Book of the Month - December 2011, 圈子圈套

[jkhsu]

There's also no harm in going back and re-reading sections to help reinforce vocabulary and sentence patterns.

I just want to say that I completely support re-reading. The first flashback section confused me and I had to re-read it until I realized what the heck Linda's fast food was. However, with these novels, my main goal is to build up reading endurance and guessing (the act of trying to figure out a word using context) . The popup reader makes it easier and less time consuming to do this. I do make sure that I have a decent comprehension of the section that I am reading before moving on. If I tried to learn every single new word (and remember it), I'd never finish these books.

I'm also reading 3 different textbooks (with many more to go) and chinesepod transcripts. For those, I aim to understand every word and I'll re-read them until I learn all the words. I also go back and re-read them at a later time to make sure I didn't forget the new words I've learned. When I am done with all of those, I'm hoping to learn off of newspapers and novels with the aim of trying to learn every word. That's my plan. We'll see how it goes.

[imron]

Imron (or anyone), have you read the sequels? Any good

Yep, I've finished the whole trilogy. I found the sequels are basically on par with the first book. If you enjoyed reading that, then you'll certainly not go wrong with the other two. It's also nice to see how the story continues to progress, and how it wraps up in the end.

[roddy]

I'm working my way through the first one at the moment (started in November, and have been remiss about posting here, I fear). It's ok, wouldn't say I'm loving it, but it's entertaining enough. Doubt I'll bother with the sequels, if only because there's other stuff I'd like to read.

[Guest realmayo]

I'm assuming this falls in a "fairly easy" category: do any other novels spring to mind that are of a similar level to this one?

Edit: in fact to quote Imron: "light-hearted reading at a reasonably easy difficulty level"

[imron]

活着 is one. See also my post here.

[rob07]

I'm assuming this falls in a "fairly easy" category: do any other novels spring to mind that are of a similar level to this one?

杜拉拉 is basically a younger female equivalent of 洪钧, so there is 杜拉拉升职记 (warning: if you watch the movie instead you may lose the will to live).

I wonder if they got permission to use the godfather theme as background music in the third audio book?

I planned to finish off the trilogy by listening to the third audio book soon after the second one, but I can't make myself do it. It is just not interesting enough to spend that much time on it. I expect I will come back to it in a few months.

[BertR]

Ok, I also started this book. I've almost finished chapter 4 (according to the chapters on this website: http://vip.book.sina...ndex_39593.html ), but Imron wrote that the chapter numbering is out-of-sink on that website.

I'm also listening to the audio books and have mixed feelings about them. On the one hand the quality is really good, but on the other hand ... the "foreigners" annoy the hell out of me. In the recordings Peter (who supposed to only speak a few words in Chinese) has a typical accent of foreigners speaking Chinese that probably almost everybody here on these forums has. He mispronounces his tones, pauses in wrong places in sentences, his Chinese is not fluent at all and so on. His pronunciation is probably much better than mine (I never listen to myself speaking Chinese), but it's still really horrible and annoying to listen to.

And then there is Tony. His accent is really weird. He is supposed to be a Hongkonger, but most of the time he pronounces "shi" as "xi" (like for example Japanese do), but also often pronounces it as "si". His tones are also sometimes off, but not as frequently as Peter. From looking at the direction the story is going in chapter 4, I guess I won't be hearing them that much anymore. I hope I'm not wrong about this :-)

So here are 3 books, but on the website http://vip.book.sina...ndex_39593.html there are 6 parts. Is there any relation between the books and the parts? Do these parts all come from the first book, or also from the others?

[BertR]

To reply my own question:

The website seems to contain the text of the first book

The second part can be found here:

http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/index_40736.html

And the third part here:

http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/book/index_44354.html

[jkhsu]

the "foreigners" annoy the hell out of me

I agree. In general, I don't like feigned accents unless they're done really well. There is a fine line separating a believable accent and a stereotypical rendition considered "racist" in some countries. In my opinion, the faked accents for Peter and Tony fall in the latter category. Also, the conversation between Jim and Peter is supposed to be in English and Peter's Chinese is limited to just a few words and employee's names. He'd have to be an advanced Chinese learner to easily say these types of sentences in a conversation:

"呃哦，坏消息。合智集团的头号人物能来吗？陈只是二号人物嘛。合同能马上签吗?"

"看来刚才我在天上和陈总裁擦肩而过了，如果他是真的飞去了香港。嗯，你打算怎么办?"

For reference:

Peter speaking: 0:53 - 1:08

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/0O16oxrQiEw/

Tony speaking: 3:15 - 3:32

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/polBgS1wLqA/

[imron]

Peter speaking: 0:53 - 1:08

Haha, he sounds like 关谷 from 爱情公寓.

[roddy]

Cute.

Finished this. I could see this being useful if you want a bit of business culture and vocabulary, but I've got to admit I was surprised by how average I found it - I've had more than one person tell me this is a great book for the insight into Chinese business, but apart from pointing out that people are a bit sneaky and there's a lot of winin', dinin' and whorin', I didn't really get it. The plot is very straightforward and the vocab isn't much of an issue though, so a good one if you're looking for something corporate and accessible.

[Guest realmayo]

I like how Peter confuses this "n" and "l" in one of his 能s! Seems like he learned his Chinese in the south!

[rob07]

Well, I came crawling back to this after 步步惊心 got too much for for me. Actually sappy romanticism did provide a good antidote to my overdose of mildly boring corporate intrigue and I started enjoying it again when I came back to it. I've now finished the trilogy on audio book, so 有成就感.

and I want to see how their story develops ... It comes around full circle

Imron, you raised my expectations he was going to dump Phoebe - they were so annoying

[Guest realmayo]

For those who have both the audio and the text for these, is the audio word-for-word the same as the text?

[BertR]

No, there aren't the same. Many sentences are different and some sections are even completely missing in the recordings.

[edelweis]

I'm still in the first part of book 1 and I have a question:

If character X is fired without extra compensation, he can then work for a competitor. If character X resigns or is fired with some compensation, he can't work for a competitor.

Is this Chinese work law, is it specific to his contract, it it just common Chinese work ethic or perhaps is it specific to character X's work ethic?

(I think if such a non-competing stipulation is mentioned in a French law working contract, it is usually applicable regardless of the termination reason.)

[imron]

If I recall correctly, it was because of his contracts non-compete clause, but that clause also only applied if he resigned, not if he was fired. So he asked to be fired rather resign in order to be able to find work in the same field.

[rob07]

For those who have both the audio and the text for these, is the audio word-for-word the same as the text?

No, there aren't the same. Many sentences are different and some sections are even completely missing in the recordings.

I think this depends on whether you buy the official audio version or download it from the internet.

[BertR]

I guess that they are the same. They typically skipped some parts that were less interesting and not really relevant for the story. For example where 洪钧 describes his dream.

[edelweis]

thanks Imron.