User Comments - ivor88

Posted on: SKRITTER!!!

Thanks John - they are now all much more difficult :-)

Posted on: SKRITTER!!!

Really like using Skritter - I think this is a great addition to the site.

One question - is it possible to get it to work with traditional characters?  If not, it is possible to set up some sort of flag, so at least I will know that the character has a traditional form I will need to look up?

Posted on: Slow Dinosaurs

Love the new writing practice with Scritter

Posted on: 把 Humbug

Orangina,

I've noticed that a lot of people don't here the difference as well - I think it may be Chinese speakers in the UK who have mainly picked me up on it, possibly because of hearing the difference in English.  I guess it is a bit like my own struggles with "zh" and "j" and "ch" and "q" in Mandarin!

Posted on: Checking Baggage

Yes, thanks Changye.

I always find it a useful to break down the characters, even if it doesn't always help with the meaning, but it is always fascinating to understand how terms originated.

Posted on: 把 Humbug

It's good to see that the policy on relevant postings isn't being persued too strictly - I didn't think I would turn to Chinesepod for a discussion on cricket, but thinking about it I think Chinesepod needs to teach the world the Chinese terms for silly mid off and googlie :-)  For what it's worth, as someone who speaks British English, I would normally say "the trio is".  I think the use of the plural is mainly reserved for sporting fixtures, and the contrast with American English may be exaggerated because UK teams tend to have names in the singular rather than the plural.

On a more Chinese-based note, it was interesting in the podcast that in some parts of China "n" is pronounced as "l"?  Is this a recent thing?  "L" has been taking over from "n" in Cantonese for some time, especially in Hong Kong, and although any text book will still romanise 你好as neih hou, in my experience leih hou is less likely to meet with polite laughter.  It is interesting that the same thing happens in Mandarin.

Posted on: Checking Baggage

Can anyone tell me why 行李 comes to mean luggage?  My literal translation comes up with "walking plum tree", which is a useful mnemonic, but it would be nice to know if there is a better translation of the characters?

Posted on: Art Museum

Changye,

You obviously know the drill well - her "professor's" paintings cost a lot more than I'm prepared to pay for a tacky souvenier and a chance to practice Chinese!

Posted on: Art Museum

A few dollars - quite possibly more than it was worth (no one sells at a loss if they can help it).  All I am saying is that I expect street vendors in China to try to maximise their profits and I expect to have to haggle.  I'm not sure I see that as dishonest though - in fact, it seems to make commercial sense; I get what I want at a comparatively cheap price, they sell what they can at a comparatively high price.

Posted on: Art Museum

Hi Changye,

Thanks for the link and the warning- an interesting list of scams.  Fortunately I had been warned about the tea scam before I went to Shanghai, which is why I suggested the safer Starbucks (at which point they walked away). 

What I was trying to get at is that I don't quite understand what the art scam is about - as far as I can see it is just someone trying to sell you something.  You have to be prepared to haggle if you are not going to be overcharged and people are going to expect you to pay 鬼佬 (gwailou) prices, but that is standard practice in many places in China and some of the paintings are actually quite nice, even if they are not produced by the grandmasters mentioned in the sales patter.   Is there something I am missing?