Building vocab thru watching business DVDs

This morning I helped with some sales work. This afternoon, I used some downtime to work on some Mandarin – still a top priority for me when I have spare time. I’ve started watching a business DVD series, by an experienced (old) Taiwanese chap. Something that my friend winfun introduced me to. It’s working well as a means for practicing listening and building vocabulary. It’s good too to help remind my colleagues of how good/bad my Chinese is, because at times I need them to help tell me what words are when I can’t hear them clearly.

I think if I can do this every now and then I’ll be able to grow my vocab. Good news.

It’s my birthday today, I’m very happy for it! I was dreading the sales work this morning – working in Chinese, off Chinese documents provided as scanned picture files, so I couldn’t use the computer to translate them. Frustrating business. But with friends sending me text messages to say happy birthday, every time someone reminded me, I smiled again. It’s nice to enjoy my birthday in this way – having something special to smile about.

My friend Chris gave me a little gift today – some cufflinks. A good present – I’m real low on cufflinks right now. It’s good too cos I was annoyed with him because I invited him to a group dinner on Saturday, and he bailed out with a lame excuse at the last minute. I reckon he should know better. I don’t think I told him it was my birthday, but it was a pretty firm invitation. But, with a lil gift, that’s a good and simple way to straighten things out. I’m happy.

words picked up during some MBA lecture

融资 rong2 zi1 financing (mixed capital)

赚 zhuan4 make money

烧 shao1 burn money / spend fast

words picked up from first episode of 'chinese style management' – the Taiwanese thing.

author: 曾仕强

series title: 中国式管理

老搭子 lao3da1zi3 old game/card partners

摸黑 mo1 hei1 dark feeling / middle of the night?

结局 jie2ju2 ending / outcome

先进 xian1 jin4 advanced

紧张 jin3 zhang1 nervous (not jiang4)

忙碌 mang2lu4 busy

紧张忙碌 jin3zhang1mang2lu4 nervous busyness

辛苦劳累 xin1ku3 lao2 lei4 hard overwork

轻松愉快 qing1song1 yu2kuai4 relaxed happiness

并不 bing4 bu4 (emaphasized) not

放在脑海里面 fang4zai4nao3hai3li3mian4 put in your mind

我下面这句话你要放在脑海里面

我们老祖宗的道理

老祖宗 lao3 zu3 zong old ancestors

洗澡 xi2zao3 bathe

本事 ben3shi ability

我们本事不够高 wo men ben3 shi bu gou4 gao1

道理 dao4li principle/truth/argument ??

流传 liu2 chuan2 spread / hand down

连续 lian2 xu4 continuously / successively