Upper Intermediate - Buying a House

Hi zhenlijiang

That's due to traditional male-chauvinism based on Confucianism in China. Men were extremely predominant in the past, and at the same time, men bore heavy responsibilities, e.g. leaving offspring and worshipping ancestors, in Chinese society, which is the reason why people poke fun at a (undutiful) single man with the word "光棍儿".

@changye, I'm afraid there is not only “男光棍儿” but also many "女光棍儿”. They are all young and single. People are actually not poking fun at them, it seems "光棍儿" is one of the natural ways to describe single ones!

We have "光棍儿节", a festival for the single ones in China (Nov. 11th ), that is 11.11, indicating single single single and single! To be single, to be cool!

Changye,

Welcome back!

I agree that the tenant bullying is a problem. Fortunately I've never had to deal with it. Now my wife and I are "home owners" (房奴, actually, still working on that mortgage), though, so I am lucky to have escaped the landlord bullying (and swapped it for bank bullying?).

zhenlijiang,

If you can remember 光棍儿 by "shiny stick" than I'm happy! :)

Hi shenyajin

Oh, I remember now. I learned the word "光棍节" before here in Chinesepod. Judging from your comment, it looks like that the original meaning of 光棍儿 has already been slightly altered due to prevailing "gender equality" in modern China. I'd like to know what image henning would think of when he sees the word "女光棍儿", hehe.

我和我老公就是“租房结婚”的，我觉得没什么，有没有房子无所谓，在一起开心就好。

但是老公的爸爸妈妈很担心，每个周末都要问：你们看好房子了吗？看好了我们就一起买吧！

changye, shenyajin, zhenlijiang,
thanks for the explanations...

I am sure, though, that even innocent Chinese are not fully immune to the imagery evoked by the literal meaning of those characters. Irregardless of the objective etymology.

Changye: Don't summon the darkness of my imaginary power  :P  [KWX]

bababardwan, apologies for yet again giving rise to more ???s with "kwx". I've never seen this or anything, just made it up thinking it would be understood.  Certainly silly as it doesn't save space or anything. Maybe better to make sure it doesn't already mean something dirty or offensive though, before using it elsewhere! (oh I see you using it already. henning too. haha)

RJ--you 给我面子 by getting what I meant so early!

changye, as always I appreciate your patience with my questions!  Usage and nuances of these terms are changing all the time aren't they. The problem of offspring without issue bringing parents grief may be most serious in Korea though, another Confucian society where filial duty is paramount. I hear their birthrate now is even lower than ours.

shenyajin, we learned that on 光棍儿节, big "美丽邂逅" (beautiful encounter) events are held on university campuses for single guys and girls, and everybody who goes is required to attend with a date (of the opposite sex obviously). Have you ever been to those?

john, it's not like I've never seen 光 in this sense. And I didn't require a mnemonic for this. But now I won't be able not to think of shiny stick ...

henning, there's a right place and right time for everything. Hope there's a place & time for your imaginary power (a power that you only imagine you have--? hehe) to be summoned (whoo) and unleashed safely here. It would be something to see.

zhenlijiang,
I checked KWX and found it OK to use.

@alexyzye, exactly, "一座房子" 和 "一幢房子" ，a western house, maybe with a garden;  “套” can be both used for houses and apartments, "一套房子"，"一套公寓", of course, the "房子" here is different from "一座房子" and "一幢房子", it's a house in a building.

What ever happened to bringing the new wife back home with you.   At least in Taiwan thats traditional.   The son will get married and then bring his wife to move in with him and his parents.  Talk about  辛苦生活! 

在中国，真正能靠自己的工资买房的人实在是太少了~

@zhenlijiang, what a shame! I haven't been to any of the events. Maybe there is something to so with the sex ratio imbalance in my university. That was 7girls:1boy last year, but things are better this year! I'm no longer there.....:(  Buuuut, I had fun with my roommates, we went to a buffet dinner and ate a lot. 真棒！

@kerri881224, 同意你的看法！但是靠自己买车子的人还是很多的。

There's another expression for the "shiny stick" single person: 穷光蛋 (I guess that would be a poor lonely egg..., funny how eggs are used to express all kinds of things in Chinese).

And here's a sentence one of my teachers gave us:

他，光棍一个，一人吃饱全家不饿。

(He, just a 光棍, if he's eaten then the whole household has eaten, i.e., he=the whole household).

Hi christine30550

Thanks for sharing an interesting sentence. What an optimistic way of looking at loneliness ;-0

A 穷光蛋 is actually someone who's really poor. It's not related to being single.

Incidentally, 蛋 is used to scold or curse people quite a bit in Chinese:

王八蛋 sonofabitch

混蛋 bastard, good-for-nothing

And when you want to tell someone to SCRAM, you can say 滚蛋 (Roll away, egg!) although that really is quite strong.

