Christian Agenda and 88groups

I am so poor at the moment I can't even afford to pay attention!

Have you been missing the attention pipsy? lol

I think the content of any lesson or topic (as long as its in Chinese or related) really doesn't matter seeing as your still learning new words and/or grammar patterns, so why not?

OK, exorcising this post didn't work. Anybody got a wooden stake? Or a cross?

the stupid religious competitors are sure to make their pointless protests (its what they do) !

Ha ha dogeatsrat. Nice one. Can't controversy in something that preaches something to heal, help and bring peace, peace outside the human ability since we can't obviously do it. Guess some people just don't like being preached at, where as I don't mind as I use a discerning ear to hear, putting to test what is truth and our origin, not just something that works for me.

Anyway, Bazza, saw your post on 88groups. I added a riddle to the current discussion and info on the genealogy. I won't link to it though in fear of being stoned, ha ha. ;)

what's the next controversial topic - how about the gag order being placed on British athletes taking part in the upcoming Olympics in Beijing? Cannot make any critical remarks about their hosts.

bazza, I'm there.

GRRRR!! THIS "FRANKENSTEIN" OF A POST LIVES AGAIN! THANKS BAZZA! HERE COMES ANOTHER ROUND OF SARCASTIC COMMENTS FROM PIPSY AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF UNNECESSARY RELIGIOUS DEBATE FROM EVERYBODY ELSE! CANT WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?! HA HA!

I decided to resurrect the group. If I don't publish it as lessons then I'll probably forget to keep up with it and I was just starting to get into the story as well because I've never actually read it in English.

I just stumbled across http://www.chinese-bible.com/ which has the book in English, French, Pinyin, traditional and simplified characters. Unfortunely, the Pinyin displays every tone version of a character, e.g. 看kān, kàn even without showing preference to the more frequent one (in this case kàn).

Maybe, the software could be used for something more contemporary and more practical.

Has anyone tried "Learning with the Beijing Review" (http://www.bjreview.com.cn/learning/node_10241.htm) with some recent articles in Chinese and English (without Pinyin)? Just juxtaposing two language versions of the same text without going into the peculiarities of each language wouldn't help me very much in learning either of them. That sort of applies to the bible site, too.

Insha'Allah, Cpod will continue to help us learning enough Chinese to be able to read even those news articles, books etc. out there.

I think we need to restart this conversation (i.e. Henning's dictionary challenge) under a new thread name.

eyux,

good one.

I try another one:

"inquinate"

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Inquinate

To defile; to pollute; to contaminate; to befoul.

dict.cn for "defile":

弄脏,污损,以纵队前进

for "pollute":

弄脏,污染

for "contiminate":

弄脏,污染

for "befoul":

弄脏,污损

So I would go with 污损

This is great! Mr. Henning is calling us back to the classroom to do some Chinese but we're still fighting in the playground.

Here's my homework, Mr. Henning. I've done "weetless". The dictionary says it means unknowing.

Would that be 愚昧 - yu2mei4 - ignorant? Nice characters - zhongwen.com says it's a monkey's heart + darkness (sun behind a tree?).

I love Chinese characters! I'm a swot and proud of it. Let's all do Chinese again!

Can I get my lunch money back?

eyux. Yeah but bullies pretend to nice to you when the teachers are watching but then they steal your lunch money when noone is looking. :P

...?

dogeatsrat,

thanks for the background.

This is fun stuff, here is a start:

impetiginous

of, relating to, or resembling impetigo

http://medical.merriam-webster.com/medical/impetiginous

impetigo

http://medical.merriam-webster.com/medical/impetigo

an acute contagious staphylococcal or streptococcal skin disease characterized by vesicles, pustules, and yellowish crusts

ugh!

Who will be the first to translate this message completely into Chinese???

Actually pipsy has a head start, so I expect to see his translation first.

impetiginous, by the way is:

小脓疹的, 像小脓疹的

according to http://dict.cn/search/?q=impetiginous

The competition is open!

