User Comments - pretzellogic

Posted on: Exchange Rates

not that it's a magic number, but at some point this week 1000RMB are now being exchanged for more than US$150.00

Posted on: Old School Toys

"I can pick up marbles with chopsticks" Wǒ gēn kuàizi dànzǐ náqīlái. Is this correct?

Posted on: Horseback Riding

Hi claudielo, stanrachev, a quick search on the site revealed (hopefully these links work):

Upper Intermediate - Personal Trainer

Intermediate - Going to the Gym

•Upper Intermediate - Calisthenics

•Intermediate - Tai Chi

Posted on: Horseback Riding

here are a few:

•Upper Intermediate - Personal Trainer

•Intermediate - Going to the Gym

please see working links below.

Posted on: Walking the Bird

Having only read the lesson, my own casual observation is that i've never seen birds go out for walks in the US. But maybe I wasn't paying close enough attention. When the birds are in the bird store, do the sales staff take them for walks? Or do all the birds go during the day, and get burned up by the sun? What happens to birds in the wild if they fly during the day, do they get burned up by the sun?.

Posted on: Weekend Warriors

hongkongnik, this lesson is at the intermediate level, so it's a challenge for a newbie. But I seem to recall John saying that it has around 14 uses of "le", so it might be helpful if you can wade through the rest of the vocabulary that you might not understand.

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/excuses-for-being-late

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

I think that's similar to Beijing; If they're nearing shift's end, they will take you if you're already heading in their direction. But then they make you wait outside the taxi while they interrogate you about your destination.

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

well, i've had drivers stop, look at me, ask me where i'm going, then drive away. A couple of times, they just looked at me and continued driving. But in those cases, taxis were plentiful, and it was easy to get another one.

Posted on: Getting Tough on Employees

I've noticed in a couple of lessons ("delegating tasks" and this one) that zīliào and cáiliào are translated as "documents" or "materials", but how do you translate  "Microsoft Word document" into Chinese? Or better yet, a Microsoft word file saved on a flash disk as document?

Posted on: Can't Get a Taxi

After being ignored and passed up by empty taxis (and thinking that lots of drivers didn't want to pick up a foreigner), then seeing that locals couldn't get a taxi either with lots of drivers ignoring them, I and my wife finally got a taxi to pick us up, after 20 minutes of trying to hail one.  My wife asked the driver why we were being ignored, and the driver said that at the end of the shift, no one wants to pick up a new fare, regardless of being local or foreigner.  Shift ends around 5pm (at least in Beijing), so if you have problems hailing a cab, that might be the drivers going off shift.