User Comments - pinkjeans

Posted on: 谋杀案二

大家好。我刚刚在电视上看了日全食的直播。虽然我没有在现场，我一样这么激动。 真是一个了不起的感觉。 令我的眼泪出来！

Posted on: Dubai

I have been waiting such a long time to find the time to listen to this podcast. 终于有机会了！

I lived in Dubai for 2 years, 2005-6, and I loved it. 每天都有太阳。And I definitely enjoyed being surrounded by 传统的阿拉伯文化 as well as all that 高级现代 stuff. I loved how cosmopolitan and modern it was. It was getting expensive at the time we were there but I heard that the cost of living has really gone through the roof now. We managed only one visit to the Burj-al-Arab for lunch; ironically, we lived very near it , and I drove past it almost every day. My residence was also very near the Mall of the Emirates which houses that indoor ski-slope that people talk about and that was where I tried to learn to ski. I was really sad to leave when the time came but will always cherish the time I spent in 迪拜。I have mistakenly referred to it as 度拜 all these years (which actually made more sense as the temperatures really do go up； 温度太高了！) but our abaya-clad Chinese teacher never corrected us!

Posted on: Finally

我忙得很久，终于可以继续跟Chinesepod学习中文。wǒ máng dė hěn jǐu， zhōng yú kě yǐ jì xù gēn Chinesepod xué xí zhōng wén。I've been busy for a long time, finally I can continue my Chinese study with Chinesepod.

Posted on: Delegating Tasks

Hi, I think you guys got the PDF translations a bit messed up starting from the 2nd page. And the 郑 in 小郑 was first stated as 4th tone but later stated as 1st tone. I thought I was the only person who got 1st and 4th tone mixed up ;) One more thing, it sounds more like 小张 in the recording than 小郑. Is it just me? 

Posted on: Podcast Language 2

Mikeinewshot, I applaud you, for your diligence and patience. Do you get rusty with the other languages that you have learnt if you're concentrating so much on Chinese? Or do you spend time keeping it up? I spent many years on and off studying French in a classroom environment (and now use Frenchpod to supplement) and I find myself getting rusty except for the basics, if I don't attend classes, so I've recently resumed classes, going through content I'm supposed to have already covered.

For Chinese, Chinesepod is my principal tool now since I can't find a suitable class in Singapore (can you believe that??). I do however, value the 2 years I spent in a once a week Chinese school and wish I could find one here. I find that with Chinesepod, my speaking and listening skills progress naturally with the learning of new vocab, but I have to work hard at reading and writing (as opposed to French where my reading and writing is better than my spoken). I suppose that stems from the fact that I have background in spoken (albeit pidgin) Cantonese. the CPOD PDFs are invaluable!

Posted on: Opening a Factory

For me, a wannabe UI, this was a difficult lesson, full of technicalities terms, but I think I gleaned some useful vocab. Thanks, CPOD.

Posted on: Tea Tasting

@sebire, yes, I've tried Tetley's - the colour is really dark! I liked the container it came in though, and I've kept it to keep round cookies in as it is just the right size and shape.

@mickeytoon "Traditionally, in the UK milk was added (room temp) to the cup prior to pouring the tea." What I understand is traditionally, the high society would add milk after pouring the hot tea because the fine bone china cups they used could withstand the heat, but the ordinary people who could not afford fine bone china would pour milk first so that the hot tea would not cause their cups to crack.

Posted on: Welfare Lottery

When I see large amounts of text in 汉字  I get scared and skip reading them, even though I can decipher quite a lot of characters now, so I have essentially missed out on changye and tarcy's (probably interesting) discussion. Does anyone else have my phobia?

Posted on: Tea Tasting

No offence to those who like PG Tips, but personally it is one of the worst teas I have ever  drunk. Maybe it was the hardness of water in the UK. Sebire and rjberki, I'm no tea connoisseur, but I think the way to tell if the 龙井茶叶 is of higher or lower grade, is to see how whole the leaves are. For teas in general, the best ones have tightly rolled leaves that unfurl when 泡 and the worst ones are like dust, and there are varying grades in between. I think tea IS like wine...to be enjoyed no matter what the quality is supposed to be.

Posted on: Tea Tasting

So, the meaning of  要不 is as I originally understood it to be, which is more "if not", but I was thrown off by the translation in the PDF, "how about". As I understand it now, 要不 is said when suggesting an alternative, whereas 还是 is more of a decisive suggestion, like "why don't you just do this?" 对不对？