SpanishPod - fudawei Conversations

Re: Take a Picture

fudawei — 2008-06-06 14:39:19

Thanx Steve!

More of a "What would you have of me?" sorta thing, right? Certainly more economical.

Re: Take a Picture

fudawei — 2008-06-06 12:13:56

What the heck kinda word is ¿Mande? (What?).

It's from the Suplimentary Vocab. I can't find it in a dictionary, so I'm obviously looking an an oblique form. Or, I have a bad dictionary. ;)

Photos by Phrank

fudawei — 2008-02-14 20:04:48

Frank Fradella uploaded a bunch of photos to his FLICKR account and wanted me to invite you to check'em out. In addition to the wonderful pictures of Shanghai and CPOD HQ ... a few pages in you'll find some nice new pics of JP and Liliana.

FRANK FRADELLA'S PHOTOS

Re: NEW Q&A Show

fudawei — 2008-01-19 12:50:21

How do you pronounce "orange juice" (jugo de naranja)? Every time I go to the store, it's: "Tiene jugo d.... jug... ju ... Tiene leche?"

Re: Not rattled, a little bewildered...

fudawei — 2008-01-17 09:18:39

Wow, they even filched the slogan. I wouldn't be surprised to discover that the hosts are Ben Carroll and Penny Zhu.

Re: Cancel My Membership

fudawei — 2008-01-10 09:28:30

Trivia: "Gym" (or Gymnasium") < Greek "gymnos", meaning "naked" and reflecting the Greek custom of working out in the nude. Thus "Gymnasium" = "the place to get naked".

Re: What's your favorite pastime?

fudawei — 2008-01-07 09:02:10

Anyone else notice that the Supplemental Vocabulary on the .pdf transcript is actually from Upper Intermediate lesson "Not Going Back"?

Re: Cleaning the House

fudawei — 2008-01-01 11:17:07

That first line: ¿Qué estas haciendo, querida? makes me wonder about the verb hacer and how we get the word "hacienda" (for "ranch") from that. Anyone know the etymology?

Dos Mundos

fudawei — 2007-12-31 13:43:13

Found a really interesting online resource for Spanish. "Dos Mundos" is a Spanish language newspaper out of Kansas City, Missouri -- but here's the kicker: It's bi-lingual. You can toggle between Spanish/English if you get stuck or need a hint.

Re: Is anyone in there?

fudawei — 2007-12-27 18:40:53

Tengo una preguntam, JP. Dime la diferencia entre "disculpe" y "perdón", por favor. No importa?

Re: What happened to the advanced lessons?

fudawei — 2007-12-27 07:21:37

Speaking of which ... has anyone thought about offering the .PDFs for those lessons in a torrent for a nominal one-time fee?

Re: Shopping For Clothes

fudawei — 2007-12-26 18:33:41

How do you say "shoelaces", JP? I had quite an adventure trying to buy some a couple days back. I think I ended up saying something close to: "I need to tie my feet." Not one of my shining Spanish moments.

Re: Call back later

fudawei — 2007-12-26 07:12:16

yardbird I have no problem with people correcting mistakes. Indeed, the one you pointed out was a rather big one -- and one I would have been likely to repeat. Much better to correct it here, where other people can benefit as well. If I didn't need correction, I'd already speak Spanish and I wouldn't even be here, no? When it comes to language acquisition, it's ALWAYS better to make the attempt and be corrected, than to sit back passively and learn nothing. As for my name -- it's simply a Chinese name ( 付大卫 ) given to me by someone on the CPOD staff. Beyond the meaning of the words, DaWei is commonly used by people named "David". And many foreigners use the first syllable of their surname as well ("Fu" in my case). I came to SPOD via CPOD. My language passion at the moment is Mandarin. My motivation for learning Spanish is entirely different. Surprisingly -- and I mean no disrespect to anyone -- I have no deep desire to speak Spanish. But I have very real-world PRAGMATIC reasons for pursuing it (my neighborhood is rapidly turning Spanish, and I'm starting to feel like an outsider). As a fan of general linguistics, I'm intrigued by the question: Which is a better motivator when learning a language; an abstract intellectual curiosity (Mandarin, in my case) or genuine real-world usefulness (Spanish, in my case).

Re: Call back later

fudawei — 2007-12-25 11:02:38

YB ... appreciate the correction. Maybe JP can use it as fodder for a future lesson. In the meantime, I guarantee I'll keep making mistakes -- keep pointing them out. Only way to learn.

Re: What happened to the advanced lessons?

fudawei — 2007-12-25 10:59:48

Read the discussion in THIS THREAD Essentially, if you want'em, you'll need to get them via bittorrent. All the old lessons -- all 367 MB's -- are available.

Re: Going to the Movies

fudawei — 2007-12-24 07:16:38

¡Gracias, hermanocito!

Re: Light my cigarette?

fudawei — 2007-12-22 21:07:00

yardbird ... the first recorded instance of "toke" as a NOUN in the OED is from an article in Harper's back in 1968 and (indeed) was mentioned in concert with marijuana. As a VERB, it goes back to the 50's; the first occurrence related to tobacco, but most thereafter related to marijuana again. Curiously, the OED does not make the connection to "toque"; leaving the etymology murky.

Re: Mexican Telenovelas: Amor sin destino (parte I)

fudawei — 2007-12-21 17:34:33

You're not gonna believe me, but one of the participants in an email discussion I subscribe to actually writes Mexican soap operas (or did at one time). His name's Armando Saldaña Mora and he knows more about dramatic construction than most anyone I've seen -- even has a book out on the subject.

Re: Going to the Market

fudawei — 2007-12-21 10:01:40

What's the name of the type of market Liliana spoke about? el tiangas ???

Re: Going to the Market

fudawei — 2007-12-21 09:37:14

I'm confused about the "me da" construction in "Me da un kilo de manzana." (Give me a kilo of apples.) I understand that it is "to-me you-give etc." I understand that "da" is the Ud form and "das" woud be the "tu" form. What I don't understand is this: BOTH forms are straightforward present indicative forms of "dar". When asking for something in a situation like this -- wouldn't you use the imperative (ie: da/dé)?