User Comments - huibert
huibert
Posted on: The Various Guises of "Until"
February 05, 2011, 07:16 PMQing Wen is a good idea, but to be honest, the conversation often irritates me. Too much time is spent on conversations not related to what is taught and Jen draws too much attention to herself. She is just too noisy and for me spoils the conversations by being too vocal and laughing too much. Without her, I am sorry to say, the lessons would be more attractive.
Posted on: I Changed My Mind
January 29, 2011, 03:18 PMToianw: 'plaid' doesn't seem to be North-American, I'd rather say it is a Scottish word, see
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plaid?show=0&t=1296313302
There are some occasions when I feel Chinesepod is too Americanized in its English, but this is not one of them.
By the way: I found the 'until' lesson very useful. I hope the three ladies don't create too much stress for John to go on playing his professional role...
Posted on: A Member of the 'Moonlight Clan'
December 11, 2010, 08:04 PMI found it interesting that in the discussion after the dialogue you mentioned the difference between Chinese and American saving habits. Maybe it is useful to inderstand that these phenomena are related on a macro-economic level: the Chinese save so much and consume little and, in combination with the low rate of the Renminbi enable the Americans to live in structural debt. And in combination they ruin the world economy... Maybe a nice subject for a lesson with a discussion about saving, social security and exchange rates. We had some wonderful stuff on businesss economics and management in the past, so why not have some economics now?
Posted on: Assembling IKEA Furniture
November 23, 2009, 11:58 AMThank you lujiaojie.
Posted on: Assembling IKEA Furniture
November 22, 2009, 02:28 PMNice lesson which tells us more about the clumsiness of these guys than about the difficulty of assempling Ikea furniture. My house is full of it and we never had any problems. A few remarks.
Based on my experience, I don't think it is true you have to buy a tool chest 工具箱 to assemble Ikea furniture. All tools are included in the package.
The hammer in the story lang2tou2 has a different character for lang2 than I would have expected. My dictionary says 浪头, and I read 榔头. Which character is correct?
Can anyone explain the 的 in 没关系的? And also in the next sentence 这样会倒的?
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 5: Super Babies and Ultrasounds
May 15, 2009, 06:44 PMpascalrds: very interesting. I knew the story of the club of rome and its influence on one child policy, but your thesis contains a lot more. I will start reading now!
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 10: Lao Wang Plans to Sue
May 14, 2009, 05:46 PM"Evasiege: Anyone mind explaining in further detail the difference between 不成 and 不了. Also, would there be any cases where 不能做 could work interchangably with either?"
As I understood it from the lesson, 不了 implies that you cannot even begin to do something, 不成 means that you cannot do it with the intended outcome, though you might still have tried. And I would add - experts please check this for me! - 不能做 indicates that you lack the basic abilities to do it, whereas 不了 refers to some circumstance blocking you.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 10: Lao Wang Plans to Sue
May 12, 2009, 07:39 PMNice lesson. It illustrates how different China has become from the socialist China in which no worker would dare to oppose the party's authority in the work unit! For those interested in a good sociological analysis of changing power relations in the workplace, the increasing impact of legal structures in the context of the development of a market economy, I suggest this fascinating book: Doug Guthrie, 'China and Globalization' (you'll find it on amazon). He concentrates on the reform period 1985-1995, but he has added more recent material.
A completely different remark on the lesson: why not just use the good English word 'bullshit'? We need such words, not only in Chinese...
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 3: Prenatal Checkup
March 06, 2009, 09:17 PM"Is your avatar from the 神道 in Nanjing? It looks like a military official to me..." (pearltowerpete asked)
Yes, good recognition! see also http://www.open.ou.nl/hdm/travel/Nanjing/Pictures2/index.htm
Posted on: New Employee in the Office
February 06, 2011, 11:57 AMDilu and John, I'd just like to tell you that you are making a very good combination - I won't say couple because this has some wrong overtones. I really liked the combination with Jenny, and I still do, but having a different voice is very good for a change. And the way you present this together is balanced and nice to listen to. So, Dilu, stay with us for a while please...