Secret Cash Stash

哎呦，  if my household were run like this one, I might not be able to afford CPod.

@pretzellogic, I have been pretty much just reading the hanzi for a while.  I like the roll-over translations of individual phrases in the dialog to look up the words I get absolutely stuck on, but those are fewer and fewer, over time.

Posted on: 海归女对掐主持人

It seems America's Great Firewall is preventing me from viewing the video.  At any rate, potatoe net says that due to rights issues, it can't be seen outside of China, for a time.

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

I think famines might also occur if a society exhausts the resource base that society depends on. I think this has happened a number of times. Jarrod Diamond wrote a book titled, Collapse, which gives a number of historical examples, Easter Island, the Mayans, the Greenland Colony ... In the case of our modern society, the critical resource might be oil. Anyway, population obviously has an influence on how many resources are required and how quickly they are used up, if they can't be renewed. From that perspective, China's one child policy seems wise to me, or, at least, the presumed intentions behind it seem wise.

Posted on: Birthday on the Lunar Calendar

@royroy123, There is a gear icon that shows in the upper right corner of many Cpod pages. Click on it, and you will have the option to hide all that annoying pinyin.

Posted on: 孔子拜访老子 2：小国寡民

I am glad to hear David's voice in the dialog.  I hope that means we will be hearing more of him, again, soon.