Order from Dangdang

[tamarind]

laughingcat:

Tamarind,


Need your advise. What do you think of this? 18 chapters of 宫崎骏作品. I noticed my #1 boy knows how to read very well but when comes to conversing in Chinese is quite bad. So I am thinking of getting more chinese DVDs.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20194853

Hi laughingcat,
I did not get the complete set. This set does not contain his latest works like Howl's moving castle, Ponyo and Spirited Away.

I bought some individual movie DVDs from dangdang. Ponyo and Spirited Away are available locally.

You can also get the Disney movie DVDs locally, they have Chinese audio.

[tamarind]

SAHM_TAN:

tamarind:

[quote=\"SAHM_TAN\"]My order was dispatched from DD on 6 Mar but only posted out on 16 Mar. Wonder where it was sitting for 10 days. It has yet to leave Guangzhou, wonder when it will leave China's shore :? Maybe another 20 days?

I guess they are waiting for the container ship to fill up :roll:

Typed too fast, my order has not even reached Guangzhou. So the agent must be consolidating for enough orders, then send to Guangzhou. Wonder do they take the ship departure schedule into consideration or they only look at at the qty. So if not enough, will miss the ship and have to wait for the next one.[/quote]This happened to one of my orders, waited a few weeks before it was shipped out. In the end, I received it more than 9 weeks later.

[laughingcat]

tamarind:

laughingcat:

Tamarind,


Need your advise. What do you think of this? 18 chapters of 宫崎骏作品. I noticed my #1 boy knows how to read very well but when comes to conversing in Chinese is quite bad. So I am thinking of getting more chinese DVDs.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20194853

Hi laughingcat,
I did not get the complete set. This set does not contain his latest works like Howl's moving castle, Ponyo and Spirited Away.

I bought some individual DVDs from dangdang. Ponyo and Spirited Away are available locally.

You can also get the Disney movie DVDs locally, they have Chinese audio.

Oh yeah! You are right. I have troubled getting hold of the DVD locally leh. Can share where did you get yours from?

[tamarind]

laughingcat:

tamarind:

[quote=\"laughingcat\"]Tamarind,


Need your advise. What do you think of this? 18 chapters of 宫崎骏作品. I noticed my #1 boy knows how to read very well but when comes to conversing in Chinese is quite bad. So I am thinking of getting more chinese DVDs.

http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20194853

Hi laughingcat,
I did not get the complete set. This set does not contain his latest works like Howl's moving castle, Ponyo and Spirited Away.

I bought some individual DVDs from dangdang. Ponyo and Spirited Away are available locally.

You can also get the Disney movie DVDs locally, they have Chinese audio.

Oh yeah! You are right. I have troubled getting hold of the DVD locally leh. Can share where did you get yours from?[/quote]I bought it from video shops in Jurong Point. I will let you know if I see them again.

宫崎骏 DVDs are also available at the National Library. You can search for 宫崎骏 at http://www.nlb.gov.sg/.

[laughingcat]

tamarind:

laughingcat:

[quote=\"tamarind\"]
Hi laughingcat,
I did not get the complete set. This set does not contain his latest works like Howl's moving castle, Ponyo and Spirited Away.

I bought some individual DVDs from dangdang. Ponyo and Spirited Away are available locally.

You can also get the Disney movie DVDs locally, they have Chinese audio.

Oh yeah! You are right. I have troubled getting hold of the DVD locally leh. Can share where did you get yours from?

I bought it from video shops in Jurong Point. I will let you know if I see them again.

宫崎骏 DVDs are also available at the National Library. You can search for 宫崎骏 at http://www.nlb.gov.sg/.[/quote]Thanks Tamarind. It's okay lah coz Jurong point quite out of the way for me. Perhaps I will place orders in the local shop.

Okay...will check it out from the NLB.

Tonight was the first time I exposed my boy on the 喜洋洋与灰太狼dvd and he likes it. I hope he continues to like it.

BTW, in your own opinion how do you encourage your children to speak more mandarin? Coz I have this little problem here. Both my kids can read chinese books quite well. However when comes to conversing, they are really bad. Most of the time tongue tied. How do I resolve this?

[genmai]

tamarind:

genmai:

[quote=\"hquek\"]
Once your order is approved, you can actually see the courier company and phone number. You can then call the company and tell them of the optimum time. Have to be more proactive in monitoring the status of your order.

