Published by Frank March 5th, 2008
in ChinesePod and Travel.
Can you believe that I was only there for seven days? It felt like a lifetime.
I’ve been holding off on a major recap because there’s a secret I’ve been dying to share and I just don’t have the green light yet. It’s just going to have to wait a little longer. (Trust me, this hurts me more than it hurts you!)
So what do you want to know? Help me focus, people! Do you want to hear about the people at ChinesePod? How about the food I ate while I was there? I had a surprisingly good lunch over at the infamous BSR (Bad Service Restaurant) and helped Clay find his “Blue Steel” look.
OH! You know what I can tell you? Steve Williams (one of the CPod founders) and his wife just had a new baby! Congrats to them both!
What’s funny, and not a little strange for me, is that I’m finding words less useful since I started taking photos. There’s this saying about each one of them being worth a thousand words. Might be some truth there. Look at this one, for example:
There’s got to be some lingo-cultural explanation behind this whole “talking girl” thing. Best guess here? Anybody? I don’t know the answer myself, but I found that it tickled me when I saw it. It was just one of a million little moments that made it such a great trip.
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Published by Frank February 22nd, 2008
in ChinesePod and Travel.
Yes, yes, I know. I’ve been neglecting you. All four of you. But you see enough of me over in the Conversation section, don’t you?
However, if you’re one of the few folks who can’t access the Convo section on ChinesePod, or you just follow my Chinese language exploits through this here blog, I invite you to click on the picture above and see China through my eyes. I took over 3,000 photos while I was there, and I think these are the best of them. I hope you enjoy them.
But let’s talk language for a minute, shall we?
I spent entire days talking in Chinese. I sat in cabs and got where I wanted to go. I ordered food and drink. I chatted up waitresses and business men. I’m sure I sounded like a retarded fourth grader while I was doing these things, but I did it. I spoke and was understood. That’s nothing short of amazing, if you ask me, and I owe it all to the program here at ChinesePod. I’d rank myself as a low Intermediate learner at this point, but I felt an awful lot like a Newbie at times.
That being said, I’ll confess that I’ve spent too much time chatting with other users and not enough time digging into the lessons. Gotta change that, and fast!
How about you kids? How are you getting on out there?
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Published by Frank February 8th, 2008
in ChinesePod and Travel.
Hiya, kids! Pardon the radio silence here the last few weeks. I’ve been chatting your ears off over in the Conversations section, and I’ve had my hands full wrapping up a top secret project that I’ll hopefully be able to share when I get back.
Anyway, in the morning I depart for Shanghai! I’m not sure what the schedule will be like this week, what with it being Chinese New Year and all, but I’ll make sure to stop by the ChinesePod offices and remind them what I look like. (Poor bastards. Momma always said I had a great face for radio.)
I’ll make sure to pop back here while I’m away and leave periodic trip reports. There may even be pictures!
Stay tuned!
(Oh, and I haven’t had a single chance to, you know, study Chinese for weeks now. You may consider me officially nervous.)
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Published by Frank January 24th, 2008
in Humor and ChinesePod.
So, here’s a funny story for you…
Just about a year ago, I was in the ChinesePod offices for the first time. I happen to be there on Dave Lancanshire’s first day, in fact. (For those paying attention, that means Dave just had his one-year anniversary with the company. Look for a post in the Conversations section on this shortly.)
Anyway, Dave was trying to coax me into talking a bit to see how good (or bad) my tones were. Of course, I was terrified! This was a live test, people! This was not a drill! We were go for launch codes! Warning, warning! Danger Will Robinson!!!
Or… at least that’s what it sounded like in my head.
So I said the first thing that came into my head. It was a line from a recent lesson. I said, “我流血了!”
流血 • liú xuè • shed blood
And Dave’s eyes go WIDE. And I’m thinking… okay. My tones must REALLY suck. Damn, I thought I had that line pretty good! Oh, man, I’m in trouble! So I said it in English.
“I said, ‘I’m bleeding.’”
“I know what it means,” Dave said. “It just took me by surprise because that phrase can also mean that you’re… uh… menstruating. And since you didn’t have any visible wounds…”
Hehe.
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