The following message was composed for Bizarre Notes and Queries, July-August 1890, to show "that it would be possible to write a technically grammatical sentence, which would be almost unintelligible." "The words below can all be found in the dictionary, and all are grammatically used: and yet the thing is as hopelessly dark as if written in Cherokee." It purports to be a note from an author to a critic:

Sir:— You have behaved like an impetiginous-Croyle! like those inquinate, Crass-sciolists who envious of my moral celsitude, carry their nugacity to the height of creating symposically the facund words which my polymathic genius uses with uberty to abligate the tongues of the weetless! Sir—you have crassly parodied my own pet words, as though they were tangrams. I will not coacervate reproaches—I would abduce a veil over the atramental ingratitude which has chamferred even my undicerptible heart. I am silent on the foscillation, which my coadjivancy must have given you when I offered to become your fautor and admincle. I will not speak of the lippitude, the ablepsy, you have shown in exacerbating me—one whose genius you should have approached with mental discalceation. So I tell you sir syncophically, and without supervaceneous words, nothing will render ignoscible your conduct to me. I warn you that I would vellicate your nose, if I thought that any moral diathrosis could be thereby performed—if I thought that I should not impignorate my reputation by such a digtadiation.

"For an entire solution of the above highly interesting missive, the reader is invited to amuse himself an hour or two with Walker's or Webster's Unabridged."

Bazza, may I remind you what Pipsy said to you earlier in this thread:

"Bazza! You have contributed a lot to C-Pod. I have found you selfless in providing assistance and insight to many fellow poddies.

Xie xie ni"

The words of a bully? Really?

I officially don't like pipsy.

pipsy...assuming those are all real english words, I'm very impressed!...you're at the Advanced level on EnglishPod, aren't you?!? I'm clearly at the English beginner level after spelling "censors" as "sensors". You win this round!

I recognise that passage! It's a direct lift from the grammar explanations in lesson six of my Chinese text book!

Sir:- You have behaved like an impetiginous-Croyle! like those inquinate, Crass-sciolists who envious of my moral celsitude, carry their nugacity to the height of creating symposically the facund words which my polymathic genius uses with uberty to abligate the tongues of the weetless! Sir-you have crassly parodied my own pet words, as though they were tangrams. I will not coacervate reproaches-I would abduce a veil over the atramental ingratitude which has chamferred even my undicerptible heart. I am silent on the foscillation, which my coadjivancy must have given you when I offered to become your fautor and admincle. I will not speak of the lippitude, the ablepsy, you have shown in exacerbating me-one whose genius you should have approached with mental discalceation. So I tell you sir syncophically, and without supervaceneous words, nothing will render ignoscible your conduct to me. I warn you that I would vellicate your nose, if I thought that any moral diathrosis could be thereby performed-if I thought that I should not impignorate my reputation by such a digtadiation.

I think it's pretty obvious that "pipsy" is not who he says he is. He's obviously working undercover for the chinese communist party sensors.

hmm... I been away from 88Grousp faaaaar too long to not even know what has been going on here... wow. And when I go to look for the group, I find out later in this thread it has been deleted. Would have actually liked to join in, Bazza, since as I said I usually read the Bible in Chinese but could use insights from others. Oh well, guess not things last. Will check out your links though.

As the pot said to the kettle "Is it because I am black?"

btw I didn't delete for religious reasons, I don't give in to bullying. I just thought it would be a way for some of us to study it together but as no one else was contributing it was pointless. So I'm going to study it on my own and save myself the time of posting the lessons.

Here is all my source material for those who want to carry on studying it.

http://www.bbintl.org/read/?do=read&a=gb&b=niv

http://www.lhm.org/asian/china/onlinelisten/ChineseAudioBible.html

Just when I got interested to join Christian Agenda it gets deleted!!

Bazza, about the Bhagavad Gita, I know there is an english version, the Portuguese version is based on the English one.

pipsy, you should be happy to know I've deleted my group now.

pipsy, please no religious references, thanks.

Here on Craggy Island we might say that would be an ecumenical matter!

Sorry Steve, I'm not sure where you can find it in pinyin. You could copy and paste the hanzi and have it translated into pinyin here, but you would then need to extract each word manually (pretty time-consuming). Anyone know of a good hanzi to pinyin translator that doesn't break up each individual word?

Go feck off pipsy. :P

Welcome to another round of spot the christian agenda!

Thanks calkins, for the Our Father translation! Do you (or anyone) know how this is written in pinyin (for this character-deficient newbie!)?

bazza: Kindly enlighten me on this quote from Red Dwarf (as I was to find out thanks to Google and Wikiquote):

"A-line flares with pockets in the knees".

