I recommend purchasing the online course for HSK from Chinese Zero to Hero. It's a course designed to guide you through the HSK levels, so they stick closely to the book and take the time to explain various grammar points as you go. It helps because the textbook is super-dry and sometimes obscure. In terms of using the workbook, they just tell you to do it at the end of each of their sections.
The videos are also quite engaging. I find they help me tremendously in keeping up with my studies.
I also noticed this with 都.
都 = dōu when it means "both" or "all."
都 = dū in "Chengdu."
It's called Zhima credit. It's a credit score you can see from Alipay. You can search for "zhima" or "芝麻信用" on Alipay to find the mini program and check your score.
It's a positive score system, in the sense that a better score entitles you to benefits but a low score has no penalties. It's basically a small credit margin that allows you to rent a battery, or even a phone or car, without a deposit.
When you first get to China you can usually rent a battery pack by making a refundable deposit for the value of the battery, but as you use Alipay and your Zhima credit improves, it won't require a deposit anymore.
Turns out the infamous Chinese social credit is all about juicing up your iPhone while drinking your Luckin latte!
In my experience, a high ranking (e.g. 4.8+) indicates a restaurant worth checking out, but a rating between 3.0 and 4.5 is absolutely no indication a restaurant might be bad. People here are indeed more critical than in the U.S. and Canada, where people typically give 5 stars unless there's something majorly wrong.
What I usually do is check some of the recent reviews. If most of them are 1 star, it possibly means there's a big problem. If it's a mix of 3 stars and above, that usually means some people just don't like the place, or the service is crap.
In fact, I just checked my favorites list and all of them fall in the 3.8-4.4 range! The best coffee I've had in Asia is a 4.4.
Besides reviews, one of the biggest useful things about Dianping is the dishes recommended by customers. You'll rarely go wrong by picking something from the top 5.
I saw a Star Wars rage video recently (yes, I should know better) where the poster was complaining about the character Ki-Adi-Mundi appearing on The Acolyte despite "cannon" saying he couldn't be that old.
That cannon source? Some kind of trading card from twenty years ago.
Like, dude. This is Star Wars, my man. It's not a hadith contradicting the Qur'an. You need to chill.
Lots of issues about The Acolyte, but this was just insane.
It depends on the show, but they rarely know what really happens two seasons in advance.
Typically, when writing a show bible, the creators have the first year mapped out in detail and often written. Then they'll have an outline of future seasons, but that's pretty much only a broad vision. Typically they'll change things as they write subsequent seasons and get a better grip on the characters and what audiences like.
Even shows that feel planned out will change greatly as they go on. Babylon 5 famously had a five-year plan, but near-cancellations and departures led to a lot of improvisation. Even Breaking Bad, that feels like it was telling a coherent story from A to Z, was making stuff up as they went along.
Showrunners typically have an ending in mind, but it's a crapshoot whether circumstances will let it play out as they intended. A good show will actually evolve over the course of its run.
I'm a foreigner but I've lived in Mexico and China.
I see a lot of similarities between Mexican and Chinese people. Food and family are very important to both. They're both very open and friendly in an unpretentious way.
I have nothing but good things to say about Mexico... Some of the kindest people I've ever met.
If he's wrong, he'll be the guy that predicted the last 9 out of 11 elections and that will still give him plenty of airtime.
Hongkongers hate it when you disregard personal boundaries and bring politics into the office.
Did I say Hongkongers? I meant human beings.
Not getting angry at people cutting in line is a major life hack for quality of life in China.
Just let it go!
I have an old-school handmade cleaver from Hong Kong. I've had it for six months and I still marvel at it. Something about it just feels like it could never be made by a machine. It's just perfect in the hand.
Depends where you live, I guess. I'm in Chengdu and I've been told clearly that I need to register when I return from any trip outside the province or abroad.
No need to deregister, though.
It's a sad statement about the state of education when you say that something like the three-act structure is pretentious wank. It's a super simple explanation of basic story structure. It's great that people like Lee and Shooter could distill it into something really clear that someone like Liefeld could remember, but it's not like the original concept is particularly esoteric.
Campbell, likewise, wasn't trying to gatekeep storytelling. He was analyzing ancient myths and trying to draw the common threads. Simplifying them to their essence. It was never intended as a how-to guide.
That being said, Peterson is a total wanker.
Haha, yep. It's the three-act structure dumbed down for comic creators, apparently.
Just like Dan Harmon's Story Circle is a dumbed down Hero's Journey.
There's value in making concepts as simple and easy to grasp as possible. To me, it shows that Jim Shooter 100% knew what he was doing.
What fascinates me about Mandarin grammar is that it seems easy until you start digging more.
Like, for instance, 很. We understand it to mean "very," as in “中国很大." Weeeeell, actually, the role of "很" is to turn a comparative adjective into an absolute one.
“中国比英国大" - "China in relation to the UK is bigger."
"中国很大" - "China is big in an absolute sense."
Disclaimer: I'm a learner and this is what I understood, so please correct me if I'm wrong!
Voilà quelques années, je suis allé dans une clinique de voyage à Montréal pour un vaccin, et dans les pays que j'allais visiter j'ai mis Moyen-Orient. (Je sais, pas un pays, mais la région aurait dû être suffisante.)
L'infirmière de voyage (de voyage!) m'a demandé, "le Moyen-Orient, c'est-tu en Chine?"
I absolutely adore Dancers at the End of Time. I feel that's a perfect library book because many readers might be familiar with Moorcock from Elric and decide to give this one a chance. It's so delightfully different and wildly imaginative.
Other 60s/70s novels to consider...
- Forever War
- The Dispossessed
- The Sirens of Titan
- Flowers for Algernon
- The Female Man
- Roadside Picnic
It's the internet. It brings similar-minded individuals with niche interests together into echo chambers. Pick anything and you're likely to find a community that obsesses over it, and one that hates it to death. Online communities have a way of amplifying the loudest voices until they become the new normal, then repeat the process again for the next stage of extremism.
China is a big country. Of course you'll find people who want to get out. I'm not sure what you find surprising about this. Whether they're right to feel this way is not for me to judge.
I love the real-life mythology around John Constantine, but I doubt this is what's being referenced here. Spurrier is just having fun with meta narratives in comics (I mean, the "meta mancer" does stuff like take John's cigarette from a future panel), and in typical Constantine fashion the old curmudgeon hates it.
All I can say is, you're about to discover your country has been lying to you about China. You're gonna have a great time, don't worry.
These things have existed for years and they never got past the demo stage. I suspect all they are is a nice bit of useless tech.
Sofia still has the odd holdout, mostly in small shops.
My local fruit and veggies store claimed their POS terminal was broken for a year, but I think they just couldn't be bothered to use it.
Foreigner visiting Bulgaria for the first time, is cash required?
bulgaria