leasing a station to the Chinese Government

[Dan.Strassberg]

WILD does indeed broadcast Chinese-language lessons. I heard one a
month or so ago and posted here about having heard it. (Must have been
a good day; WILD was modulating more than the usual 1 or 2% on
peaks.) Someone here (Garrett, I think) then posted a long and very
authoritative-sounding response. The issue was the version (dialect?)
of Chinese in which these lessons are conducted. If I remember the
gist of the long posting, it was that the only dialect of Chinese that
the Beijing government officially recognizes is Mandarin and contrary
to what some others had posted, the long posting suggested that
speakers of other versions of Chinese would not be able to
automatically comprehend spoken Mandarin.

As someone completely unfamiliar with any version of the Chinese
language, I can say that the two-minute lesson in spoken Chinese for
English speakers was utterly incomprehensible to me. I suspect that if
I listened to 1000 such lessons, all focusing on how to say only hello
and good-bye and nothing more, I would be lucky to master just those
two words or phrases. If English is as confusing to Chinese speakers
as Chinese was to me, I think the likelihood of our ever being able to
communicate with each other is depressingly small.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <billohno@gmail.com>
To: <boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: leasing a station to the Chinese Government


> On 6/28/2011 7:20 PM, Sean Smyth wrote:
>> Also, that would mean ratings for any sporting events overseas (the
>> Olympics, being one example; breaking news, too) would have to be
>> tossed, and I reckon the logistics of doing that may not be simple.
>>
>
> How about a show called, "Hey, America, we want our money back.
> <crickets> Hello? Hello? Buehler? Anyone?"
>
> Or, they could broadcast Chinese language lessons. <fistful of
> flatware dropping onto a tile floor>
>
> I'd like a show that explains why there are so few baby girls born
> in China. Must be something to do with the water.
>
> That should keep them busy for awhile. Radio... It's Red Hot.
>
> Bill O'Neill
>