weiaijiayou

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You should also make sure there is no cut-off date after which your wife can't be added to your insurance. Sometimes insurance companies won't provide insurance to people after e.g., 30 days after they arrived from a foreign country. They do this to avoid adverse selection (i.e., people seeking insurance only after they think something might be wrong). For people who go past the time limit, they need to wait until the start of the next year to be added.

FWIW, I didn't take his questions about Bush's accomplishments to be bashing. I wasn't bothered by it because no one can remember anything, and questions are an attempt to acquire knowledge, or assistance in acquiring knowledge. I also didn't intend my questions about President Obama's accomplishments to be seen as bashing, either. I'm not insisting he has no accomplishments, I am not insisting anything has been screwed up. I guess I didn't make that clear enough. I am hoping someone can remind me of some diplomatic breakthrough or international gain since President Obama took office. I completely accept that I have either forgot or didn't notice one. Anyone can feel free to PM me with answers. I didn't think I suggested anything controversial or insulting about Bush. I just wanted to point out why it might take a little time before A Mafan's inbox fills up

Kris n Rachel, fantastic attitude. Great job staying positive for them and remembering to commend them on how well they handled the interview.

To be fair, we would also have to ask what the United States has gained from having the world not like us. Making people prove where Obama's foreign policy has done good for the US in the last year assumes that, e.g., Bush's years in the Oval Office would be rife with examples of how military aggression has benefited the US. Many of diplomacy¡¯s benefits are either non-riveting (and not news worthy in the US) or involve avoiding something negative such as war, and are therefore hard to prove. In 2008, for example, how much play was given to the success of the Bush administration for helping resolve ¨C through diplomacy ¨C the armed conflicts in the Congo? Did it help the US? I don¡¯t know. We didn¡¯t get anything tangible from it like oil pipelines, but if the conflict had escalated ultimately it could have spilled over into American¡¯s lives either economically or through terrorism.

This would be fantastic. At Chinese universities there are people from Korea, Japan, England, Indonesia, African countries... but there are hardly any Americans. Perhaps China could help out by lowering or subsidizing tuition, which is a lot higher for foreign students than for Chinese... has to be a 2 way street Very true, but our universities already have tons of Chinese, and for good reason: the quality of the education and value of the degrees are generally higher in the US. Much of this I would think has to do with the percentage of chinese students who are fluent in english vs american students who are fluent in chinese. That's an important imbalance that needs to be rectified, BUT... I'd imagine that most American students presently at Chinese universities are there studying Chinese -- this doesn't require Chinese fluency and is what the US and China should promote first. A second area to put some money into might be partnerships between American and Chinese universities to help develop MBA students...

I'm no expert, but I'd also guess that the worst that would happen is that you have to resend them. If you get lucky then perhaps she'll receive the P3 shortly and the mistake will have shaved several days off of your wait. I bet that people do this somewhat regularly either out of confusion or assuming it will save time...

This would be fantastic. At Chinese universities there are people from Korea, Japan, England, Indonesia, African countries... but there are hardly any Americans. Perhaps China could help out by lowering or subsidizing tuition, which is a lot higher for foreign students than for Chinese... has to be a 2 way street Very true, but our universities already have tons of Chinese, and for good reason: the quality of the education and value of the degrees are generally higher in the US.

This would be fantastic. At Chinese universities there are people from Korea, Japan, England, Indonesia, African countries... but there are hardly any Americans. Perhaps China could help out by lowering or subsidizing tuition, which is a lot higher for foreign students than for Chinese...

why is "teaches piano to orphans" bold and underlined?

