User Comments - barryb
barryb
Posted on: A Present from Santa Claus
December 24, 2007 at 3:15 PMI'm not surprised that Jenny believes in Father Christmas. She must have met him whilst flying through the sky with AstroBoy. Your new superhero avatar suits you, Jenny. One day your superhuman charm will save the world. 圣诞快乐！
Posted on: Key Card
December 19, 2007 at 3:40 PMMonths of efforts by Chinese friends to teach me the Chinese "q" sound only frustrated everyone. But after reading Chinesepod's pronounciation advice I got it straight away. Great! At risk of sounding like an advert: I definitely recommend it.
Posted on: Night Cat
December 19, 2007 at 12:03 PMHello, Jenny. Are you really frightened of owls? Is that a Chinese cultural thing? Here, in England, owls have a friendly image, almost cuddly. Good P.R. by children's story writers! (无聊 - wu2liao2 - WOOLLY OWl - "boring" is my mnemonic based on Owl in "Winnie the Pooh" - he's vague, very boring and quite harmless.) I know the truth. I don't sleep and I listen to the owls silently hunting in the gardens. How? Owls are silent killers but the squeals of their tiny prey are astonishingly loud and chilling.
Posted on: Yang Jie's Diary: He's Not Stupid
December 5, 2007 at 8:34 PMBy the way, I really appreciated this lesson, lots in it. They get better and better!
Posted on: Yang Jie's Diary: He's Not Stupid
December 5, 2007 at 8:23 PMWhen a foreign word is transliterated into Chinese, who decides which characters are to be used? Is there an equivalent of the Academie Francaise overseeing the language, or does one version come out on top because everyone prefers it? Why not use the simplest and save time? I ask, because 幽默 - you1mo4 seems an odd choice for humorous. According to zhongwen.com it means "secluded silent". In the first character you can see things hidden in the recesses in the mountain. The second is black + dog (dog in the night). A bit downbeat! Winston Churchill called his depression his "Black Dog". I'd have chosen 优磨 - excellent rub, or 攸沫 - destination froth. But the irony and the vivid characters help me remember it.
Posted on: Getting Dressed
December 3, 2007 at 1:12 AMThanks, Nicolas, I'll recognise 鞋, now.
Posted on: Getting Dressed
December 1, 2007 at 9:45 PMMenmonic puns: 鞋子 - xie2zi - shoes - Imelda Marcos was infamous for her enormous collection of shoes: she had SHEDS O' shoes. 打领带 - da3 ling3dai4 - tie a necktie - imagine a wife, who secretly hates her husband, kissing him goodbye at the door and doing up his tie, really thinking of strangling him, thinking: die, DARLING, DIE! 裤子 - ku4zi - trousers/pants - we all know the French word "cul" - bottom/butt (we do, because "cul de sac" means "bag's bottom"). The final "l" is silent, it's pronounced "koo". So, ku4zi are what cover your cul. I know, these are only rough approximations of the Chinese sounds. Just reminders. I know they're a bit tacky and one day, I hope, I'll be sticking new words on the big web of Chinese characters and sounds and meanings in my brain. But we have to start somewhere, and all's fair in love, war and memorizing...
Posted on: Sailing
November 27, 2007 at 9:01 PMA mnemonic pun: 海 - hai3 - "HIGH seas" - ocean. With waves up and down like a third tone.
Posted on: An Anonymous Tip in Jizhou
November 25, 2007 at 4:19 PMUse of "spaz" in the UK is not recommended. Here, it is very offensive slang for spastic (i.e. suffering from cerebral palsy). Spastic shares the Greek root, spasmos...
Posted on: New Year's Song
December 27, 2007 at 11:00 PMIsn't Auld Lang Syne (same tune, Chinese words) popular in China, too? I once spent New Year with a Chinese family in the UK. At midnight we all stood in a circle and they started singing Auld Lang Syne in Chinese, so I sang along in a feeble attempt at Scottish Lallans. We all burst out laughing and asked each other: "How do you know this?!" They insisted it was a traditional Chinese song. Six months later, in China, I wandered into a free Chinese classical music concert. For half an hour, I listened intrigued, but baffled by the unfamiliar Chinese rhythms and harmonies. Then I suddenly recognised a melody - they were playing Auld Lang Syne! a very Chinese version, but definitely Auld Lang Syne. In August, in 40C heat, in Western China.