User Comments - sparechange
sparechange
Posted on: In-Laws and Drinking
September 8, 2007 at 1:38 AMHere's my question: How many of you at CPod are Canadian? I keep hearing a lot of suspicious accents...what's it all 'aboat'? :-)
Posted on: Time to Go
August 31, 2007 at 7:41 PMMexicoBob, I've been tempted to do that. I had un poco Español when I was in school, so that might make it easier for me to get started. Here again, we can see that logic didn't play a key role in my decision to study Mandarin, where I had absolutely no foundation whatsoever....but it's just so darn cool. Anyway, thanks for the invite; I'll keep it in mind.
Posted on: Time to Go
August 31, 2007 at 2:23 PMIn the US, immigrants usually end up in urban areas. Once you get outside of a well-populated area, your opportunities for mingling with foreigners diminish substantially. The town where I work is a bit of an anomaly due to the technological university located there. This makes for a large international population for a town that size. Other than that, the only foreigners you are likely to see outside of major cities are Mexicans, and that has only become more common within the last 10 years or so. There is even a small community of Mexican immigrants in the town where I live (which has a total population of about 4800). And yet, I chose to learn Mandarin....I must be a glutton for punishment. :)
Posted on: Number Two
August 29, 2007 at 2:09 AMHa ha, thanks amber. You'd better get it posted quickly...我狠急！
Posted on: Number Two
August 29, 2007 at 1:44 AMMy first Elementary lesson is about poo.
Posted on: Number Two
August 29, 2007 at 1:29 AMWow.
Posted on: I'm hot!
August 27, 2007 at 4:51 PMmariama, Yes, I'm struggling with the Mandarin "r". Mainly because every native speaker I've heard to date pronounces it differently. Really frustrating. :) I've found the Pronunciation section of this site, as well as John Pasden's blog (URL below) to be very helpful in this regard. http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/pronunciation/
Posted on: I'm hot!
August 27, 2007 at 3:54 AMI've got a couple sentences here that both talk about being "really hot." 今天真热！ 我真的很热！ One uses 真 and the other uses 真的. Anybody have any tips regarding this little nuance?
Posted on: I can't write it
August 23, 2007 at 4:10 PMThanks everybody for the explanations!
Posted on: How do you take your coffee?
September 8, 2007 at 3:30 AMI never could get into coffee. But I sure loves my tea. What's the difference between 要 and 想? They both appear in this lesson, and they both appear to mean the same thing.