I know A-,B-,C- pillars on cars and I do know all the rest of the words, but the rest is like knowing all the Chinese characters without knowing the sum total.

Btw: Maybe you should add some avatars (bodily manifestation of divine beings, e.g. krishna) or holograms to your group ...

This doesn't seem to be helping the popularity of my groups, it still deader than aline flares with pockets in the knees.

Unless it's just because it's so easy there's nothing to discuss. ;)

When you get up to the stories about rape, incest and so on, a lot of people might change their tune... in both directions :-)

I think they would Joachim, but they'd need to be translated in English first. ;)

Now that I can blieve!

Pipsy, that's not too far from the truth! "During Japan's Edo and Meiji periods (1600-1912), many monkeys were caught, tamed, and taught to perform theatrical dancing roles imitating human actors. The monkey handler (Saru-mawashi) was also a street exorcist who proceeded from house to house with a trained monkey perched on his shoulder, offering to exorcise evil spirits from each dwelling. The handler would beat a drum to provide rhythm for the monkey’s exorcism dance and the animal, costumed with an eboshi hat and a happi coat, usually held a gohei in one hand and a cluster of tiny bells in the other hand."

maybe a performing monkee could do it! (might be in need of the exercise in sarcasm)

LOL! Or maybe this thread could be exorcised? How do you say exorcism in Chinese...and what kind of priest can perform an exorcism? :)

wow! this post just keeps coming back to life...anybody know how to say "FRANKENSTEIN" in chinese?! LOL!

Even if there are translations of these texts available. I do not think that posting direct links or pasting chunks from them on C-pod is a good thing to do!

I have re-opened a can of worms ...

As I have just been to India: Are there translations of the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata and the Quran in Chinese and available on the net? Would reading these in Chinese help to master the language?

In the Monkees song "i'm a believer"

"Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer!

not a trace, no doubt in my mind"

I quite like this song and when I hear it

I dont assume anything anything about their religious beliefs and I dont assume anything about their level of intellect!

Pipsy:

You mean to say your earlier post saying, "I am well aware of the diversity of stupidity no matter how elloquently it is presented." was not making assumptions about Christians or those who believe in the Christian faith?

Are you not making assumptions that all believers are of lower intellect?

Preyer transliterations

I have not made any assumptions about anyone, but I have noticed that those who have made comments in repy have.

Steve, here's a translation of "Our Father": 我們在天上的父， 願人都尊祢的名為聖， 願祢的國降臨， 願祢的旨意行在地上，如同行在天上。 我們日用的飲食，今日賜給我們， 免我們的債，如同我們免了人的債， 不叫我們遇見試探， 救我們脫離兇惡， 因為國度、權柄、榮耀，全是祢的， 直到永遠。阿們。 For other prayers, you can go to the following link and perform a search on whatever prayer you want: Prayer Translations

Hey, does anyone know where I can find a Chinese translation of the Our Father and other Catholic prayers?

Thanks,

Steve

BJ- I am not offended. You couldnt offend me and it has nothing to do with religion or the futile back and forth posting that always surrounds this kind of thing. I just thought your comments were designed to embarass the wrong people.

Joachim that's in chapter 1.

神说，要有光，就有了光。

You are right, my post was designed to cause offense but only to those who assume the worst! You are offended because you feel it is an empty boast and offends your sensibilities but perhaps I am of average dimension and the norm is China is less so - in which case I have inadvertently caused offense to about half the population of China!

Assumptions cause offense - and the assumption that Pipsy was making about Bazza's intentions in creating a group about the Bible was wrong and misplaced.

I apologise for the apparent crudity of my post and the contrast of people threading on egg-shells about religon and the integrity of users made it more shocking. I will try to be more subtle next time.

BJ you made your point but If I were cpod I would take your post down. Not the content as much as the mean spirit and total lack of class. Funny how you reveal nothing in your profile but you are willing to advertise your most critical dimension your first day here. Wishful thinking I would guess.

