User Comments - trevorb

Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?

In the dialog ken and jenny talk about people taking offence at being called 老外, Though I can't see why. I have heard of another term for foreigner though 洋鬼子 and I believe this is considered to be insulting maybe even banned. Again I don't mind being a foriegn devil but I wondered about what effect the phrase and it's use has on Chinese people. Is it just never used or is it muttered when the foreign devil can't hear?

Posted on: Bad Cell Reception

China is so big its inevitable that even if speaking the same dialect its got to be delivered differently.  There is plenty of variation in english the same way even on this little rock ranging from the scotish to the cornish.  That diversification of english gets bigger as you cross the atlantic and listen to what our american cousins have done to it ;-)  Even there it varies greatly....

Thing is though we say it differently the context and meaning still comes through even though it sounds a bit off.  You  say Tomaytow and I say tomato....

When we settle though our usage adapts to the local, hence visiting my school friend in California he sounded american to me yet over the period of the week he returned to speaking with a sussex accent (much to the ammusement of his famil)

Posted on: Stopped at the Gate

In the dialog text (at work so can't listen to the cast yet ;-) )When the guy asks about the friends name he says nǐ péngyou ( 你朋友)whereas I expected it to be nǐde péngyou(你的朋友)

Now I was aware when its close family you drop the de but is there something more to this dropping I'm not geting? 

Posted on: Military Training

Way more advanced than me but I really liked it anyway.  Whilst I couldn't understand everything that was said there was a lot I could and much that I felt I should remember but couldn't!

For me sitting here far from china watching and hearing the language is good for me.  A full transcript would be good though, just to see what bits I did know but couldn't recognise at speed.... 

Posted on: Introducing the Managers

Amber,

In your answer above you said

认识你我很高兴. (Rènshi nǐ wǒ hěn gāoxìng.) therefore is a little more generic.

I've always seen this in books as

很高兴认识你 hěn gāoxìng Rènshi nǐ

Is this one of those cases where either is right or is your version more colloquial?  The one from my book looks like straight english translation vs yours that sounds more chinese in chinglish ;-) 

Posted on: A Very Special Day

And I missed this one yesterday because it was my 生日！But just to be really clear i am NOT yet 1000 :-) although I may well be before I move on to intermediate ;-)

What an honour to share my birthday with Chinese National day and CPods 1000th lesson.....

Posted on: Afraid of Dogs

H'm

Yes, 狗屁 [gǒupì] is kinda like saying 'BS' in English.

Is there reason why this is so (don't know what pi4 means)......ah thanks MDBG now I do!!  

I guess the sentiment is the same just different animals...  Thing is the sounds are pretty familiar for those of us in the UK too (if you listen to them as english) so I'm not likely to forget but can't use them on my colleagues ;-)

Posted on: Changes on ChinesePod

Video sounds like a great idea to me.  I tend to listen to Pods when driving and do other exercises when I can leading to a certain lack of consistency.  Videos will force me to give them time....

As for the pods already stored on the web.  They are out there already and it has been proven with music downloads there is nothing CPod or anyone else can do about that. Cpod is not about the podcasts though its about the community and that is important.  I've looked at other sites myself but its the community that makes this one my chosen teacher.

Auntie68 raises a valid point though that I hope CPod can figure out as input from native and near native speakers can be really helpful especially with the cultural input they often bring on the use of the language. 

Posted on: Morning at the Office

Further to mandarinboy's post using a tablet PC with vista is a great way to practice writing chinese characters.  You can write directly on the surface and its really pretty fussy about stroke order. 

The otherway you can do this now is via the iPod touch or iPhone as the version 2.0 software has the ability to recognise written characters, although some of them seem a little strange..... Still great way to practice when you are on the move.

I record all the characters I've learnt and then review them during boring meetings.  ;-)

I must say though it took a while before I knew enough characters to help with the lessons.  Now I find myself hearing things in the lesson and associating them with their character and the associated Pinyin.  Sometimes I hear one thing on the Pod then realise its actually something different when I read the dialog.  Finally though I'm begining to remember words and phrases rather than sylables.....

Posted on: Getting a Phone Number

@loveeverythingchinese

PC's do pretty much the same as Macs, just add keyboards in the regional settings, I use Chinese PRC and Chinese Traditional.

Best thing though is if you have a tablet PC you can write the charecters directly and have it recognise them.  I use this a lot just to practice stroke order and stuff in tedious meetings ;-)