Can a 外国人 buy property in China?

而且房子会升值的 ( A house will increase in value). I don't buy that especially when the house has doubled in purchase price in 3 years. @tommy2tone

I mean having shelter is the one the most basic Maslow need. After the 2000 dot com bubble, large investments were done in real estate. Result: in most European capitals (Paris, Madrid,London) housing purchase has doubled in less a decade. If you look well at the cost of construction work, the price to cost ratio is very high. House price rise when ownership is high.

我买了而且房在巴黎。 如果我的父母不点上，我是房奴。

@mikeinewshot

应该没问题，就是有些规定，这些规定我不太清楚， 不过一个是说买房的外国人先必须住在中国两年才行。 其他的规则好像是关于工作或者结婚。反正因为我有打算在成都买房，所以我得赶快打听清楚。

因为经济危机，中国政府执行了关于借款首付的新政策。以前中国人要买房，首付必须有百分之三十，可是现在就是百分之二十。中央部希望这会鼓励人买房而推进国内经济。成都房价均50万快钱，而平均年薪不到2万快钱，算一下，想要买房的老百姓先得省十万快钱作为首付才能向银行申请抵押，对一般的人来说，虽然买房变了容易一些，不过那个山还是爬不上的。

刚看了一个小说：＂婆婆媳妇那些事＂（徐徐著）。这小说里，买房子是个非常大的题目。

女主角的丈夫的爸爸妈妈给他们买了＂婚房＂，结果他们搬进去以后，丈夫的妈妈老想控制他们。女主角受不了，她们老吵架。

这个小说里还有另一个词：＂福利房＂。＂福利房＂到底是什么？是以前工作单位给员工准备的一套房子吧? 现在还有没有？

@bettine

好像 福利房 是跟福利有关，呵呵，其实我不清楚，可能是像你说的那样的房子，也有可能是政府给贫穷百姓提供的房子。你中文写的好好啊！

Hi bettine, miantiao,

"福利房"是以前计划经济制度下的产物。那时候房子不能进行自由交易，一般是政府或单位造好以后，根据员工的职务、工龄等情况，把房子作为福利分给员工的，员工不需要或者只要付很少的钱。现在单位分福利房的情况很少见了。

原来如此，好像我在看金婚电视连续剧发现过了，因为那个男主角升职的时候，政府工厂就给他更好的房子，地位较高相对的房子

谢谢 Connie 老师！看来社会的变化真快！

Miantiao, 这个金婚电视连续剧是什么故事？有意思吗？看电影或者看书可以帮助我学汉语（尤其下边有中文字母的时候），所以有时想看。从去年底以来，我在学汉语上可能真的有点进步（也谢谢CPod!)。去年十月份我搬到中国了。 不过，表达意见总是觉得比较难，常常怕说不清楚。

@bettine

别怕说错了，要尽量趁着每一个机会开口，说错的话，就没问题，别人常常会帮你纠正。来中国还是不久啊！我也来了不久，刚好两年，不过这两个月来我在澳洲处理事情，这月底要回成都。

金婚连续剧， 故事有五十年长，每一集等于故事里的一年，从五十年代至当代。讲的是个女人和一个男人结婚开个家庭，然后经过前途五十年的中国历史。我不常看连续剧，就在中国看，不但是有助于我的中文，还可以让我多一点理解中国文化和中国人。该连续剧得了很多中国电视奖。

@bettine and miantiao, miantiao 大哥说得没错，就是要说，只要有机会就要说出来，这样才会进步啊！而且，bettine 用中文表达得很好，很清楚，我们都能看得懂！希望你多多发帖子，多多回答问题！！

《金婚》故事开始于新中国热火朝天的1956年，文丽与佟志
是一对平凡夫妻，这个故事一年又一年地讲述了这对夫妻五十
年坎坷婚姻路。这是一个讲家庭，生活，爱情的故事，我觉得
会对你学汉语有帮助的！只是刚开始看的时候，你可能会觉得
语速有点快，但是没有关系，多听就好了！
Cheers!

@shenyajin

你能胜任电影评价的，介绍的那么清楚。我就是想会有一天能写的那么流利。看到你写得那么好就让我嫉妒，请把你的中文一切都给我吧！

For Chinese people, there is always a sense of "family" in the center of our lives, even it could be brought to the level of the Nation (国家)。

A large part of people who plan to buy houses have these concerns:

1. If I pay mortgage, it is like paying for myself and my own belonging, which can be owned in the future. Paying rents, it is like paying to others' property.

2. As China is now a fast-growing economy collective, investing on houses is always a safe way of investment. Some people will start with a small house (sometimes as small as 30-40 m2) and later change for a bigger one by selling the first one.

