Yesterday evening some friends an me were watching the world cup game for 3rd place, Germany against Uruguay. And of course, like before all games, a band plays the national anthem and many of the football players sing along. Also singing along were most of my friends in front of the TV. And at moments like these I think if I should learn our German national anthem. But why should I? What makes Germany so special that it deserves to be praised with a song?

Germany is just one company amongst many. And I pay money to get a service. I can pay 1 Dollar to get a bottle of Evian water, but I wouldn’t learn the Evian commercials by heart. For 100000 Dollars I could buy a nice Mercedes, but I wouldn’t learn their jingle by heart. For Germany I will pay a lot of money in form of taxes. It’s just another transaction between Junjie and some company. I pay taxes and they allow me to use their roads, their police protects me etc.

Next time in front of TV (in 4 years), I most probably still won’t be able to sing out national anthem. What do you think about this?

Reading recommendation: My Kafkaesque Life and Taiwan
My Kafkaesque Life is currently producing the best pictures from Taiwan. Taiwanese food, super modern buildings, serene nature and even some Taiwanese ladies, it’s all there. And there are really masses of beautiful pictures. Want to see some eye candy from Taiwan, check out the site.

A shoutout to Aremonus
A shoutout to Aremonus, who is going to China this week. Unfortunately he doesn’t have a blog so far to let everyone take part in his adventures. Have fun!

Finally
That’s it for now, see you guys next time

I didn’t write that much during the last few weeks. The most important reason for this is the sunshine. It’s springtime and I was outdoors very often. It’s gotten really warm here and staying indoors isso painful at the moment. Spring feelings Grilling meat, hiking in the mountains and helping my parents in the garden. The rest of my time at the computer I used for working a little bit on my Bachelor thesis. I pretty much missed out what’s going on in the internet recently and I also didn’t write anything here for a few weeks. So you better hope for some rainy, cold, chilly weather and I shall return to the keyboard. To avoid you gettin’ bored, here a few reading recommendations:

Reading recommendation 1: Silicon Hutong
I discovered a new blog called Silicon Huton, written by David Wolf, an “Corporate Communications and marketing strategist living and working in Beijing since 1995″. It’s new for me as I discovered it like two weeks ago, but in fact this guy has been writing for a long time already. He writes about economics in China, but it is in a way that is very connected to the everyday world. Apart from that his text is very readable. Want to read more? Then click this link now.

Reading recommendation 2: Ride2Freedom
Ride2Freedom is written by my reader Anthony and he writes about his ride on a bike through China. His focus point is rural China and connecting to the people. He writes about how he organizes his ride through China (that part is not so interesting for me), but he also posts outstanding pictures of rural China. The pictures alone are worth a visit. He also writes about problems in the society, with a focus on the rural areas. This blog is new, but new posts appear regularly. If you want to see some interesting countryside pictures of China, then click this link now.

Reading recommendation 3: The Chinese Reading World
Before anyone complains that I only link to English materials, here is something in Chinese. The Chinese Reading World has a insane collection of reading materials written in simplified Chinese for beginners, intermediate learners and advanced learners of Chinese. Each text is also accompanied with an interactive online test to help memorizing new words. Need to read a lot of text in Chinese? Then click this link now.

Finally…
I hope I have more desire to write here soon. Be assured, this blog has not ended yet. Just don’t expect to many posts in the coming weeks.

Liam Neeson as Col. John “Hannibal” Smith, Bradley Cooper as Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as Sgt. B.A. “Bad Attitude” Baracus and Sharlto Copley as Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock. I also want to mention that Col. Lynch has a comeback, played by Patrick Wilson.

During my childhood I watched every episode … twice… at least. Unfortunately they never broadcasted the English version in German TV, fortunately they are going to release all episodes of all seasons in a collectors edition DVD pack. A whooping 25 DVDs of A-Team in English. And once I’m done I’ll watch the A-Team in Chinese. I love it when a plan comes together

Beijing pm10 particle air pollution 2009

Shanghai pm10 particle air pollution 2009

HK / Guangzhou area pm10 particle air pollution 2009

Eastern China pm10 particle air pollution 2009

As you can see, Kozen in Hong Kong enjoys superb air quality and that place can be a place of choice, unlike the nearby Guangzhou. MKL in Taiwan also made a great choice, as Taiwans air is definitely above average for such a large urban area. Keep in mind that air in Europe rarely surpass the green readings. You will find yellow air quality readings in Europe only in large industrial areas during long periods without rain. Just to keep things in perspective. Microparticles may lead to cancer, alzheimers, atherosclerosis and permanent declines in lung capacity (among other nasty things). For those in Beijing, there is a Twitter Channel called Beijing Air for pm2.5 particles. Readings during last few days are almost entirely composed of very unhealthy. Mind you, the highes level on that scale is hazardous, which happens also frequently, but no toxic level as the scale is intended to be used in Europe and Northern America where the level mediocre is never exceeded.

Basically I have to rate my website to which age it is appropriate. I can choose between sitewide oder per page rating. Unfortunately it is to much work to make sure, all my articles including all posted comments by all my readers are safe for a certain age group. I’m not an legal expert, so I can’t really rate every piece of text without making mistakes. Bottom line is, I label my whole site suitable for people 18 years and older.

But there is the downside of this. If I label my website for people aged 18, I have to make sure, only people at least 18 years old access my content. Either I ask everyone to send me a copy of their passport and give them accounts, or alternatively, I only make my site only available from 11pm to 6am Central European Time. German internet law sucks! Let’s hope Ursula fails with her bullshit internet censorship.

More information available at Arbeitskreis Zensur (German).

Just before Christmas I got a hint to look at Popup Chinese. As I’m always looking for better methods to learn Chinese, I gave it a try. So let’s answer the important questions: What is Popup Chinese? and: Is Popup Chinese a useful product?

What is Popup Chinese? Popup Chinese is a website to support your Chinese learning through various teaching methods, most importantly podcasts. For people like me podcasts have a special meaning in the learning diet. While people in a Chinese speaking environment just can speak Chinese anytime, others have to use alternatives. I can just download a podcast and put it into my BlackBerry and listen to it anytime. The Popup Chinese podcasts come in different flavors, from absolute beginners to really challenging ones. Apart from a dialog, grammar is discussed and helpful comments shed light on the correct translation. I feel very comfortable with the Elementary dialogs, however the Intermediate dialogs are already challenging to me. Hopefully I can get there soon.

Furthermore, Popup Chinese provides transcripts, which can be used to make sure you understood everything right. They have additional exercises for those who want to prepare for the HSK, and also some miscellaneous stuff.

The dialogs are fresh, interesting, surprising and definitely different from what you get from the average textbook. I’m really surprised by this in a positive way. There are very natural, dialogs like they could happen any day and a wide range of topics is provided. The only thing I dislike a little is, they often speak with a Beijing accent, with a lot of 儿-sounds. I’ve learned mandarin in Kunming and Chendu, both places with very little 儿-sounds. This is a question of personal taste, but I guess the exposure to different accents can only be helpful to me.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a podcast to support your Chinese learning, then Popup Chinese might be right for you. It’s right for me as a supplemental tool while I’m moving around and can’t use my time in any other way. A good selection of topics and difficulty levels help to find appropriate material and supplemental exercises on the website help learning effectively. You should give it a try. They have a free trial so you don’t buy a pig in a poke.

Website: http://popupchinese.com/