I wouldn't say he meant 'so bad'. It's more like, 'so so', or 'not so impressive'. On that part of your translation, your Mandarin is 'not so impressive' indeed! :p

至少没大山好，真实

Frivolous is a good way to describe that podcast. I think once a person's Chinese becomes good enough to have a conversation, then people stop dishing out the compliments. Chinese people can actually be quite unforgiving when it comes to grammar mistakes and mixed up words.

But would he have said this to your face...?

Nao Bai Jing! You don't want to be Nao Bai Jing...

Nothing to see here, people making comments on Internet forums.

Anyway I thought that was pretty funny. You missed almost all the Beijing Hua questions.

I use to think the same thing about Mando-pop man. I thought it was all just crappy slow boring love songs.

I got into it recently tho. Dunno why, new found love for Chinese music I guess.

Hey Goldkorn (that's right last name basis)
like the Minor Threat lyrics, "at least I'm f*cking trying".

You know in New York there are thousands of Chinese that don't care to learn English or even try to learn English.

At the very least you are trying to fit in...although I understand you respecting honesty and it is refreshing I know from watching your Danwei Tv interviews that you folks are doing a good job.

There are folks here that have been in NYC for 30 years and can't even say thank you...that may be more of a cultural thing though

Heh. Also after a decade here, last week had a colleague stop mid-conversation and ask why I insisted on butchering the beautiful sound of Chinese.
I still live in hopes that the day will come when a foreign accent is charming, like a French person speaking English.

When someone say your Chinese is "good", he is being polite, using the standard of judging a foreigner and trying to encorage you. When you no longer hear any comments on your Chinese, that means your Chinese is so good that nobody bother to htink about if you are a native speaker or not. I do not think this is related to "honesty".

"I still live in hopes that the day will come when a foreign accent is charming, like a French person speaking English."---JIM

Not likely.

Dude, Jim, the foreign accent is only charming when you are a hot woman with 2 large fat deposits on the front-side.

and the pictures are so...soo...soooo
I am at a loss for words!
I've heard the correspondent's Mandarin and he can order pizza like a champ!

I'm always surprised by the inconsistent responses. I am overseas Chinese and I get reactions at two ends of the spectrum. Sometimes it's "oh your Chinese is so good" and other times it's "you've been here x years and still your Chinese is so bad!".