Exactly Qing ke, not Qing by itself. Qing in a lot of cases is shortened like a contraction, so the ke or le is not said. I think you're referring to Çë not Çé ... e.g., ÇëÈ˳Է¹ or ÎÒÇë¿Í Pommey means the Çé from ¸ÐÇé and Çé¿ö I see. My eyes missed the first few strokes. I do think Qing though is one of the charming and unique things about China. When I was there, each time, I could not pay for a meal unless it was just with my family and was not often. And they did play the game of refusing three times before accepting any kind of gift or compliment or acceptance of favor. very ÈÈÇé (while on the subject of Çé ) "¶Ô¿ÍÈËÈÈÇéµ½¼ÒÁË"

Both the shirts and the "flaming Obama" (seen in the video linked to the original picture above: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/33907518#33907518 ) are humorous illustrations of the rift between Chinese and American points of view. From what I've seen both were intended to reflect positive sentiments toward Obama, but would have negative connotations for most Americans. In the video with the flaming Obama statue, you can hear the guy in the background saying "Obama »ðÀ²£¡" (i.e., "He's on fire!" referring to his popularity and celebrity). Too funny...

Exactly Qing ke, not Qing by itself. Qing in a lot of cases is shortened like a contraction, so the ke or le is not said. I think you're referring to Çë not Çé ... e.g., ÇëÈ˳Է¹ or ÎÒÇë¿Í Pommey means the Çé from ¸ÐÇé and Çé¿ö

Thanks Randy, great info. I'm learning a lot. I would still feel more comfortable having her come here just to make sure she really like it here. I see what Kyle's saying, but also keep in mind that this will only get her 90 days max.

How Asians came to Japan is pretty similar to how Native Americans came to North America. I don't know if Korea was even a country when the first Asians came to Japan. Since China is one of the oldest countries on earth I think it would be more likely that the descendants of both Japan and Korea were Chinese first. After reading the Jared Diamond article, I'd say that this summary is pretty darned good off the top of your head. As for the ancestors basically just being Chinese, I think it's important that the influx of the Yayoi settlers were (at least proximally) from what is now Korea in order to explain the uniqueness of the Japanese language. According to Diamond, Japanese is so highly unique that it could not have possibly developed from even its closest modern relative (Korean) in less than 4,000 years. But it may be possible that Japanese developed from the progenitor to Korean (or an ancient language that existed alongside the progenitor to Korean) that was spoken by the Koreans who came to Japan beginning in 400BC. This was an interesting read. Thanks for posting it. I had always guessed that the process was something like this, but perhaps this would be expected for a western person with several close Korean friends. I also don¡¯t think the tendency of Japanese to become overly defensive about issues like this is very unique, especially in East Asia. Once a Korean friend of mine remarked about how Korea experiences dust storms that originate in China¡¯s Gobi Desert. In response a Chinese acquaintance who was also there adamantly denied that any dust or pollution comes to South Korea from China.

What are these numbers? Assuming these numbers are for homicides, and if these are rates per 1000, it must be old data, because that would mean only 4 per 100,000 in the US are murdered per year. If you look at the most recent data it's more like 6, as I said. But again, what does it mean to simply list the rates for different countries and, if they look far apart (i.e., if there are many countries in between), say they are more different? It needs to be put into some terms people can understand and evaluate for themselves.

all hypothetical, right?

The absolute number of homicides each year is higher in China (~31,000) than in the United States (~18,000), so if the Chinese media would like to focus on violent killing they would have 172% of the material we have. Of course there are more people in China than in the US, so if you figure out the multiplier to phrase each as a rate you get about 6 per 100,000 people killed per year in the US and about 2.38 per 100,000 people killed per year in China. That seems to put China¡¯s rate quite a bit lower than that in the US. BUT if you¡¯re going to talk about things statistically, both of these numbers are almost incomprehensibly low. If you take each rate and multiply it out over an 80 year period, you get a lifetime probability of being murdered of about .005 in the US and .002 in China. Metaphorically speaking, that means if you have an urn with 1000 balls ¨C red balls representing that your life will end by homicide, green ones representing that your life will end in some other way ¨C by living in America you are effectively choosing from an urn with 5 red balls and 995 green, and in China you are choosing from an urn with only 2 red ones and 998 green. The two gambles seem pretty similar to me personally, but the picture one gets from the respective countries¡¯ news media is a lot different.

in the sense that it helps something grow or in the sense that it is sh!t?

