User Comments - orkelm
orkelm
Posted on: Matchmaking in the Park
January 03, 2012, 02:10 PMI've been to People's Park, hanging out with the parents who were there. Since my daughter is single, tons of people were asking me about her. I played along, (showing pictures of her from my iphone) until a TV crew from Taiwan wanted to interview me about why I came to China (from the US) to marry off my daughter. Up to that point it was great fun!
Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams
February 08, 2011, 08:27 PMThis is one of my favorite pictures from my last trip to Beijing. Check out the Kobe Bryant jersey! Yao, I've got, but RNYABT!!!!
Posted on: Fun at the Beach
July 12, 2010, 04:28 PMSo what's the chinese word for the long sleeves that are added to people's arms when they wear short-sleeved shirts? And where do people buy them?
Posted on: An Introduction!
April 20, 2010, 02:31 PMThis all about Shanghainese reminds me of my experience of learning some Catalan in Barcelona. I could have used Spanish with the locals, but there was something about having a North American who spoke a few words of Catalan, it caused them to be super friendly and much more open with me. My experience in Barcelona totally changed when I tried to speak with them in Catalan. My guess is that the same will be the case in Shanghai with Shanghainese
Posted on: Excited About Traveling
August 19, 2009, 01:23 PM
Since I am a university professor and have spent most of my life either studying or teaching foreign languages, this lesson was a weird experience for me. Normally when I listen to elementary lessons, I understand a good part of what is being said. Then the lesson clarification gives me the rest. For some reason, I just couldn't understand anything when I listened to this dialog the first time through. I thought the girl was maybe afraid of something, and he was maybe trying to comfort her. Boy, was I wrong! Then when Jenny repeated the lines slower, turns out that I understood 100% of the words already, even before Ken translated them. I was really disappointed with myself. It was just a strange example of overload where simple phrases, ones that I normally know and use all the time, just weren't clicking. I remember actually thinking during the dialog, "gao xing" I know, that what is it? "luxing" I know that, what is it? "kai xin" I know that, what is it? shui jaio" I know that, what is it?
I'm not even sure why I am writing this comment. Probably it's more for myself, to be able to say, "Orlando, hang in there, you really can learn Chinese." And my guess is that others need that reassurance now and again as well.
The other reason is that the professor in me wants to know why I just plain didn't understand anything the first time through. Ken and Jenny did the normal "context" preparation, you would think that the lesson title would have helped... Nope, I'm stumped and I'm going to have to figure this one out.
Sorry for the ramble... but thanks for the lesson, and yes, now when I listen to the dialog I understand it just fine.
Posted on: Heading Home
May 14, 2009, 01:54 PMBababardwan,
Since I'm a North American (Canadian born, but naturalized), it cracked me up to see that in your question about dating couples in China who use 'lao gong' and 'lao po', you ended your sentence to Rich with "thanks for your examples mate :)." I wish we had a cool word like "mate" to use with our friends too!
Posted on: Hold the Elevator
February 18, 2009, 06:45 PMmissworldtraveler,
Maybe people giggled because they had seen the picture in your avatar!!!!
Posted on: You First
February 10, 2009, 04:59 PMFor me the difficulty in China wasn't with being asked to go first, it was more that since the foods were new to me, I really didn't know how to eat some of the foods. Not going first gives me time to see how they eat the items.
So, what would be a good chinese version of:
"I'm not sure how to eat this."
"Could you show me the proper way to eat this?"
Posted on: Seeing Somebody to the Door
January 08, 2009, 03:38 AMWhen attending meetings in China I really enjoyed it when people walked me to the elevator, or down the elevator, or even to the street (not to mention that sometimes it helped to have a native speaker help with the taxi instructions). It was a pleasant way to end a meeting and I liked the sense of winding down that it gave. However this lesson left me wondering if I should have been more forceful with "buyong" along the way... Probably wouldn't have changed anything.
Posted on: Fast Cars and Shallow Women
September 14, 2012, 02:49 PMSo, if "po che" is a lousy car, how does one say "Porsche" in Chinese? When I first listened to the dialogue, that's what I thought "po che" was going to mean. Was a surprised when I found out it was "lousy car"!