User Comments - Grambers

Posted on: Money Laundering Operation

Ah, the honest handshake was declined then. A threat of violence returned. Well done, mate.

Let me take a wild stab here: those halcyon days, 'a couple of years' back, wouldn't happen to coincide with the last time you were making regular contributions, would it?

You seem frustrated with the gap between the way you think things 'should be' and the way things apparently 'are'. This is a frustration I am intimately familiar with, and I sympathise. However, I have learned enough to know that raging against change, raging against perceived decay is a futile, and often counterproductive act. In other words, say something constructive or learn to loosen up. And if you do genuinely want interesting, informed and lively conversation to return (like the good old days), may I gently suggest that threatening people who happen to have wandered into the former fiefdom of Chairman Tal is a less than prudent way to go about it.

Easy now.

Posted on: Money Laundering Operation

Just out of interest - do you think this exchange counts as something 'worth reading'? This is not a sarcastic question. I am genuinely interested in what kind of things you miss about the old days.

Posted on: Money Laundering Operation

OK, OK. Truce. I obviously did misconstrue things and should not have taken the criticism personally. And apologies for patronising. The hurt I intended to cause was calculated to be proportional to the offense I had taken at what you wrote - no more, no less.

I think it's worth doing a very Chinese thing and looking to the elderly generation for wisdom and guidance. Aside from the didactic, positive stuff the old can teach the young(er), there is an inadvertent lesson that most old folk cannot help but teach the young. And that is: talking endlessly about how better things were in the old days can be a little bit irritating for those who feel unavoidably bound to the present. It's great to have historical perspective - don't get me wrong - but it's pretty dispiriting to be told about how much better things were in the past, not least when one feels complicity in making the present what it is.

Anyway, truce. Nice to make your acquaintance.

Posted on: Hair Salon Card

I've always found it a bit irritating that the 'jian4' in 建议 is completely different from the 'jian4' in 推荐. The meaning of the two words is quite similar so it feels like it should be the same character (I realise 'should' is a dangerous word:).

Posted on: Money Laundering Operation

Ah, how does that famous song go? Whine on, you crazy diamond. Yeah, I think that was it.

Sorry if I've misconstrued your message (or, indeed, if my point of view is neither interesting nor pertinent enough to meet your exacting standards) - perhaps your swipe was at life and/or the ravages of time, but, alas, I took it a touch personally. What can I say: I'm sorry. I genuinely didn't know Tal had prohibited everything other than erudite and linguistically graceful contributions to the Upper Intermediate boards. I do take your point on the benefits of practicing Chinese, though. 我会努力，好吗？

Posted on: Hypnosis Therapy

Wise words. That said, I am naturally one of those types who likes to have definite structure and understand clear rules (which is perhaps why living in China was especially challenging for me, even beyond the linguistic struggle!). You are totally right to point to futility of finding equivalents, but in lieu of a clear 'rule' guiding the use of such a structure, it's surely the only possible way to get a handle on it, no?

Posted on: Money Laundering Operation

唉，millions won gambling in Macau? It happens to the best of us. It's important to develop compassion and understanding for comrades who succumb to such a fate, as my Party School 班主任 once taught me.

Posted on: Hypnosis Therapy

Can someone explain the repetition of 去 in the following sentence from the dialogue - 走，出去抽烟去

The second 'qu' appears to be equivalent to the 'have' in 'let's go outside and have a cigarette'. Or I guess we might say 'Let's head outside and go have a smoke'...or somesuch?!?

Posted on: Using Excel

There is also 责怪 too, right? Where is this in the 'spectrum of formality', I wonder?

Posted on: Hiring an Intern

The picture makes the lesson appear less about 实习 and more about 童工...a subject covered at length in the 'Noodles and Child Labour' lesson on March 2011.