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I was never a huge fan of bing.com either, but I thought I’d add a little clarity here.
Bing.com works well, but if you are using it from China you only see the allowed results. Bing decided to comply with the Chinese government and blocks results that China blocks.
IE if you try to get youtube results only (IE Inxs rock band site:youtube.com), you will see this message:
Some results are removed in response to a notice of local law requirement.For more information, please see here.
FYI.. the bing.com/translator seems to be better than google’s translator.
Just so you don’t feel too alone, I’m also fairly fluent in Spanish, but I’m not a teacher ;).
The best way I found to learn Spanish though was to buy the 500 Spanish Verbs book (even the 300 one is ok), and study it religiously. Other than the verbs and the tenses most words in Spanish are close enough to English that you can figure them out, and pronunciation is never a problem. Once you know the pronunciation rules they stay the same, so if you can write the word, you can pronounce it.
Another think I did was tag absolutely everything in my house with the spanish word. I mean everything. I had tags on spoons, forks, knives, even the stuff in my junk drawers.
Then read a Spanish newspaper everyday, and look up every word you don’t know. It sounds tough, but it’s not.
I did all the above for an entire year when I met a woman in the Dominican Republic one winter. The next year I went to the DR for two months and came home fluent in Spanish, engaged to her, and the marriage lasted for two children and 10 years :).
Brad.
Thanks Rick…. appreciated 🙂
I do all my own legal work in Canada (even represented myself a couple of times in court), but I’m really reluctant to commit any money to a business here without legal advice ;).
Brad.
Hmmm.. the link’s not working for me. I even tried copying the link location and fixing it, but didn’t get anything.
If someone does find information about it, please post it. It’s definitely something I’m interested in.
Well, welcome to Canada…uh.. the USA… uh.. China! I guess it just proves that landlords everywhere are the same :). Unfortunately, here the options for court are probably not worth your time.
I think it’s pretty common here for the landlord to keep any deposit you give. I’m a rookie as far as living in China, but I live with my Chinese girlfriend, and when I moved in with her, she was upset because the landlord charged her another 1,200 RMB deposit because a foreigner would be living here. I told her, well.. it’s not the much and we will get it back. Her reply was that I don’t understand. In China, you never get the deposit back :).
So… I hope the deposit is not too much. My girlfriend says the only thing you can do is negotiate as small a deposit as possible, using the argument you know it won’t be returned, when you initially rent the apartment. Once the landlord has it, they aren’t going to give it back.
Brad.
Well.. I did get a keyboard (I needed the 4000) finally. They didn’t have it at Computer City, but a couple of blocks away I was able to order it. They said it would take a week, but phoned me in 2 days to say it was in :).
Chris.. just so you know. I’ve been a software engineer for over 30 years now, and I spend from 40-90 hours a week (every week) at the computer. If you use a normal keyboard for those kinds of hours for that many years, you will eventually develop all kinds of wrist and shoulder problems. Lots of studies to show that, I’m not going to quote them, just take it as good advice.
The other thing is the Natural Keyboard forces better typing habits. Lots of typists use the wrong fingers for the keys at times and it’s harder to do on the Natural keyboard so you eventually quit doing it.
Yes, once you are used to a Natural Keyboard it is very difficult to type on a normal keyboard, but I only use my own equipment anyway.
Thanks for the advice guys…. Success !!!
Brad.
@Vincent – I was at Computer City, then tried a Walmart, and then a Carrefour, but I like your suggestion of taking a picture of it on my phone :). My Mandarin is almost non-existent, and even my girlfriend didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, so she wasn’t much help :). Using a picture will probably solve the issue :). Thanks.
@Federico – Yes.. those are not the exact models I’m looking for, but very close. Thanks, gives me somewhere to look if I don’t find it in Chengdu.
@iameric – I was born in Alberta, grew up in Kelowna, BC, but have lived in many parts of western Canada, and had a business in Oshawa for a couple of years (about 1988-1990) that delivered to all convenience stores in Ontario, so probably still know where most convenience stores (Beckers, Mac’s, 7-11) in Mississauga are :). Actually, it was a flower business so I spent most Sundays in the Mississauga Flower District (close to the airport).
@Vincent – I was at Computer City, then tried a Walmart, and then a Carrefour, but I like your suggestion of taking a picture of it on my phone :). My Mandarin is almost non-existent, and even my girlfriend didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, so she wasn’t much help :). Using a picture will probably solve the issue :). Thanks.
@Federico – Yes.. those are not the exact models I’m looking for, but very close. Thanks, gives me somewhere to look if I don’t find it in Chengdu.
@iameric – I was born in Alberta, grew up in Kelowna, BC, but have lived in many parts of western Canada, and had a business in Oshawa for a couple of years (about 1988-1990) that delivered to all convenience stores in Ontario, so probably still know where most convenience stores (Beckers, Mac’s, 7-11) in Mississauga are :). Actually, it was a flower business so I spent most Sundays in the Mississauga Flower District (close to the airport).
