Posted on 07/19/2008 2:15:20 AM PDT by bad company
Thanks for sharing. Looks like not everyone agrees with you on this.
By the way, have they succeeded in converting Beijing air quality from its normal toxic soup status to something breathable?
The air here! Not good, but not so bad as a month ago. This evening was pleasant. We’ve had several sunny blue sky days and one night I even saw stars. Tomorrow begins odd/even driving limitations. So maybe there’s hope.
Don’t let them get to you CW, I’ve spent time in China as well and you’re just telling it like it is. Not “spinning” China’s “virtues”.
BTW, I’ve found that Mongolian women can be quite beautiful.
Thanks. I saw quite a few beautiful Mongolian women! If I could only speak a little more Mandarin!
Well, belated welcome to FR and I look forward to reading some of your “on the ground” reports during the Olympics. I’ve spent time in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen over the last several years.
Good luck with Mandarin. Just when I started concentrating on it, I stopped going to China. :-(.
As for the games, they'll be run like clock-work... but the handling of fans and traffic and daily concerns will get, ummm, "fuzzy", in my estimation. I would kill a baby seal to be in China for the next month or so, but I wouldn't want to be in Beijing if they paid me $1,000 (traffic, new rules, traffic, crowds, traffic, too many Brazilians this month, traffic...). The sense of national pride has got to be getting pretty amazing by now. (I was in Guangzhou for the first leg of the torch relay, and was delighted to truly feel a sincere, pervasive, and public sense of national pride for a positive reason... a rare event in the world today.)
What methods are/were you two using?
Good for you for trying to learn to read! I’m not very good at that at all. Phonetic flash cards have worked good for me because I just have to force myself to memorize vocabulary. But I still screw up. Today I meant to ask for an English newspaper but slipped up and asked for an “England” paper.
If I were 20 years younger I’d work 80% harder on this!
That's an odd turn of phrase to my ear. Who is the closer for the Philadelphia Phillies. Never mind. I forgot that they didn't have the internet during WWII.
The only ones who disagree with me and others are ChiCom trolls and/or their useful idiots who benefit economically from trade with those genocidal maniacs. Which category do you belong to?
“I sat in an outdoor Beijing restaurant yesterday and today and saw black people being served. “
Have black people replaced Tibetians on the menu? How did you see them cooked - rare, medium, or well done?
You said: Have black people replaced Tibetians on the menu?
Now that’s funny!
Thank you :)
What an outrage!!!!
You mean they'll still serve the Irish?
I, for one, will take your posts at face value, please keep posting. I have been to China and have seen blacks there, but have not had any conversations with them. My general inmpression is that most are there on business, and they are from Africa, not the US. I have heard that many Africans are there as English teachers as well. I never saw them being treated differently.
Tengchong.... hot springs and volcanos....
Have been to any farms? Seen any pigs and chickens and livestock and fruit and vegetable production?
Sounds like you can read a lot more characters than I can!
I was learning Japanese on my own for a while with a combination of Pimsleur and workbooks, and of course speaking practice in country. I learned the kana (Japanese phonetic alphabets) and can only recognize about 100 or so Kanji (Chinese characters). China mostly uses simplified so I can read the ones I know from Japanese once you know the simplification of the radicals. Pronounciation of course is another matter.
I started Mandarin the same way with Pimsleur, but my work assignment changed and no longer go to Asia.
Good Luck!
I agree. The end of all-encompassing government control of the economy has been good for living standards. They're not at First World standards, but the typical Chinese consumer's main concern today is keeping up with their neighbors' acquisition of consumer durables, not starvation.
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