Urbandweller,

I checked out the tampons lesson even though it wasn't quite that relevant. The one on condoms was useful - hey is it just me or does anyone else feel that condoms in China are a little too snug fit-wise. I was going to ask Amber but she might not know. We need a Dear John podcast :-)

(Since this is such a wacky thread, I thought this question might have a home here.) When does normal service resume?

suburbanite: The copyright should have expired some millenia ago, anyway ;-)

bazza: I had a quick look at your group and there seems not that much going on. When will Kain kill Abel? Why did you not post the "Let there be light!" parts?? (I am quite fond of t-shirts with this kinda text http://www.judaicaheaven.com/stores/judaicaheaven/catalog/lightts_2small.jpg)

Bazza,

I think its a good idea. You can post chapters--with no copyright issue.

I am well aware of the diversity of stupidity no matter how elloquently it is presented.

Pipsy,

No one on Chinesepod is pushing any Christian "agenda". I'm not really sure why Lessons about the content of the Bible to you constitute an "agenda".

Others here have posted quite elloquently that if for some reason you are offended by the content then you can exercise your right to not participate, just as those participating are exercising their right to participate

Remember what makes this world interesting is diversity, a diversity of people a diversity of ideas.

I hope one of the reasons you have come to study Chinese is to enrich your mind, not to close it.

Amen

May this thread now rest in peace.

在父親的姓名，兒子，和聖靈，阿門!

Amen, urbandweller! (Heehee...chuckle...)

We are all here because we want to learn chinese. If you want to be really good at anything, then you must be well rounded in the subject. I am not a smoker but i chose to check out the smoking c-pod episode because i want to be well rounded in my chinese dialogue. I want to be fluent and able to discuss any topic. I believe that is what many other peoples intentions are here too. But if you are just feel too sensitive, then dont look at it. Period. It's as easy as that. No one is putting a gun to your head and forcing you to listen to it! I highly doubt that there is some sort of C-pod conspiracy going on here...hmmm sounds like a good lesson idea! ha ha.

God exists! comes under false/unsubstantiated allegations catagory

I'm a big fan of freedom of expression. I think at CPod we all are. We of course reserve the right to delete offensive material, slander, illegal stuff, etc., but for stuff like religion (which is none of the above), I think I'd espouse a "if you don't like it, just don't join the group" approach.

I'm not religious either, but I'd agree with Bazza -- the stories are relatively easy to read, and a lot of them are already familiar with their content. It's decent learning material, but of course there's lots of other material available, so if it's not your cup of tea, find something that is :)

I must be missing something. "Christian Agenda and 88groups" is a pretty provocative title and I was expecting to find allegations on this thread that ChinesePod is sending donations to Huckabee's campaign or that leaflets handed out by missionaries in Beijing have the 88groups/ChinesePod logo on it. But all I see when I go to Bazza's work are informative translations of passages from the Bible - which whether we like it or not or believe it or not we surely all agree is one of the most-read, most-translated books in the history of mankind - and one comment from another poster which is not inflammatory in the least. So unless some offensive posts have subsequently been deleted, what's the problem, where's the controversy? Is there a direct link somewhere to the objectionable content? Surely it's not one person trying to force one's values down other's throats by telling us what we can't read or what shouldn't be posted or what we shouldn't link to (unless that one person is from ChinesePod, in which case as the site owner they have the perfect right to decide) - THAT would be offensive.

Ahhhh yes, that's why we're here...thanks tvan! Anyone know how to say The Pope?

How about a learning a little Chinese? I selected these terms out of a textbook lesson covering Chinese religions in general:

景教 － Nestorians, the first Christian group to settle in China during the Tang dynasty.

天主教 － Roman Catholics, the people the Nestorians were running from at the time.

神父 － Catholic Priest

利玛窦 － Matteo Ricci, a renowned Jesuit Scholar fluent in classical Chinese.

郎世宁 － Giuseppe Castiglione, another Jesuit who became court painter for the Qianlong emperor.

基督教 － Non-Roman Catholic Christianity.

牧师 － Pastor (usually Protestant).

洪秀全 － Hakka Chinese who claimed to be Jesus' younger brother and led the Taiping rebellion, probably the deadliest civil war in history.

Interestingly enough, the latter was admired by Mao.

I've added a short disclaimer on the group description.

As 88groups is like a sub-site to ChinesePod I think any link to there is ok. Well maybe not if it's a Spanish group.

If ChinesePod feel my group should be deleted, I'll the leave the decision up to them.

Calkins! I can see the Comments Policy directly below where I type a comment.

A link is not a comment.

