<p>yes, we reached 700! not too fat to go</p>
<p>just seen Kiss of the Dragon for the n-th time, Jet Li has improved his acting skill a lot</p>
<p>i start watching cctv-4,9 recently. I like it for the most part. CCTV-4 has a daily interactive chinese learning program which actually helps me to prounce mandarin correctly since i'm one of many chinese who have dialectal influence to mandarin. I felt "ashamed" of myself after watching many foreigners speaking mandarin in that program, they speak with fluent pace, accurate grammar & idioms, standard pronounciation.</p>
<p>lol cctv4 - is that the one you can get in the states using a dish coz my parents watch it all the time. the shows are blatantly state-mandated and censored.....there are about a million vapid soaps about the qing dynasty (w/ mixed pro-communist messages) and the rest are silly game shows that try to emulate american ones....ive glimpsed quite a few of the linguistic tutorials, i guess theyre ok for ppl who like 2 learn...otherwise that channel is crap tho :/</p>
<p>三国演义 and 水浒传 are sooo good, ive read the unabridged versions of both about a million times since middle school, and saw the movie series for them in china awhile ago. i'd say the tv depiction is mediocre, but only coz i knew too much about the books :P</p>
<p>recently sped through 东周列国志(冯梦龙), sweet gold as always :P; hmm i think im the only one i know who enjoys chinese historical fiction to such a degree.</p>
<p>finally, i think dialects are cool! you have a greater sense of cultural identity, unlike me :(</p>
<p>tangsdaily: my meaning of hypenated: two words joined together with a hypen " - ". like......... jin-wa </p>
<p>sorry if you took it any other way haha i didnt even know what you were talking about.</p>
<p>haha tangsdaily, thanks for the advice. i'll just as well bum out at home cos it's simply too hot. i went shopping for some stuff(not clothes sadly) today and almost died.
hmmm...i don't really watch chinese series at home. i'm watching a lot of american movies these few days. just watched sleepless in seattle last night. it was the sweetest movie!! loved it loved it loved it.</p>
<p>good movie to watch: 头文字D
saw it with my cousin 3X haha
anyways... im in a chinese highschool right now with my cousin: "铁一中" in xi'an if anybody cares.. and i take back what i said about liking chinese highschools... shes trying to get enrolled in highschool and its a PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN cuz she didnt do well on her hs entrance exam. anyways.. cant wait for college to start.</p>
<p>I'm fed up with with those 清朝宫廷官场戏 too! I can't believe they are still showing those during prime times on cctv-4; i doubted they could make a n English verion on cctv-9 which would show other people around the world how chinese are mindless. Those drama repeatedly showing how 普通老百姓 should obey the emperor at all cost. i won't get into politics here. Anyway, those drama just didn't depict history from a other angles after been made a million times.</p>
<p>I do remember how an intelligent and hardworking student would be well respected by peers and painstakingly helped by teachers. It's always those have the highest grade in the leadership position. I guess it does feel good with all the aura around them. I don't have anything against them. In fact, most of them have been good example to me, so i can strive higher standards.</p>
<p>one major reason i come to u.s. at early age is my incompetence at my middle school in china while my parents have "high execption". The education in china does seem extreme comparing to u.s. yet, american education is just too ecomomically consuming. Each student is virtually a incinerater of dollar bills. I feel so frustrated to come here spoiling so much, and am restricted from work by law.</p>
<p>i feel attempted to get the movie RingU(午夜凶灵），</p>
<p>last time i saw the american version, my nose had bled after a few days. so i always hesitate to try the original version.</p>
<p>how's that to spook the thread a little</p>
<p>besides sweetbee03, xo(i thought it will be cooler just call it xo if you don't mind), vanialla ice, coolkid, anybody is till in china?</p>
<p>i roughly counted, we are about 260 posts behind the indian thread as the second biggest thread under international students forum of College Confidential</p>
<p>lol. yes, at this rate we'll reach the 1000th post in no time.
I respect those intelligent and hardworking students as well. but it seems like in my school, ppl tend to make themselves appear more intelligent and less hardworking...if you know what i mean.</p>
<p>Anyone learning a new skill this summer? My dad just started giving me cooking lessons in exchange for me washing the dishes. Our first lesson was 仙人掌炒鸡肉, which didnt turn out so well. and I burned myself badly with the oil splashing out of the pan. So we had to back up So our lesson yesterday was 洗菜. Todays probably going to be 切菜 hopefully I wont lose any fingers. Ugh, I never knew such seemingly simple tasks can be so difficult.</p>
<p>i'm still in the primitive level of instant-noodle</p>
<p>i had "interned" at a chinese restaurant for a few days. But it turned summer is the off-season for the chinese restaurant, the boss let me rest for the rest of the summer, not even letting me to intern in the kitchen.</p>
<p>I used to have an alternative for college, culinary institute of america, it's much lower cost and provides me some decent scholarship options, and a $300 chief knife kit. It also has food industry management major.
The job market for high-end chief is very stable especially for those mastered pastry as well.
I thought culinary profession would not let me starve at least(cooking like the chiefs in 满汉全席 and 食神 was my dream), and it gets me away from academic exhaustation and other 红尘烦恼. hahaha</p>
<p>currently reading two books, </p>
<p>《河南人惹谁了》，it's a good social criticism book discussing the regional discrimination issue in china. This book gives deep analysis and solution to the problem, and powerfully reveal the stain in us. After reading it, it helps average joes like me to see people objectively.</p>
<p>Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphed in the West, but failed everywhere else? by Hernando de Soto
Politically, capitalism didn't succeed in developing world is because the developed countries, or the major powers of the world(like EU, G8) have their own concern, and free trade is still on the table rolling.</p>
<p>Economically, de Soto will show us why ---- property rights, and other problems associated with it.</p>
<p>The begining of the book pretty much answered the question in the tile of book, thus the middle of the book seems a little repetitive.</p>
<p>May be some of you already know why Capitalism didn't do as expected in developing countries. this book will further prove its point with datas from around the world. So, pay attention to the data in the book if you are reading it!</p>
<p>If you come to u.s. or other developed countries to "寻求救国救民的真理（quoting my 班主任 in china), this boook will give you a direct answer; of course, not all the answer. I'm not be sarcastic here. Seriously, if you want to explore economic reforms beneficial to our country, this book is worth-reading for a life time.</p>