Congratulations! No idea why February 3 will be lucky -- I looked at the lunar calendar and there didn't seem to be anything different about that date either. I'm sure it will always be a special day for you, though, since it's the one you guys picked. My wife and I had a civil ceremony also and had no problems with the GC. We got it without having the interview in fact. One thing you could prepare is brand new -- perhaps bright red and very soft -- sheets and blankets for your bed.

A Mafan, it's interesting that in all the different ways I've seen your moniker mispelled, I've yet to see the most damning of all possibilities -- i.e., mafen (Âí·à)

I¡¯d say your advice is more long term whereas mine is mostly what I suggest someone should do first. My advice about learning pronunciation was based on something I saw a couple weeks ago. My dad wanted to learn how to say ¡°banana¡± in mandarin. No matter how many times my wife and I repeated to him ¡°xiang1 jiao1¡± he would say back to us ¡°shang1 chao3¡±. To him, his pronunciation sounded just like ours, because he wasn¡¯t aware that he had to differentiate between ¡°xia¡± and ¡°sha¡±, ¡°jia¡± and ¡°cha¡±, and the first and third tones. So for my dad at least (and I¡¯m assuming he is somewhat normal for an older English speaker who has never studied mandarin), I believe he needs to understand what sounds there are in mandarin before he can learn how to correctly say just about anything (and also, more than likely, to differentiate between words he hears). Someone could certainly make these realizations through experience over time, but I believe understanding the sounds up-front would save time and prevent people from having to relearn the correct pronunciation for words they keep saying wrong¡­ To anyone using this thread for advice on how to learn mandarin, you should keep in mind a couple things. First is the ¡°curse of expertise,¡± which refers to the idea that people who are experts at something have a very hard time recreating the mental state of a novice. When you get advice from a fluent mandarin speaker, what they tell you about what they personally did certainly has value, but I would be skeptical of advice that you feel, for you, would put the cart before the horse. It¡¯s hard for people to remember what it was like before they knew something the way they do now. Second, different things sometimes work for different people. For example, if you are really good at imitating people exactly, then don¡¯t waste your time studying specific sounds. Just jump right in to learning words and grammar. Perhaps the only advice that applies universally for anyone doing something like this that takes a long time is: don¡¯t get discouraged.

The first thing I would do is have your wife or a Chinese tutor teach you how to pronounce the sounds (initials and finals) of mandarin (e.g., the finals: a o e i u v). Then you should learn some basic words or phrases with the aim of familiarizing yourself with (1) pinyin (the romanized script for Chinese) so you will have a framework for understanding all future pronunciation, and (2) the four tones, which will be an ongoing process for probably the first year or so. Based on experience I'd say the best advice is to use it -- talk as much as you can and learn how to explain everything you think and do in Chinese -- and don't give up. Do these two things and you'll learn faster than you think (and faster than anyone who goes to class and waits 20 minutes to rehearse a pretend dialogue, or anyone who stares at a book every day instead of talking with someone). Third piece of advice: don't be afraid to make mistakes. That's the only way you'll improve.

