User Comments - xiaophil

Posted on: Talking Numbers

Thanks for this lesson! This one in particular is useful for anyone who lives in Shanghai, even if communicating in Shanghainese in general is not a priority.

Any Chinese CPod staff able to tell me if they have trouble understanding Shanghainese numbers or have encountered other situations where they felt lost because people were speaking Shanghainese when they should be speaking Mandarin? I'm always curious to know if non-Shanghainese share this difficulty with us 老外.

In the past, some of my 外地 students have complained to me that bus drivers sometimes announce stops in Shanghainese and they can't understand. I imagine that because of the Expo, all of those dilapidated buses are gone and have been replaced with new ones with automated announcements, so it should be a problem of the past, but I guess this problem still exists in other cities.

Posted on: Subway Announcements

CPod,

There is a question up there that I fear got buried by my comment here.

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/subway-announcements/discussion#comment-179303

Posted on: Subway Announcements

Haha, yes, it is a shame that they are getting there act together. Actually, I remember "the operation has been successful" as being "transaction is succeeded". I only say this because I think it was much more enjoyable to listen to the prerecordings than you remember :-).

Posted on: Sina's Microblogs

I know, but I really don't like watching videos online except for Chinese practice.

Posted on: Subway Announcements

First, Zhen has a question here.

Second, has anyone noticed that the subway announcements on the subway itself have changed in Shanghai? It used to say, "Please alight on the right hand side." Now it says, "Please exit on the right hand side." Seems the authorities found out that a lot of people don't know what 'alight' means. I think the voice is one of the foreigners who is on the CCTV English news. I noticed that they also now use his voice on the China Mobile recordings for recharging cards. This was all done on the run up to the Expo. It is a small detail, but it still sometimes amazes me at high thorough the Chinese government can be when it wants to.

Posted on: Sina's Microblogs

Facebook is really making a Chinese version? I didn't know that. Then I can ditch my VPN. I don't need youtube.

Posted on: Insecticide

As a vegetarian I'm a bit sympathetic to your viewpoint (although I am willing to kill bugs). I think you can use the vocabulary to help you tell people exactly why you don't kill bugs.

Posted on: Traditional Chinese Paintings

Jenny,

Well, that goes for the West too. But I wouldn't get too bummed out. Many years ago only the upper class of just about every society had the time or opportunity to learn painting, and I figure that includes perhaps all countries. Now many people have the time for such pursuits. They just don't want to learn. I guess it ends up being about the same percentage of people appreciating paintings as before.

Posted on: This is outrageous!

baba

I must say that joy4u1 has put in quite an effort into her scamming. Almost 4 pages worth of spam!

Posted on: Straightening Teeth

Thanks for replying. Perhaps the other site just deleted the link. It's ok. Very few people will regret not seeing Dee Snider's fangs, haha.