User Comments - Grambers

Posted on: Mental Health Counseling

Thanks for the comments Jiaojie - sorry this is so late!

Posted on: Playing Mahjong

Absolutely - it had honestly never occurred to me, all these years, that you two might be standing up to record. Amazing!

Posted on: Playing Mahjong

Do I detect the influence of the 'comprehensible input' theorists here? Perhaps I'm a natural-born reactionary (actually, I know I am), but I kinda prefer the traditional audio method. There are elements of the visuals that assist understanding, but I found it generally distracting from the dialogue itself. I guess the counter argument is that, out there in the real world, one is going to be simutaneously bombarded with visual and aural stimuli and you need to get used to synthesising the two. I guess I'm just too used to the old ways - 怎么说？老封建的思想！：）

Oh, can I suggest that you guys bump up your subscription prices so that you can buy Jenny and John a chair for the next vid?

Posted on: An Urgent Call to the Embassy

Ah, once again it falls me to, Hater-in-Chief, to point out that the portrayal of the embassy staff here is, um, how can i put it?..."over-generous". Civil servants the world over (but especially in China) are - in my experience - very rarely this solicitous. Chances of embassy staff volunteering help in the case of a relatively minor earthquake which is likely to prompt at least 1,000 identical requests for assitance? Close to zero. 

Posted on: Dinner with the Girlfriend's Parents

A Tintin quiff AND the gift of the gab - some people get all the luck!:)

Posted on: Mental Health Counseling

Well said, Sir! Nicely wrapped up (or partially-wrapped up but left open to prevent festering, etc.). Much dash now, but certainly an interesting debate.

Posted on: Mental Health Counseling

Hmmm, so what conclusions can be draw from this data - that East Asians DO make the threat very often, but DO also follow up on that threat? Should we then go on to consider whether this high suicide rate is not a product of life in those countries being any more or less terrible than anywhere else, but of 'suicide' itself enjoying a more noble reputation?

Posted on: Mental Health Counseling

Without wanting to sound pompous, I think this line from expansion section applies mainly to a particular sub-strata of society most commonly known referred to as the 'a*s*hole class' (is that allowed on CPod?). 

男人经受不住美女的诱惑，美女经受不住钻石的诱惑。

Posted on: Mental Health Counseling

A more simple language question now: are 发泄 and 撒气 pretty much interchangable? 

Thanks!

Posted on: Mental Health Counseling

As others have noted, this is an extremely serious topic and I wouldn't want to say anything to undermined the gravity (and tragedy) of the situation it describes. However, I can't resist making one observation which - I hope - isn't interpreted as me belittling the 遭遇 of this particular lady...

Here goes...it seems to me that the threat to kill oneself, or to wish one's own death, is fairly common in - um, let's call them - 'dramatic situations' in China. My experience of this applies to both fictional situations (TV soaps etc.) and the odd real-life argument (of which I have some experience:(!). What I mean to say is that such a shocking threat can tend to be wheeled out in what can appear to be a fairly casual way. It's a melodramatic staple. What do other poddies think? Is there something 'cultural' going on here? I'm reminded of cliched notions of dignified warriors falling on their sword, or jilted lovers nobly tossing themselves off a cliff - both common tropes in (the little I know of) East Asian storytelling. That isn't to say the lady here isn't suicidal (or justifiably suicidal), but just that this threat is, for some reason, more commonly heard in China than other nations/cultures (a generalisation, I know).

Any thoughts?