Bazza! You have contributed a lot to C-Pod. I have found you selfless in providing assistance and insight to many fellow poddies.

Xie xie ni

Pipsy

And if you're wondering what all the fuss is about.

http://www.88groups.com/chinese-bible-chapters

;)

pipsy, this is straight from the "Comments Policy":

Allowed comments do not necessarily represent the views of ChinesePod.com. We also reserve the right to reject personal attacks, false/unsubstantiated allegations, and comments that include vulgar language or libelous statements.

Other than that, I guess it's up to the discretion of ChinesePod.

bazza, I plugged my 88group and it doesn't even work!

Bazza, I don't think you need to apologize, I love the crazy things you do or say, very creative and stimulating

Calkins, I completely agree with what you just said.

Now what can you and what can you not post links to?

I just wanted to make people aware the group existed as I was the only member a couple of days. Everyone else plugs their 88groups on here. :P

Pipsy, that's the beauty of forums like this! You can express your thoughts/beliefs about something. Some will agree, some will not (neither makes you right or wrong).

Freedom of expression is a wonderful thing (and I believe it is necessary for attaining knowledge).

Neither do I have a problem with it! I just not see how C-Pod as being the right place for posting such things.

That's the long and the short of it for me :-)

"What does member-created, member-driven and voluntarily populated imply?"

No implication intended! I thought I was pretty clear! If like-minded users want to study a particular subject and they're able to opt-in or opt-out as they please, I have no problem with it.

That's the long and the short of it. :-)

Wow...this is a pretty emotional conversation here. I don't think it's really necessary to argue about this so much. I never thought that having the Bible in Chinese would turn into such a controversy, but maybe it's just the way I think. For example...there was a lesson on smoking and since I don't appreciate that particular topic then I just didn't click on it. What is really the problem here? If you don't like a certain topic....just avoid it instead of trying to start a rebellion against it. No-one is forcing anybody to join anything by providing options.

It's pretty obvious that CPod is home to people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Everything available will not appeal to Everybody's interest! Live and let live!

I have no objection to anyone studying any religion in any language. If that is what they choose to do fine.

If 88groups was just posting more resources for learning Chinese I think that would be fine.

If I posted links to anti christian texts in chinese (which I would not do) would that be fine?

What does member-created, member-driven and voluntarily populated imply?

I did not say anything was good or bad!

It is easy to send a personal message or email to those you know are interested in such a subject.

This is not a personal attack on any member of CPod, nor 88groups!

Wo3 shen2 jing1 bing4!

Pipsy

It's only intended as a way to improve your range of vocab. The Chinese version seems to use modern day language compared to the English version.

To clarify, there is no group called "Christian Agenda." As a "believer," I agree that the group should stay on-topic, and if it happens to spawn discussions related to the subject matter contained in the Bible, then they should be taken elsewhere. I've seen too many of these discussions spiral out of control. They go on for days (or weeks or months), everybody gets offended, and in the end no one is converted from one side to the other.

As a wise man once said, "If you start slinging mud, not only do you get your hands dirty, but you also lose a lot of ground."

We are all friends here, and I would like for it to stay that way. :)

Yeah I'm not even Christian myself, I don't even believe in God. I just think it's a pretty easy story to read in Chinese.

I agree with frank and tvan.

88groups is a tool to learn/improve your Chinese, nothing else. I'm pretty sure that bazza is not trying to convert anyone to Christianity.

goulniky's 88news may have news stories with content that not everyone agrees with, but he's not trying to make you believe the news he shares. Again, it's just another avenue for improving your Chinese.

Like tvan says, nobody makes you join a group. If you don't like a certain group, ignore it and try to find one you like. Or find other means that are more suited to your beliefs. But please don't say what is good or bad for someone else.

Pipsy, I agree with you in terms of people proselytizing on Cpod. However, insofar as 88goups goes, nobody makes you join a group; and who knows, you might pick up some useful terms, if for no other purpose, than simply to recognize what conversations to avoid.

I don't have any problem with any group's content so long as it is member-created, member-driven, and voluntarily populated. I would have a bigger problem with such content automatically being delivered in a series of, say, Elementary lessons.

Why not pipsy????

I am not interested in reading the bible in Chinese, but if these people want to, let them do it. I can't see that they are hurting anyone.