User Comments - pretzellogic

Posted on: Reinstalling Windows

In the interests of fairness, I suppose there should be a shout out or three to other antivirus providers such as Trend Micro, Symantec and McAfee (now becoming part of Intel), but I won't go far as to provide the links. :)

Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group

@catherine thanks for your reply. I guess I should have said my broader point more clearly, which is

1)why does Cpod have more than 128 lessons on food when there are other reasonably high frequency topics that only have a few or no lessons. I've suggested a few, and apparently they didn't make the cut into becoming lessons as they were suggested months ago.

2 from your statement regarding the cultural and linquistic issues brought up in this lesson, are you saying that these same issues have never been brought up in other lessons,food or otherwise?

Posted on: You've been everywhere!

What about increased financial incentives to prevent language allegiance shifts? I'm curious why wealthy Cantonese speakers don't just pony up the money to subsidize Cantonese schools. Or are they? There does seem to be a vocal contingent that wants a dying/endangered/threatened language taught, composed of some foreigners as well as locals. Funding private schools might be part of the appropriate response. Or what about paying foreign kids to attend Cantonese language schools and speak Cantonese to prevent the shift of allegiances.

Posted on: Useful Phrases #1

oh, and after going through the discussion thread, I saw this post from calkins that I think is helpful:

If anyone would like the transcript with pinyin tone marks...

Usage:

了解 (liǎojiě)

- to understand a situation, a matter, a person, or a fact. (Using your head).

理解 (lǐjiě)

- to understand the meaning of something, a person's way of doing something, or a person's reason for doing something. (Using your heart or feelings to be compassionate, tolerant, or forgiving).

Back to the salt mines.

Posted on: Useful Phrases #1

There is a QW about this

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/understanding-%E4%BA%86%E8%A7%A3-li%C7%8Eojie-and-%E7%90%86%E8%A7%A3-l%C7%90jie

someone that's more interested in grammar than I am can quickly weigh in with the difference, but lǐjiě is more about feelings, whereas liǎojie is more about everything else.

Posted on: Weather Forecast

If this only ran through the city names as well as the temperature highs and lows, this would sound like CCTV.

Posted on: The Door

knew it was here somewhere.

Posted on: Weighing Yourself on the Street

well, I wouldn't say I was blissful, but I was certainly unaware. Harder to be unaware of the British electorates feelings here in the 21st century (thank you Sputnik!). Good old BBC News is just a link away.

Posted on: Weighing Yourself on the Street

Oh, and when my wife was here in the 90s, and she'd end up telling the drivers that she was American, the driver would say something like, wow, what's up with Bill Clinton? And isn't this Monica girl kinda young for him?

Posted on: Weighing Yourself on the Street

FWIW, I've been asked by about 20 taxi drivers what country I am from, and then I said the US, then they never asked me anything else. I'm happy to hear that they ask other Americans something. Maybe with me they're surprised. Then the taxi driver would say that my Chinese was really good. If the ayi was with me, I would tell the taxi driver, my Chinese isn't good, you can ask the ayi.

I know a German here, and he would say that the conversations he used to get were:

1) Ok, Hitler's first mistake was....

2) Thanks for the BMWs, the Audis, the Volkswagens, the Porsches....