blog 3

五月九号我去中国。 我要太玩儿了！ 昨天我开车汽车。 我也走去中文课。 明天我汽车。

C-Pop is a fast growing industry throughout the Chinese music genres. It is split into two different types: cantopop and mandopop. Mandopop started around the 1920s, and were called 'shidaiqu'. A few years later in the 30s-40s the Seven Great Singing Stars changed Chinese music completely, with their new types of tunes. Their music was so unique and original that the film industry often had them work as actors and singing soundtracks. It was the first time that China saw female singers rise to a high level of prestige to star in the music industry. It came to an end when the Japanese occupied Shanghai. In the 1950s, the communist party declared pop to be pornographic, so the pop music made its way to Taiwan. C-pop once more became popular on the mainland in the 70s when Deng Xiao Ping opened China to the world. Now, in the 2000s, pop has really taken off, with many new stars arising in Taiwan. Singing competitions such as Super Girl Contests have encouraged more young artists. Now, Taiwanese idols are filling the market there, and many hope to take part in a Chinese remake of Hana Yori Dango.

blog 8

五月九号我去中国。 我要太玩儿了！ 昨天我开车汽车。 我也走去中文课。 明天我汽车。

I bought "Chinese for Dummies" about a year ago when it was onsale in Morris' bookstore. That was back when I first started the classes. I recently started flipping through it, and I have to say that it isn't a bad resource tool for learning. The book goes more in depth then the textbooks and has very focused topics. Chapters include:
Getting to Know a little Chinese, Basic grammar and numbers, introductions and greetings, making small talk (family, work, live...), eating and drinking, shopping, exploring town, recreation and sports, talking on the phone, at the office and around the house, money, directions, hotels, transportation, traveling abroad, and emergencies. (Also includes the typical stuff found in the dummies books and CD dialogs) What it doesn't have is the characters for everything, so it isn't too good, unless you looked up every word and wrote them down in the book. I guess that would be good dictionary and character work.

202.2

我要买一件衬衫和一条裤子把。 这条裤子虽然颜色好，但是大小不合适。 这件衬衫跟那衬衫一样。 我要小号的条裤子。 一共多少什么？ 五十块。

I recently read an article on the internet about a boy in Xiashuixi who stabbed a government official to death. The boys name was Zhang Xuping and he was paid 1000yuan ($148) to kill the official (Li Shiming). Li was hated by mostly everyone in Xiashuixi for his corruption, especially after he razed 28 acres of forest without permission and no compensation. Zhang was sentenced to death, but hopefully the people in his village will get the sentence overturned. (Previously a sentence was overturned when a woman killed an official when he was going to rape her.) However, I doubt that the government will let him off. Hopefully, I'll be wrong.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100121/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_killer_hero

chin202.1

你好。 星期六我去看电影了。 我的爸爸也去看电影。 今天我买蓝条裤子。 狠便宜！ 明天我要买一个紫色ゆかた.

(do our sentences have to make sense? or can they just be random sentences?)

If you ever plan to go to China but have trouble speaking Chinese, or are just too shy too, then a good thing for you to learn is how to count on your fingers in Chinese. This will be most useful when haggling over things. The gestures are very similar to the way Americans count on their fingers, up to number five, where whey become different. 0= closed fist. 1= single pointer finger upwards. 2= pointer and middle finger. 3= pointer, middle, and ring finger. 4= pointer, middle, ring, and pinkie finger. 5= pointer, middle, ring, pinkie, and thumb. 6= thumb and pinkie. 7= thumb, pointer, and middle finger all touching. 8= thumb and pointer up, like a 'L'. 9= closed fist with pointer curled upwards. 10= pointer with middle crossed over, like signing 'r'. Most of these should be done with the palm facing away from you. Though I did read a book where a lot of the vendors that were haggling had calculators, thus removing the need to learn how to count on your fingers.