chrisnhong

Yep, no shortage of random acts of government stupidity here either. I think the best one in recent memory was "hey, let's join our friends the Americans on their wonderful adventure in Iraq!".

The best I've seen for learning pinyin sounds is the FSI course which is now downloadable for free. The Foreign Service Institute is the US Department of State's language teaching department. http://fsi-language-courses.com/Chinese.aspx

The old FSI course has a pretty thorough drilling in pinyin. Tape & book. It's available free on the net nowadays. It used to be used to teach US diplomats for overseas postings.

I pay for Chinesepod for one month every six months or so. What I've seen recently is extremely impressive. There are new things being put up all the time. The Fix is a more Pimsleur like recording that emphasizes vocabulary. Qing Wen looks at commonly used grammar. Movie madness takes popular western films which have been dubbed into Chinese and works through some of the language while guessing which film it is. Given that the site is being updated and enlarged all the time, it becomes better and better value.

I've been a couple of times. I find it convenient to travel there using the ferry from Hong Kong. It's a nice little city.

As I understand it, opening a school can take a lot of pull, both money and guanxi. The francise schools charge a huge amount of money to start (eg. English First). Doing it yourself could be problematic, having to grease a lot of noisy government wheels, so to speak. Be careful.

Personally I tend to agree, a diet is more varied and complete when fish and meats are added. For me, a complete absence of these foods would be difficult in a number of ways. I have chosen at this stage just to cut back, which I don't necessarily see as a bad thing. My understanding is that Tao is directing vegetarianism due to the cruelty to animals aspect rather than any possible health advantages. The leader of our group used to be a very well paid teppanyaki chef, but chose to quit the profession.

The overlap with western religion and Tao is interesting. Tao actually regards Jesus, Mohammed as "sages" along with LaoTse, Confucius and some others. If you look closely, many of the requirements of good character and behavior are similar. Tao directs that it's followers should be vegetarian (not vegan, so eggs, milk products etc are allowed). I'm not there yet, but I've cut my meat consumption down to under 500 grams per week.

Unfortunately, much of the texts is in extended pamplet form. And the translations from chinese are often pretty rough. There is some ritual connected to the religious side, rather like the various churches. But the focus is definitely more on the philosophical side.

I've been a practising Daoist for about 18 months. In some ways there is an overlap with other religions, promise of an afterlife, belief in God etc. Where it differs? Mastering your own behavior comes first, faith comes later. In a lot of ways it's been copied into much of the stuff in the self help industry.

In order for best learning: 1. Pimsleur; It's brilliant for learning to speak. Unfortunately, it's only a beginning. What you learn is excellent, but it's only a small part of learning chinese. 2. Chinesepod.com; A massive resource and growing all the time. Start with pinyin, but if you can learn some characters, it rounds out your knowledge. Rosetta Stone has a steeper learning curve than Pimsleur but takes you much further. But if you want to use it, a good electronic dictionary is vital. I use Plecodict on a small palm based smartphone. In fact I'd recommend Plecodict for anyone whose wife doesn't have excellent english.

Skibum, chinese pronouns are very simplistic. For example there is no differentiation between him and her and it. So for Chinese people, who are still thinking in chinese, it's a real struggle. I know from the way my wife speaks around chinese people, she loves flirting and general wordplay. I am certain that she misses that in trying out her spoken english. When you're having fun together, it's more physical in nature.

Ever since Deng XiaoPing told the chinese people "To be rich is glorious", it's been the goal of most of the chinese population. Get used to it. What they haven't worked out yet is that money doesn't necessarily equate to happiness. Yes, they've been told, but probably suspect it's a lie. 1. The Shanghai stock market has increased 170% this year. 2. The Hong Kong stock market is undergoing a similar rise now, in the expectation that mainland Chinese will be allowed to invest there directly. 3. The bank accounts give less than 4% interest. Given inflation ~10%, if you place money in the bank, you lose. 4. Real estate is rising at a similar rate to stocks. Given asset price inflation because of the money sloshing around in China, it's a high risk/high gain proposition to invest there. You've told her you're not rich. She probably doesn't believe you and won't until she reaches the US. To cut this short, give her what you think you can afford. DON'T BUDGE FROM THIS POSITION. Watch her response carefully because it will tell you much about whether you can get along. Remember, money doesn't make you happy, but fighting about it certainly can make you unhappy.

Try Shooter

This is good stuff. When first confronted with this, it can really throw you. It takes a lot of courage to respond correctly as it can feel like you're putting your marriage on the line. It's basically a test, of your character and your love. Here in Australia, guys often express friendship with insults. Losing it in response is very uncool. I was hanging with a friend last week, his received a phone call, looked at the number and said to me, "it's my brother-in-law", he opened the phone and said "What do you want, ya fat bastard?". I've seen it happen in the US. SaJiao is broadly the equivalent coming from a female. There is a real need to detach your emotions from her tone and argument. Now if you can come back and give her some playful put-downs in turn, it can get to be really fun. Be VERY careful, because her self-esteem can be an issue.