(no subject)

I have been slacking off so badly with learning Mandarin. So so badly. And I know why! It's because, like a silly person, I decided that I was ready to go on to the Intermediate section of Chinesepod.

Now, an elementary lesson goes like this:

Your babies are really cute!

Thanks!

They are so alike! Their clothes are the same, too.

Of course they're alike. They're twins.

Which one is the older sister? Which one is the younger sister?

This is the older sister. The older sister is five minutes older than the younger sister.

And an intermediate lesson goes like this:

Man! This crappy cell phone... it's crashed again!

Xiao Ye, you're way out of the loop. What decade are you living in?
You're still using this kind of cell phone!

Cell phones... being able to make calls and send text messages is
enough. But I do want to get a new one.

Then I suggest you buy an iPhone5, this year's hottest smartphone.

But buying one now is sure to be expensive.

If you want to buy something, then buy the newest one.

I've heard the iPhone5's screen is a bit longer.

There are other improvements. Besides a bigger screen, the camera
on the front of the phone has been changed; the pictures are clearer.

That doesn't appeal to me; I really hate taking pictures of myself.
What do you think about Samsungs?

Some people say they're good; some people say they're no good.
Anyway, I don't like them. I've gotten accustomed to using Apple's
operating system. I think the Android operating system is too
cluttered.

(Chinesepod is a little bit notorious for the huge jump in difficulty between Elementary and Intermediate, though I think it's a great program in other respects.)

Really, I KNOW BETTER than to think I'm going to get better by doing stuff that is way too hard for me. It's understandable that I get bored of the same vocabulary over and over (to be fair, I did not previously know how to say "twins," which is useful!) but... it is hard to find the level between "too easy, I'm bored" and "too hard, I'm bored." And in theoretical terms, I side with the people who'd say you have to stick with it when it's so easy that it's boring -- it's just very hard to put it into practice!

(no subject)

A good long article about the controversy surrounding the planned remodel of NYPL's main library

I hated the idea of having the books sent to New Jersey. New York City basically has only one research-university-caliber library that laypeople have access to without spending a ton of money, and that shouldn't be restricted to laypeople who manage to plan everything they need a day in advance. But other than that I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing and I think it could work out very well -- the current plan, I guess, is to put the closed stacks under Bryant Park. (Bryant Park = the rather large back yard of NYPL.)

Which answers the question in the Rufus Wainwright song, "Is true love a long walk through Bryant Park?"