The other reason it caught my eye is that I recall 射 turning up in the Western Zodiac lesson and John saying that 射手 is not the usual term for archer and is pretty much only found in 射手座 Sagittarius . I guess he was referring to 射手 and not 射 on it's own,but anyway, still interesting to see it's used elsewhere.

They arequite common in Australia so restuarants avoid having to have the complex and troublesome (extra inspections, paperwork etc.) alcohol licence.

The charge is usually called "corkage", even if there is no cork. And some places will charge you if you bring your own cake (as some people celebrating birthdays do) calling it "cakage".

曲棍球...can that be more generally applied?

传统 chuántǒng = tradition, traditional
她非常喜欢传统音乐。

射 can be seen in 射靶 shèbǎ (= to shoot at a target) and also in 射箭 shèjiàn (= archery)
那人拉弓把箭射了出去。

卡卡 and 梅西are perhaps more useful names, but my far my favorite Chinese transliteration of a player's name in this world cup is: 查巴拉拉 Tshabalala. The play-by-play guys on CCTV5 sounded positively joyous every time they said his name.

南非都出局了世界杯，这么可怜！
Nánfēi dōu chūjúle shìjièbēi, zhème kělián!
South Africa is out of the World Cup already, such a pity! 

I think everybody got almost all their comments out on the World Cup and Diamonds lesson. I know I won't have a lot of enthusiasm for the World Cup if the US and Brazil get knocked out.

The France/ South Africa game yesterday was just ridiculous. ~drama~ One sending off, S Africa just needed one more goal to qualify. Really heartbreaking.

It just seems like all the major nations (bar brazil) are really crumbling under the pressure, which is making it all a lot more interesting. You can feel the tension in the air in England today as we prepare for another ridiculously important game. (which I won't be able to watch :-( ).

Chile is the longshot for me! No way, but it would be cool!

Of course, USA! USA! USA!

And not done yet! （＾ｖ＾）

(note: this gross racial stereotype is brought to you by yesterday's discussion here: http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/9448#comment-182229 )

It's very hard to put a stetson on a tiny picture when you only have MSPaint and 5 minutes in between meetings, you know.

You know, I kind of wish I'd never made this post, it's not even funny. No offense intended John :p

Funny? 肯定!

Soccer Tribe anyone?

Japan tough? What they are is boring me out of my mind (they have to be by far the most boring team in this 世界杯, though I suppose it will be worth it if they're able to advance as I said to Changye some days ago). But somebody there needs to remember you're supposed to try to take some serious shots on goal during games!

France and Italy (England too probably, though I like their array of talent much better) are big names but aging teams that had their best chances years ago when their major stars were shining brightest, not now. They're veteran players, coming off hard seasons, exhausted, injured. Not at all surprising that they should struggle.

I do hope a couple of African teams make it into the next round. Ghana maybe? Looking quite difficult but I really wish Cote D'Ivoire would.

Brazil are really alone among the 32 teams; they're on a different plane. Doesn't mean they'll win though. The World Cup isn't about finding out who's the best team of soccer players right? It's just about playing to see who wins it!

* England played to win like they had to today. And looks like the US won in the dying minutes. Great games. OK and I take that back about England with their best chances in the past. Two exciting teams going onto the next round. 很棒！ *

Challenge to anyone: find a translation of 'monster truck'.

I remember my Chinese colleagues taking crates of the stuff to a big, reasonably fancy hot pot restaurant and no one batting an eyelid, even though they were definitely serving their own too.

我真想中国！

We often say BYOB in the US, but that's limited to parties/picnics/camping, etc.

..but following on from zhen's comment I was thinking how I while I know soccer is not everyone's cup of tea [though you Americans may take more interest now you've had some success ,hey?] ,it's great that you always have these topical lessons so you can get a chance to practice the vocab in the wild while it's being talked about [esp seeing as it is something Chinese are interested in even though there not in the cup...which I find speaks well of their attitude to sport],but also I was thinking how it's great that we now have soccer lessons at virtually every level which may encourage those who have learnt a lesson at their usual level to venture out into the next level ..or even higher ...having some vocab under the belt on that very same topic they may surprise themselves what they can follow at a higher level. So I think this sort of thing once in a while is a good idea.

As to your question, hmn, it's a good point. I know, let's ask some Rugby players whether armour is necessary.

cough cough :)

遗传 yíchuán (hereditary) - another nice example of passing something on, although a bit more complex than a ball.

传真 chuánzhēn which means fax.

The process of a fax is to pass on the real thing.

传真的知识 chuánzhēndezhīshi pass on real knowledge.

Oh, and I'm an American.

The process of a fax is to pass on the real thing

..yeah,this is exactly how I will remember it.多谢

..well tha's because tennis has drop shots and golf has divots...it is baseball where you dig it out and also have dug outs. I guess you just don't dig any of 'em. What makes you go hot diggity dog ancient one?

Who are you in your latest incarnation by the way? And er... why?

tal, I'll give you an opportunity to reconsider your question. What with the world cup on, cpod lessons to catch up on,and whatnot,we're all sleep deprived for one reason or another right. These thumbnail avatars are just so small and a strain on bleary eyes too ,right ?

"The game is up." - Cymbeline (Act III, Scene III).

And we already have baseball, but we play it properly, and call it rounders :-)

Cricket has been introduced into the USA - it IS played there. But it has certainly not taken off.

Baseball has been in Australia for years. We had our own national league, which attracted a bit of publicity for a while, but is now defunct. Baseball is dying a slow death in this country - soccer is much more popular here than baseball.

I'm not sure what information you base your claim on.

I would say basketball easily trumps either cricket or baseball worldwide in terms of player and supporter numbers.