User Comments - oolung
oolung
Posted on: Studying Japanese
October 11, 2007 at 8:37 AMthanks, changye and kyle! (I'm not getting upset, I've long since accepted the harsh reality of the Chinese listening comprehension ;) Until recently, for me at least, actually speaking Chinese has been far simpler than listening to it (especially since most Chinese speak putonghua with some local pronounciation, which makes it harder. That's why I'm so grateful to our dear Jenny for her beautiful, crystal-clear way of speaking. By the way, have you noticed that Chinese women are almost ALWAYS easier to understand than men?). All in all, I think it's not that hard to learn the four tones and whatnot - the true difficulty with Chinese lies in (apart from listening :D) the time and effort that you have to put into cramming all those characters. Were it not for them, Chinese would be easy-peasy :D
Posted on: Studying Japanese
October 10, 2007 at 9:58 AMThere's one thing that really frustrates me about Chinese and Japanese. The first I've been studying for four years, almost every day. The second: just for about five months, once or twice a week. But when I watch a Japanese movie and there's a word I've already learned, I can immediately catch it and understand. Whereas while watching Chinese movies, I KNOW I've learned most of the words they are saying and still very often can't understand the dialogues, whereas if they were written down, I would have no problem at all. It's all because of homophones! 真让人发火！我只好还要努力地继续提高我的听力才行呀！:)
Posted on: Wang Wei's Diary: Food and Girls
October 6, 2007 at 7:17 AMWang Wei = Jerry Steiner --> :D:D:D as to the proper direction of writing in Chinese , I think there are different possibilities now. The PRC books that I've seen are printed exactly like Western books, but I've also read a Hong Kong novel which was printed right to left and top to bottom. Maybe it has something to do with tradition: in HK and Taiwan they would use the traditional way (as well as the traditional characters), while at the mainland they might have adopted the Western way together with the simplified characters (I don't mean to say that the simplif. char. were somehow introduced by the Westerners :D). Would that be correct, Ken, Jenny, Amber, anyone? :) (And I HAVE known men who wrote diaries, so don't say it's impossible! And just think of Samuel Pepys! :))
Posted on: Wang Wei's Diary: Food and Girls
October 5, 2007 at 12:06 PMcool banter, Jenny and Ken! I can listen to you like I would do to a radio station! You're both great!
Posted on: Paying Child Support
October 5, 2007 at 11:03 AM这个课程太好了！课本演得非常好，让我有点感动啊：） 啊，对了，课程有什么量词？“课”这个词的量词是“节”，“课程”呢？是不是一样吗？ 还有，最后的一句话 ”但愿吧“ 是什么意思？我想是一种比较悲观的同意，对不对， 但的确地说那个人到底是“愿”些什么呢？ 对于那个下课以后的英语宣传呢，我已经给许许多多的人传了言了啊！嘻嘻 ：） 大家保重！
Posted on: Of Beauty Pageants and Plastic Surgery
October 2, 2007 at 3:50 PM大家好！这个网站真太棒了！ That's funny, just a few hours ago I was thinking about what was the word for plastic surgery in Chinese. I came back home, logged in... et voila! :D A truly uncanny example of mind-reading on the part of chinesepod. thank you, guys!
Posted on: Experiencing Agricultural Life
October 11, 2007 at 12:03 PM这节课太好，太棒，太酷了呀！能不能给我们再来这样地道，这样自然的汉语对话？或者让我们听一下各种各样的地方的口音？虽然有时候比较难听，但到底中国人就是这样说话，不像那些读音很清楚的对话里，所以还是在这里习惯于他们说话的方法好多了，你们不觉得吗？ 谢谢chinesepod 给我们这么有意思的课程。加油！ 好吧，我不要再拍马屁了；）我只想鼓励你们继续好的工作，而不想让你们妄自尊大啊，嘻嘻 （好像没有这样的可能。。。）。