My sis was in china sometime back and I placed an order that was fully paid by credit card. %#&I courier company didn't seem to try to deliver - they claim they called (this is impossible becos I gave MY SG phone number and nobody called me). They will never send to hotel to be received by receptionist. End up by the time I try to reach them, it was too late. I had to wait for weeks before they returned the goods to DD and then for DD to process my refund.

Hi hquek,

Thanks for your response!

I can understand your frustration. The worst feeling for online purchase is to wait and wait and did not receive the goods, then wait and wait and wonder if we'll get our refund. That's why I'll opt for cash on delivery. At least if it didn't work out, I don't have to worry about refund.

Keeping my fingers crossed the purchase will be smooth as I dun want to trouble my dad too much on his biz trip.

In addition to hquek's reply, if you put in a China phone number, the courier will call your Dad when they are going to deliver the books. Your Dad can arrange for a place to meet at the hotel, there is no need to provide the room number. Also, if the courier comes and your Dad is not around, he can ask them to deliver again the next day at no extra charge.

One more thing, choose Cash on Delivery so you don't have to pay anything when you place the order.

Also, it is important to check the location of the books before you place the order. If all books are in the same province that your Dad is currently in, they will be delivered within 1 to 3 days. If any book has to come from Beijing, it may take more than 1 week.

My hubby collected 3 parcels for me while he was in Chengdu, it is definitely an extremely convenient way to buy books in China.[/quote]Hi Tamarind,

Thanks for your reply. You're right, I think it's really convenient to order books through Dangdang.com when delivery is to China address. The platform is robust for tracking status of my order.

My dad is back and I got my books already!! I only ordered books available at Shanghai warehouse so it takes 1-2 days for receipt.

There was some hiccup with the delivery though. Once I saw that the books were out of warehouse, I texted my dad the courier tel no. He called a few times to try to arrange the delivery time but no one picked up! The delivery guy only called him when he reached the hotel. My dad was not in at that time, so in the end have to arrange another timing. Got to trouble him to make a trip back to hotel just to receive the goods in the afternoon.

I feedback to dangdang to suggest calling in advance for delivery to hotel addresses. Hope they improve on this aspect.

That said, I'll definitely order from them again!

[tamarind]

[quote]
BTW, in your own opinion how do you encourage your children to speak more mandarin? Coz I have this little problem here. Both my kids can read chinese books quite well. However when comes to conversing, they are really bad. Most of the time tongue tied. How do I resolve this?[/quote]Hi laughingcat,
I started out by using Mandarin to discuss about the Chinese stories they are reading. My kids often ask questions about the stories, or give their opinions, I encourage them to speak in Mandarin and I always reply in Mandarin.

Another way that I tried was to let my girl read all the conversations in the Doraemon comics out loud to me. She finished 6 books, and she liked it so much that she memorized some of the conversation and repeated them to me.

When they are watching the 宫崎骏 movies or the 喜洋洋 cartoons, they also repeat some of the conversations that they think are funny.

The best way is still to speak only in Mandarin to them everyday. Kids will be resistant at first, and they may not reply in Mandarin, but after a while when they are more confident, they will speak in Mandarin.

[tamarind]

Hi genmai,

I also tried calling the courier company before and no one answered. So I did not try calling them again.

It is absolutely fine to ask the courier guy to come back another time, even though he is already at the place. This is expected of their job. I did it a few times when I was in China. The courier guys always readily agreed to come another time. It's no trouble for them because their job is running around to deliver. Remember that labour is cheap in China

[genmai]

Hi Tamarind,


True also! Guess I was anxious cos first time ordering and Dad's only there for less than a week.

I was asking him about the delivery man's attitute etc cos Dangdang has a feedback form to fill. Dad was telling me he's a young chap with good attitude and many places to run. Guess their cheap labour work really hard.

[tamarind]

genmai:

Hi Tamarind,


True also! Guess I was anxious cos first time ordering and Dad's only there for less than a week.

I was asking him about the delivery man's attitute etc cos Dangdang has a feedback form to fill. Dad was telling me he's a young chap with good attitude and many places to run. Guess their cheap labour work really hard.

Yes the young people in China work very hard, and I think that service in general is good, because they are afraid of losing their jobs. It's probably not easy to find a job in China.

I even see young, attractive people(mainland Chinese) working as cleaners in the high speed trains. I was surprised at first, because we always see middle aged aunties or foreign workers doing this type of jobs in Singapore.