I agree -- this is a small victory for America. On behalf of other American speakers of Chinese, thank you. You showed Xu that you¡¯re interested enough in China to learn the Chinese language and respectful enough to welcome him without immediately telling him all the things you think China is doing wrong. Too often it¡¯s the opposite on both counts, with people holding signs and banners exhorting China to, e.g., ¡°Free Tibet¡± -- all in English. Yep. I¡¯m confused sometimes about how people can say that Chinese is too hard but then expect their Chinese family member to learn English. The chasm between the two is just as wide no matter which direction you are going. Right now my wife is working extremely hard to learn English. One of her big problems seems to be the number of syllables in many words and their seemingly chaotic organization. Words like ¡°helicopter¡± or ¡°pension¡± -- which someone studying the words in Chinese could learn and remember in about 10 seconds because the syllables make sense (Ö±Éý»ú and ÍËÐݽð) -- have to be learned and relearned again and again. We were watching a dinosaur tv series a few weeks ago and she wanted to learn some of their names. Tyrannosaurus rex? My goodness. In Chinese? ±©Áú (the ¡°bao¡± from violent). Brontosaurus? À×Áú (the ¡°lei¡± from thunder). Triceratops? Èý½ÇÁú (¡°three horned¡±). For a learner of Chinese so many things are like this, just falling into place as soon as they are heard. With English, at least from my perspective right now, it¡¯s a tooth and nail struggle to cram in and somehow remember a lot of random syllables. I¡¯m just venting I guess¡­ I doubt you have the same book. I think any intro Chinese textbook will teach ÈÏʶÄãÎҺܸßÐË. It¡¯s not regional; it¡¯s Chinese words that mean exactly what they say. Perhaps what the listener meant was that it was a little too polite or formal. Once you are at an intermediate level there is a book that I highly recommend for anyone who wants to go above and beyond and contextualize their spoken Chinese. It is ººÓï¿ÚÓïÏ°¹ßÓÃÓï½Ì³Ì, or A Course in Chinese Colloquial Idioms. It focuses solely on ¿ÚÓï or colloquial language. This is the only book I have found that is designed specifically for learning Chinese and that is also remotely fun and interesting. It has about 20 lessons, each of which contains a short dialogue (just about every other sentence of which contains ¿ÚÓï) and then it goes on to explain each colloquialism and then give 2 or 3 example sentences using it in random domains. An example of the ¿ÚÓï in the book is saying ÎÒÃǵúÈÎ÷±±·ç instead of ÎÒÃÇûÓж«Î÷³Ô. One part of the book that will make it a little difficult for people not at an intermediate or advanced level of Chinese is that it only has pinyin for the ¿ÚÓï it teaches. It assumes you can read everything else, which is not very complicated. Using these colloquialisms lets you say a lot about a situation or person without many words -- and because of this unspoken context, what you say is often funnier and more interesting. I personally have a good time with it¡­

I believe what I said about the author¡¯s motivations is true and relevant in explaining his views of Chinese people. I¡¯m not sure why you would take offense to it. I was talking about the guy who wrote the article, not you... Are we seriously back to this? Where did you get this idea that anyone here would deny that there are hundreds of millions of poor people in China? How could anyone argue with that fact? They would have to claim that China¡¯s research bureaus and the World Bank are lying in order to exaggerate the number of poor people. To understand my views on the subject you have to understand that change does not equal state (this works in most people¡¯s brains). A condition can improve and still be bad. I¡¯m the guy from the China Model thread who said 1. conditions are too bad for too many people in China and 2. conditions have improved a lot for most Chinese. For each of these points I gave actual evidence (i.e., information that a reader could check) to support what I said. What would this have to do with anything? (and no, you are not right.) Do you believe the quality of an argument and its evidence depends on who says it? Otherwise I don¡¯t know why you are getting personal. Are you trying to suggest something about my motivation and ability to understand China? You¡¯re clearly insinuating something about English teachers. Let me ask you. How much Chinese can you speak? I would bet money that when in China everything you know and understand is filtered through your wife. Have you ever personally carried on a conversation about anything substantial with a regular Chinese person who hasn¡¯t had the opportunity to study English? Even the person who comes in to clean your room at your 2 star hotel or the person who sells you vegetables? I highly doubt it. I just don¡¯t see how based on this type of experience you feel you can look down on someone if they teach English in China (which I have never done ¨C although I have volunteered at a kindergarten). I think that this will probably be my last post on CFL. I¡¯m getting too annoyed with the discussions on the topics that most interest me... Just for closure, I do want to thank everyone who helped with my questions about the visa process back when that was ongoing.