User Comments - sballa
sballa
Posted on: Do You Remember....
July 3, 2008 at 2:15 AMSome better "remember-themed" songs than that Michael Jackson one...
"I Don't Remember" (Peter Gabriel).
"Kayleigh" (Marillion). "Do you remember..."
Steve
Posted on: I Just.... 刚 & 刚才（gāng & gāngcái）
June 26, 2008 at 1:36 AMpulosm,
Thanks! I found your examples helpful. I especially like the temperature one; we often use "just right" to talk about things like the weather, so it will probably find a place in my everyday vocabulary.
rash,
That's the kind of thing that really would have driven me nuts when I was first starting out!
Steve
Posted on: I Just.... 刚 & 刚才（gāng & gāngcái）
June 25, 2008 at 5:05 PMI once heard that the phrase "gāng gāng hǎo" is basically like saying "perfect" in English. Is this the same character 刚 that is covered in this lesson? If so, can one say "gāng hǎo" as well?
Steve
Posted on: Taipei
May 25, 2008 at 10:42 AMandrewm, Our Chinese tutor took us to Bob's 88, right across the street from Bob's 66 that you mentioned. So, right there in suburban Rockville, Maryland, USA, we had our first oyster omelet ever. Well, at least I did. My wife, not a big oyster eater, ate the omelet and hid the oyster under some bones from her 排骨。 Steve
Posted on: Chinese Universities
May 16, 2008 at 3:56 PMFor fun, here's a ranking of the top ten universities in China. As an academic, I know the problems inherent in this kind of rating system, but they can be useful, if for nothing else than bragging... 1 Tsinghua University 2 Peking University 3 Fudan University 3 Nanjing University 5 Zhejiang University 6 University of Science and Technology of China 7 Shanghai Jiaotong University 8 Beijing Normal University 9 Renmin University of China 10 Nan'kai University 10 Zhongshan University
Posted on: Chinese Universities
May 16, 2008 at 11:29 AMhcnerf (or anyone else), What is your take on Beijing Normal, in terms of quality, location, things to do, etc.? It's one of about five schools I may be teaching and doing research at this coming academic year, and it's not easy to get a feel for these places over the Internet. I know its history and ranking, but beyond that I don't have much of a sense. Cheers, Steve
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hunan
May 9, 2008 at 12:08 PMBy the way, Clay, those pictures are very helpful. I made some flash cards with the characters on the front and the picture of the dish on the back. This will help me, right now, visualize the dish names I'm memorizing. And perhaps they'll help down the line, to show a waiter or compare to a menu picture. Steve
Posted on: Diet Coke
May 5, 2008 at 2:51 PMHi all. The 好像 (hǎo shàng) construction seems like it might be helpful in simple, everyday speech. Can it be used like this? Would it normally be used like this?: Q: Are you going to play tennis today? A: 好像要. (I think so.) Steve
Posted on: Going to the Pharmacy
April 21, 2008 at 12:40 PMHi all. Just want to pass along an elementary-level story about listening to the podcasts. It used to be, at the newbie stage, that any vocab I didn't know sounded like pure noise. Had to wait until the translations to make any sense of them. Now, though, I know enough to be dangerous, so to speak. So I hear 需要 (xūyào) instead of 西药 (xīyào). And I hear 重要 (zhòngyào) instead of 中药 (zhōngyào). And now I'm convinced that the question has to do with matters that are "necessary and important" (whatever that might mean). What a continually humbling experience! Steve
Posted on: Clarifying how to use "every" 每（měi）
July 22, 2008 at 4:56 PMTo extend the 每天 construct, would it be correct to use 每天早上 for "every morning" and 每天晚上 for "every evening"?
Steve