User Comments - xiaohahaha
xiaohahaha
Posted on: Paying Child Support
May 24, 2007 at 3:51 AMIn Texas we say 'don't mess with Texas'. All hiways have these signs. I might also say about Chinese 'Don't mess with the beauty of Chinese' ie the traditional characters and the beautiful name 'Jenny' vs the masculine name 'Johnny'
Posted on: Paying Child Support
May 24, 2007 at 2:16 AMMy main interest in chinese is to be able to read. I've been taking classes for about 4 years (but trying by myself for 6 yrs before that, but I'm convinced it's impossible to learn to speak in this country (US), unless chinese is spoken in the home, or working in a chinese environment. The tones are the real problem. I only get to speak when I'm in chinatown on weekends shopping. Nobody understands what I say and I hardly know what they say. My teacher is also on chinese radio in Houston, she took me to the studio to practice saying 2 lines for station identification. It took 3 hours of practicing to get the tones right for the 2 sentences. She told me that I need to get 3 out of 4 tones right, otherwise they won't have a clue to what am trying to say. If I only say 3 words in chinese, then I better have all 3 tones right!!! That's so true. I can say the simplest of sentences but I always have to explain what I'm saying in english, then they say what I was trying to say. to me it still sounds the same as I said it in the first place. I had been getting my reading practice by visiting Yahoo's Taiwan news web site. Now with chinesepod, I have an excellent chance to expand my vocabulary with a wide range of subjects.
Posted on: Paying Child Support
May 23, 2007 at 10:24 PMThanks ManToToe! I'm just so happy that I can see traditional characters again!!! I know some chinese ladies from Taiwan that get really emotional when they talk about what China did to their language. Traditional is such a beautiful language!! The word 'Ting' for listen is a perfect example! They took the heart out of the language and made it impotent to a large extent!!! There is probably a chinese word to describe what they did! Another good thing that happened on Chinesepod - Jenny Zhu got her name back!!!! I don't know why people want to mess with all the beauty of Chinese!! Jenny is what makes Chinesepod a very enjoyable place!!!!
Posted on: Paying Child Support
May 23, 2007 at 2:23 AMHouston has a new chinatown and expanding rapidly. All the signs seem to be traditional, Chinesepod had traditional as well as simplified about a month ago. It's a real pity they wiped out the traditional completely!!!!!
Posted on: Paying Child Support
May 22, 2007 at 2:32 AMglad to see some are interested in traditional characters, most of the newspapers in Houston TX are traditional, the better chinese classes here seem to have taiwanese teachers. they tell me that if you know traditional characters, you should be able to figure out the simplified characters, but the reverse is not true!! it seems there is a whole generation of chinese people that won't be able to read chinese books printed before this change occured.
Posted on: Late Getting Back
May 17, 2007 at 3:16 AMWhat happened to the traditional characters? My favorite teacher in Houston, Texas was from Taiwan, so I find the traditonal characters easier to recognize. Learning simplified characters is like learning another language all together!
Posted on: Paying Child Support
May 25, 2007 at 3:16 AMjayding I've been trying to learn chinese for 10 years, and still nobody understands a word I say, and I don't understand a word they say!!! Well,... almost true!! Environment is everything. If you are trying to learn english in China, you will probably have to hear it most of the day, though it may still be easier than chinese is. I attended chinese classes at several places in Houston. Usually one on saturdays and another place on Sundays. Nobody from the 4 different schools I've gone to knows anybody that learned to speak from going to these classes. Most of the people only wanted to speak, but not read or write. None of the ones I knew could speak and be understood, so they all dropped out. At least I was interested in reading, so for me it wasn't a waste of time.