User Comments - Tal

Posted on: The Life of a Programmer 3: Heading Home

This series is making me sympathize with Chinese computer programmers, maybe especially those that work at CPod. The stories are a pleasure, surely observed from life. ;-)

Posted on: Forks and Spoons

He could say:

服务员，我想要一些糖。

Fúwùyuán, wǒ xiǎng yào yìxiē táng.

Posted on: New Food

And never go away again! You rock!

Posted on: New Food

Sulphur and ammonia? Yum, yum! More foods should contain those definitely. Quail eggs sunny side up is a good idea, and frying them would mean not having to spend 5 minutes picking the shell off the boiled version for something equivalent to like a third of a mouthful, right? ;-)

Posted on: The Trouble with Marrying a Foreigner

Me too. After all I've spent 'half my life in China'. *chuckle*

Posted on: The Trouble with Marrying a Foreigner

I was just trying to offer Veronique a realistic/honest answer to her question. Are my thoughts and impressions accurate or not? Surely that's the question.

Posted on: The Pickup Artist

呵呵, good call podster, I like your suggested translations. I agree that usually young ladies in this situation wouldn't be concerned about that. Maybe Jenny was also being a tad tongue-in-cheek when she said it, (or maybe Chinese young ladies are just so very nice and polite!)

Posted on: The Pickup Artist

I guess you could translate it that way, but in doing so you sidestep the whole concept of 'face' and the giving of it that plays such a significant role in Chinese culture. It affects almost every personal interchange, even 泡妞!

Posted on: The Trouble with Marrying a Foreigner

The vast majority of Chinese men would never consider marrying a woman who was their superior socially, economically, or intellectually. (This is a deep-seated cultural imperative for them.) As most foreign women they are likely to meet probably fall into one of these categories, there is the main answer.

This is why in China, a country with an increasing disparity between the number of men and women (a lot more men than women,) the number of women over 25 who find it hard to find husbands is on the increase. These women tend to be intelligent, capable career women, and thus generally despised by most Chinese men. (These women are also picked on and disparaged by the state-sanctioned media, a smug chauvinism is part of the social landscape in this country.)

Indeed Chinese men tend to regard women as commodities rather than people, they are not noted for their faithfulness or devotion to their partners. For generations Chinese women have simply accepted domestic violence and unshakable chauvinism as facts of life. In addition Chinese men smoke constantly (anywhere and everywhere), are much given to hawking phlegm into their throats and spitting (anywhere and everywhere), and are generally not over-concerned about personal hygiene or charm.

I recall a few years back a western lady who had married a Chinese man posted an anecdote here on Chinesepod. It seems that one day she was on some outing in China with her husband when another man, a Chinese, after staring at the two of them for a while, approached her husband and told him how much he admired him [for marrying a foreigner] and praised him for 'bringing honor to China'. On one level this is very funny, on another perhaps absurdly sad. That such a view can even be held, let alone openly expressed in the hearing of this lady, perhaps tells you all you need to know about Chinese men.

Posted on: The Trouble with Marrying a Foreigner

呗 usually expresses that something is obvious, or that something can only be done in a certain way.

e.g. 你不会骑车就学呗。 You can't ride a bike? Well, learn to

A: 我又被老板炒鱿鱼了，郁闷！ I got fired again, I'm so down.

B: 有什么郁闷的， 再找工作呗！ No point in sulking, just look for another job.

It can also express resignation, grudging agreement.

e.g. 你一定要去，就去呗。 Well, go if you insist.

This contrasts with 吧 which generally expresses a suggestion, request, or mild command (usually without an emotional undertone, though this depends on context) or supposition.

e.g. 咱们走吧。 Let's go.

你好好想想吧。 Just think it over.

你是中国人吧？ You are Chinese I suppose.