Part 2: What you can get up to...

[Lu]

If you ask interesting questions, you give other people the opportunity to contribute and use their expertise. That is at least as valuable as giving answers yourself.

Compare it to someone standing on a corner with a large map. In many cities, soon a local will come up to that person to ask where they want to go and whether they need directions. People like being helpful, being able to give their knowledge to someone who can use it.

And as Shelley mentions, keep studying and soon you'll be able to answer other people's questions. As long as some super-regular doesn't get there first, that is. I suppose I'm one of the guilty parties here. Perhaps I should wait a day before jumping in to give others the opportunity.

[Shelley]

@Lu I don't think you should feel like you are jumping in, its really nice that you are keen to help. Maybe there can be some way of including the beginners and newbies in your answer. Perhaps along the lines of using spoilers and suggestion to help people work it out for themselves.

 

If you have to do some work towards the answer you tend to remember it better.

 

It is the one thing I would like to see more of on the forums, actual learning. I am not expecting people to give free lessons but when a question is asked about Grammar, tones, characters, usage etc. it would be nice to use it to make us use our brains.

 

So if someone asks what is the way to say so and so we can all pitch in with our attempts but have the correct answer given by someone like you with your advanced level of Chinese as a spoiler so the OP can get his answer correctly and quickly but us learners can kick the answer around between ourselves till we think we have it and can check the spoiler.

 

Just a thought