User Comments - suxiaoya

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

Wow, xiaophil, is this you taking revenge on the kids that played the April Fool's trick on you?! Hehe, seriously, though, I'd be interested to know the outcome.

By the way, I really don't know enough about the culture of cheating here to comment with much conviction. I just think it's an interesting question. Of course, I am aware cheating is not limited to China, but I do come across this "Shame vs. Guilt" idea quite often.

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

New York Press article today on how cheating in exams is rife in China:

http://www.nypress.com/blog-6248-china-fails-the-honor-system.html

Quite interesting. Perhaps it's indicative of the pressure that students face here, if so many resort to cheating?

Also arguably indicative of the difference in approach to cheating between the East and West (I've heard it referred to as "Shame versus Guilt", whereby in China the risk of shame/losing "face" is far more of a driving/limiting factor than feelings of guilt/conscience)...

Posted on: New Dashboard, Scarlett and Teachers!

Hey xiao_long, I'm blushing hehehe ;-)

To your question, I can honestly say the atmosphere here has never been better during the year and a half that I've been at ChinesePod. Those who do move on all have their own good reasons to do so; this is normal in any company, no?

Of course, sometimes we do have to be a bit careful around Connie, in case she is tempted to whip out her gun again (see this Qing Wen for the violent details http://chinesepod.com/lessons/picking-things-up-%E6%8B%BF%E3%80%81%E5%B8%A6%E3%80%81%E5%8F%96 ) ;-)

Posted on: It's Stopped Raining

Good luck with nailing the tones, thandos! No doubt it will really add to your travel experience to be able to communicate the basics - and I'm sure the people you meet will really respect and appreciate your efforts!

Lots of listening should help a lot. Also, though, you might want to try our third-party add-on tool from AiSpeech. It's designed to correct the recordings of your tone practice. You can check out the trial version here: http://chinesepod.com/tools/addons/tone

Let us know how you get on!

Posted on: Mobile Apps, QQ, and the Holidays

Hi ncsu33 - Yes, it does depend on your subscription type: access to features on the Android and iPhone apps parallels access to them on the website.

Basic subscribers, therefore, can download the lessons to which they subscribe via their RSS lesson feeds. They also have full access to the glossary.

Premium subscribers meanwhile can also access their personalised vocabularly and use the flashcards to practice, syncing the vocab activity (i.e. adding/deleting words) with their online accounts. In sum, a Premium subscription enables you get the most out of the apps.

Should you have any further questions, please get in touch with us support@praxislanguage.com and our support team can walk you through.

Posted on: Discussing Contract Renewal

I'd say it's normal, yes, not least because contracts are usually connected with a year-long working visa. I had to renew mine in January. Can't say I'm very good at the negotiations! :-)

Posted on: Giving up a Seat on the Bus

大概六七岁

Posted on: Giving up a Seat on the Bus

Oddly, though, as xiaophil points out, you do get a number of these 小皇帝 who are doted on to the point that they are given a seat over their parents on the metro. I'm pretty sure I've not seen that much elsewhere...

Posted on: Giving up a Seat on the Bus

Aww, punished for his kindness - sooo harsh!

Posted on: Giving up a Seat on the Bus

In rush hour public transport can be truly horrific in Shanghai. People's Square metro station is especially busy, but the buses are even worse in my experience.

I have noticed that increasingly numbers of people follow the rule of "先下后上" (xiān xià hòu shàng / let people get off first, then get on). However, in rush hour all the rules go out of the window and it's generally mahem!

To be fair, though, the London underground can be totally crazy, too. I used to commute up from Waterloo to Tottenham Court road and it was a painful experience every single day...