3. In big cities in China, it is advanced and being modernized. Many people would like to set root in big cities, which will bring a lot of good for their kids and career. So sometimes, owning a house is also required by the local government to get the ID of the city (户口)。

@miantiao, 哪里哪里！我是native speaker, 当然要流利了！要不我妈会让我面壁思过的！好的，你可以都拿走，只是怎么拿走啊？

@hotpot2000，I do hope the government could abolish the houldholds system, so all the migrant employees would enjoy better welfare.

Changye,

Welcome back! Looking forward to your ever witty and informative comments. 

@Mikeinewshot,

 Yes, foreigners can buy property in China. But only one apartment or house.

Miantiao 和 Shenyajin，谢谢你们的鼓励！是，不用怕说错了。不过，我觉得用汉语写一写跟说话有点不一样，因为以后没法儿改。
＂金婚＂电视剧我刚买了，很方便，我正在中国。你说服我了。两个DVD，一共可以看多长时间。。。？

@bettine

不好意思我没有早一点回答，最近忙得要命。 ‘金婚’ 每一集应该40分钟左右，一共有50集。我最喜欢的角色就是那个胖胖的来自农村的女邻居，外表比较凶，心里却很温柔。

"而且我光棍儿一条" : I'm still not clear what this "一条" is doing here? It's a measure word for apartments. The translation is "I'm single", but that would be "我光棍儿", period. Is he saying "I'm single and I live in an apartment" ? Or "I'm single and I'm an apartment kind of guy" ?

Here is my attempt at extracting words from Jenny and John's conversation:

热心 rè xīn enthusiasm / zeal / zealous / zest / enthusiastic / ardent / warmhearted
管闲事 guǎn xián shì to meddle / to be a "nosy Parker" / to be too inquisitive about other people's business
类型 lèi xíng type / category / genre / form / style
婚房 hūnfáng a house that a couple buys before marriage
学区房 xuéqūfáng a house near a school
拆开 chāi kāi to dismantle / to disassemble / to open up (sth sealed) / to unpick
实事 shí shì fact / actual thing / practical matter
对比 duì bǐ contrast / balance
顾虑 gù lǜ misgivings / apprehensions
体现 tǐ xiàn to embody / to reflect / to give expression to / to be reflected in / exemplify
开发商 kāi fā shāng developer (e.g. real-estate, software etc)
赞助 zàn zhù to support / to assist / sponsor
经销 jīng xiāo to sell / to distribute
趁机 chèn jī seize an opportunity / take advantage of situation
艰苦 jiān kǔ difficult / hard / arduous
平米 píng mǐ square meter / short for 平方米
紧急 jǐn jí urgent
讨好 tǎo hǎo to get the desired outcome / to win favor by fawning on sb / to curry favor with / a fruitful outcome to reward one's labor
现象 xiàn xiàng appearance / phenomenon
同感 tóng gǎn similar feeling / fellow felling / sympathy / understanding / consensus
女婿 nǚ xu daughter's husband / son-in-law

Hi calicarte

“条” is the measure word for "光棍儿".

@calicarte, this is an amusing way to say oneself "我光棍一条" Traditionally, 光棍 is not supposed to describe a single women, but now, it seems you are free to use this title on any single ones.

@mike, helpful! I didn't know there are so many ways to say 讨好. Thanks!

I'm getting more and more addicted to CPod.  These conversations reveal so much about the culture.  I can't wait to get to China! 

k

connie said
6 hours ago

“条” is the measure word for "光棍儿".

I see, but why does it stand after the word it modifies? Measure words usually precede the noun. i would expect the sequence to read 我是一条光棍儿".

@calicartel, more example, 请给我啤酒三杯 qǐng gěi wǒ píjiǔ sān bēi, 杯 is the measure word for 啤酒. When measure words are following nouns, it's to make emphasis on the measure word. So does this "我是光棍一条"...

shenyajin

Sounds like a topic for a qingwen.

Hi shenyajin

Your explanation is best applied to this phrase, “罚酒三杯” !!

When measure words are following nouns, it's to make emphasis on the measure word.

@changye, Oh! yes! That's a smart one, better than mine~~~:)

wow, now I know all about buying houses in China. 我woot woot!

This lesson in invisible to the search engine!

对不起， “入住” 什么意思？

@yossarianbeijing, "入住" rù zhù 是 “to go in”，“to move in" 的意思！You can refer to the rollover in the dialogue.

Guess what? 我老公和我也刚刚买了一间房子 (oops! am I using one of those Cantonesey measure words that sound weird in Mandarin again?). Anyway, this is a bigger house than the apartment we currently live in and has a garden and a backyard. We have just paid the initial fee for the option to purchase....I'm really excited but that means we will probably be　房奴　for the rest of our lives.

@pinkjeans, 恭喜你！That's what I want, a house, a garden and a backyard. But I'm not ready to become a "房奴" yet. :-) 上海的房子贵死了！