User Comments - marcuche

Posted on: With Regards to 对 and 对于

so what is the difference beteen duiyu and guanyu

對於   關於

maybe another qingwen

Posted on: Express Train or High-speed Train?

in Taiwan I have only heard the locals use 高鐡 gao1 tie1 short for 高速鐵路  high speed (steel) rail.

動車 is new to me.

the automated announcements on the train are in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Haka and English.

The disadvantages are that it does not connect well to the local train system and the stops are not central to the  major cities.  This is unlike the Shinkanshen in Japan which is very well integrated into the older local tain system and stops in the center of cities.  I heard it had a lot to do with local politics and trying to get the cities to expand.  The trains sat on the tracks for about a year while they tried to get the European control systems to work with the Japanese built trains.  I heard that was also a political decision as initially it was supposed to be supplied entirely from Japan.

Posted on: Pinyin Sections 7-8

So I am way far behind on commenting.  I have Chinesepod lessons backlogged  like you wouldn't believe.  I have been studying Chinese for 5 years now and I still found these pinyin lessons to be helpful.  好主意

Posted on: The Surname Code

I guess we do things a little different in Taiwan.

The Chinese name I picked is 夢, 明榮  (meng4 ming2 rong2) so my friends explain to others by saying 作夢的夢 (the meng4 as in zuo4meng4 meaning to dream).

The same hold true for the other characters as 光明的明 or 明天的明 and 光榮的榮.

This then leads into some interesting conversations as to how I picked this name.

We use  the traditional characters in Taiwan. Using the meaning instead of describing the character gets around any differences there may be between these two systems.

Posted on: Buying a Plasma TV

I work in a company that supplies glass.  Plasma and LCD-TV are two totally different technologies, and plasma is loosing out as their color fades over time and the cost of LCD-TV's is coming down.  So please buy LCD-TVs as we don't sell as much glass to the plasma guys.

Posted on: Language Power Struggle

Chris,

I understand.  I can ask a question and not understand the answer.

I am not an auditory learner.  I am so strongly visual, that I sometimes picture the word on the flashcard when I am trying to remember how to say it.  When my teacher reads me a story in Chinese, I ask her if I can read the 中國字.  It is actually easier for me to understand the Chinese characters than it is for me to understand what she is saying.  Of course she says no and makes me struggle through trying to figure out what she is saying.

I asked my friend why the elevator says "up down" (shang4 xia4 ) all the time instead of saying "going up" and "going down".  She told me it was saying "xiang4 shang4" (向上) and "xiang4 xia4" (向下). I swear it took me two days of listening very closely before I could hear it.

Posted on: Seoul

I spent 6 months in Korea and weekend trips to Seoul was standard R&R.  Great city, and easy to get around on the subway system.  Also great prices on leather coats.  Korea is a drinking country and now my drink of choice is Shoju.  However, I have a terrible time ordering this in Chinese.  Can someone help me out here?  People think I am asking for a receipt.  Chinese characters, pinyin with tones, both are fine.   hanguode baijiu 韓國的白酒 doesn't seem to get the message accross.

Posted on: Taipei

I will be living in Taichung, Taiwan for the coming year.

(only 2 hours by bus from Taipei)

Feel free to get in touch if you head this way.

Posted on: Going Dutch

I got tired of fighting with my Taiwanese friends over who pays the bill. So now if one of them gets really stubborn and insists on paying, I propose we do "Rock, Paper, Scissors". They rarely argue with leaving the decision to "fate".

Posted on: Opinions on Poetry

The book "Guns, Germs and Steel" would be an interesting read for people interested in why the Eastern and Western societies were at their relative stages of development in the 15th century when they collided. But I don't recommend it to my Japanese colleges. One of the last chapters in the book proposes that the modern Japanese are descended from South Korean settlers. As for poetry, I have enough problems with that written in my native language. Let alone trying to tackle poetry written in a foreign language or in an archaic version of a foreign language. (heck, being an engineer, I thank god/goddess for the inventor of spell check.)