User Comments - Tal

Posted on: Broken, Busted, and Smashed

changye, 天啊！那条消息关于那个可怜的男孩真吓人了。谁能想到一把椅子能爆炸？就在想想，我的屁股疼。

断头台 duàntóutái... hmm... I guess the English would be scaffold or gallows.

Posted on: Hong Kong Visa Run

Well I've recently spent some time with

艹 [cǎo] (radical 140, component: same as 艸 and 草 cǎo 'grass'; 草字头)

I like the way its name is cǎozìtóu 草字头 - which helps to remember its usual location in a character perhaps.

Interestingly Grass is also the subject of Pete's latest poem and I must say the one I've enjoyed most so far. It also wasn't unknown for me to sample a bit of this in my student days of heady, wasted youth.

A few common characters with this radical:

花 [huā] flower; spend

英 [yīng] 英雄 yīngxióng hero; 英国 Yīngguó England

黄 [huáng] (黄色 huángsè) yellow

Posted on: Hong Kong Visa Run

Hey baba! Hope I didn't come across as 骄傲！ (Actually I wasn't sure that you weren't just joking about the 三点水!)

Anyway that's one of the first radicals I managed to get into my head, and it's sweet to revisit it like that!

Posted on: Hong Kong Visa Run

baba said: But you'll still have to make your case for why having "san dianr shui" is no good.I'm just ignorant on this latter point.Pray tell.Actually I initially thought you were referring to 第三声,but on rereading I see it's "third water" ??...what do you mean by this ?

氵 [shuǐ] (radical 85, component: 'water', same as 水; 三点水 sāndiǎnshuǐ)

Posted on: Hong Kong Visa Run

I've been in China since 2004, and the only visa I've ever had to deal with personally was the business visa from the Chinese Consulate back in the UK! The school I work for does everything now I'm here, so I'm so smug!!

I've been a little astonished to see people snapping at Pete just for a facetious remark! Those who come here to learn and participate should by now be familiar with his style of humor, no? I've read elsewhere about individuals (Chinese citizens I mean) whose 'job' is to patrol the net in search of dissent which can be either censored or abused (from behind the safety of a nickname). CPod I guess inevitably also attracts this kind of person.

When I first came to China I honestly thought Taiwan was another country, (I was just uninformed I guess, I'm only a 洋鬼子 after all.) My students soon put me right. "No, it's not another country, it's part of China", they told me. "But doesn't it have its own government?" I'd ask. "That doesn't matter, it's part of China", they'd tell me. Genuinely puzzled I'd enquire  about travel to Taiwan, whether (mainland) Chinese law was enforced in Taiwan, if I could spend Chinese money there. Every enquiry was basically handled by the 'it's POC (part of China)' line.

Anyway netbots, don't bother sharpening your knives for me! I've long since given up even the thought swimming against the current, (or even attempting discussion with the brainwashed). These days I'm just like: Tibet? Part of China! Okiedoke! Taiwan? POC! No problemo! Any other place you want to include? Err... whatever you say!

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 4: Fetal Attraction

@paulinurus

太谢谢你了！我老婆的姐姐选名字了，看来中国人选名字的时候，过程比较复杂和神秘！The exact time of birth is significant, as are astrological influences and the mix of the elements (?) considered to be linked to the child's destiny. 总之，姨姐是我们家人的选名人，这次我支持她！

The little guy also has a more western style name which I have selected for him of course, basically right now sometimes he gets called one, sometimes the other!

As to ID cards etc, and what name(s) should appear on it, I haven't given it much thought yet. I'm too busy trying to stay awake!

Students I have taught in China have often expressed wonderment as to how westerners can avoid confusion with so many of them 'having the same name'. It's probably as hard for them to get that it's never really a problem for us 80% of the time, as it is for us to get the same thing about them!

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 4: Fetal Attraction

@davidk

Actually I would say he is most fond of the song featured in this lesson, but he also enjoys my rendition of 桃花朵朵开 and 月亮代表我的心！

As for 胎教 I am sure he must have absorbed much of the bilingual skills of our CPod hosts as the home is often filled by their voices!

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 4: Fetal Attraction

Thanks friends for another in the having a baby series, which I'm enjoying for a special reason as my son 子茗 was born only 39 days ago. My lovely 重庆 born wife spent countless hours picking feathers and assorted muck out of countless bowls of the birds nest soup before he was born, and I'm now able to tell you that the best music for an unborn baby (take note my friends) are the songs you can learn on ChinesePod, which I'm sure he must have heard me practising many times and which are now the only certain way to stop him crying when he's not getting fed fast enough for his liking!

Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 9: Wang Plans Revenge

Or how about CockneyPod, or ScousePod?

Don't tell me CatPod wouldn't be a big hit, though maybe not in China.

There already is a JapanesePod it seems, but not run by Praxis.

Posted on: Letting go with 放

Well anyway it's nice to see the return of alliterative enquirers! Beverley from Brussels should be well satisfied. I should move to Rome or Reykjavik before I compose my own question.

Xerxes from Xatacyan, Yasmin from Yemen and Zorah from Zanzibar, 别放弃！