User Comments - Tal
Tal
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 21, 2009 at 10:20 AMHmm... 要看情况！(Depends on the situation!)
'waiter' would be acceptable as a formal term in the better class of establishment, 'mate' in the UK or Australia as an informal term, in the US... er, maybe 'buddy'. And what's wrong with that I'd like to know?!?
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 21, 2009 at 9:56 AMI think miss.
Posted on: Morning Hygiene
June 21, 2009 at 1:47 AM哈哈, great post calkins, you're quite right of course. (You ever think about why your ex-girlfriend became your ex-girlfriend though! j/k!)
As for me, living in the indescribably humid heat of 广东, the simple fact is there's no choice between a morning or an evening shower, you've gotta do BOTH! (And sometimes supplement with a lunchtime shower, a mid-afternoon shower, and an early-evening shower too!)
Posted on: Delivery Problems
June 21, 2009 at 1:14 AM嗯，多谢 zhenlijiang!
People have been known to disbelieve me about this (I wonder if I dreamed it actually?!) but I believe the Greeks coined the word barbaros (barbarian) to imitate the sounds of non-Greek languages. These languages sounded like "ba-ba-ba" to them, double-dutch 鸟语, not Greek, and therefore laughable!
Perhaps one of the first known examples of racism and xenophobia incorporated into a language!
Posted on: Delivery Problems
June 20, 2009 at 3:46 AMHere's a rough transcript of the podcast for those that like such things, if there are any errors or you just want to give me some thanks and/or feedback come join this group and post in the appropriate thread.
According to Wenlin, 胡, as well as being a surname, was also once applied to "non-Han peoples in the northwest", so perhaps in this sense it's a little like ancient Greeks calling non-Greeks 'barbarians' because they couldn't speak Greek!
As for growing a mustache being reckless... hmm, an amusing suggestion, but I always thought they were de rigueur for ancient Chinese Mandarins?!
Posted on: Finally
June 20, 2009 at 2:11 AM@ rj and baba - 哈哈！Connie's ahead of your game, looks like you've got nothing to do but study this week!
Posted on: Dubai
June 19, 2009 at 6:30 AM@aryeh - if you want to type characters on your pc just download and install Google Pinyin! The missing line mystery continues to puzzle me too! I definitely only got the 1 extra line (which I quoted). Now I feel cheated! *grumble grumble* lol
Posted on: Delivery Problems
June 17, 2009 at 1:59 PMI've only just got the chance to listen to the lesson, (the Intermediate lesson seems to be appearing on a different day almost every week recently, today is my busy day!)
Something occurred to me while listening: the lady waiting for the computer delivery is at home right? If you listen carefully to the many voices and ambient noise in the background, it sounds more like she's in a department store or some other very public place.
And Liza Minelli is still performing? And you can buy tickets for her gigs in Shanghai? pete my friend, you really shouldn't believe everything those "bag? watch? DVD?" guys on 南京东路 tell you!
Posted on: Who are You Looking For?
June 16, 2009 at 10:32 AMOkaaay... well if anyone else has fallen for the seemingly irresistible Robert Newman, here's his webpage, and here's a bunch more online video.
From Caliban to the Taliban has some great lines and interesting views. Worth seeing for the title alone, (surely 2 words which from the foundation of the universe were just meant to be rhymed - lol.)
And if you've no desire or time to watch video, here's a pic of the handsome devil. I look a lot like him actually. People tell me that.
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 21, 2009 at 11:06 AM@chanelle - actually I think that's quite normal. They wouldn't call you 玛太太. In China married women usually keep their original name and don't get called any equivalent of 'Mrs'.