User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Excuse Us!

'gives us a deeper appreciation of the similarities and differences between Chinese culture and other cultures'

Yes, I think I understood your purpose in the post, I guess I was just covering all bases, because the posed use of 男孩子 , likening it to 小姐, seemed kind of extreme.

Actually - there are acute differences in culture in the restaurant concerning waitstaff that have nothing to do with the word you use to address them. I am still surprised sometimes by the TONE of voice used - a kind of barking order - which causes absolutely no offence. And no offence is meant. (There are of course cases of rude customers - I am not talking about this. In these cases the barks rise to shouts and red faces and sometimes distressed waitstaff, but they are a hardy bunch. I am talking about normal discourse between waitstaff and customers.)

Posted on: Excuse Us!

I may have misread you somewhat here Baba, but just in case, 小姐 is not equivalent in any sense to 男孩子, because 小姐 (in all uses) refers to an adult and 男孩子 refers to a child. The equivalent female term would be 女孩子. I think George is right, I have never heard 男孩子 in China for waitstaff (you can call a guy 先生 if not 服务员), nor 女孩子.

Interesting that term in French culture; sounds demeaning to my ears, but that is without much appreciation of French culture. The Americans have bus boys too, which also sounds demeaning to my ears. Maybe this is because of all the sensitivity around the old habit in the US of using the term 'boy' when referring to a black man. I shouldn't point at the US solely, it must have happened in other colonial societies.

Posted on: A Detained Package

No worries mate ...

Actually we are obsessed about anything foreign polluting our fine land. Ever since the rabbit ... and the cane toad ... They look at the soles of your shoes to make sure you are not carrying the giant snail.

Thanks for the link.

Posted on: A Detained Package

Those pesky Australian Customs - on my last visit I took back one of those dragon (or tiger?) pillows stuffed with who knows what - a gift for a niece. They carefully carried out surgery and removed most of what they decided was rice stalks and gave the pillow back to me, with advice on what to re-stuff it with. (Apparently anything stuffed with wheat gets thrown straight in the fire - wheat is more likely to be diseased than rice.)

I've taken pillows in before and they say either microwave it or put it in the freezer for a few days to kill any bugs. Not a foolproof system.

I remember mooncakes on sale in Haymarket with signs saying that there are no mooncakes containing egg. Anyone know exactly why? Is it the likelihood of egg carrying bacteria that will make you sick?

Posted on: Finding the Office Building

'座 - a fairly large buidling (whether residential or business). Just wondered whether this fits in with your experience.'

Probably - I'm not paying attention all the time. Definitely applies to residential; I was in B座 tonight. Of course the fabric of the Chinese city is rapidly converting from 6 storey to around 25 or 30 storey apartment buildings. I suspect that 座 and 栋 are not just differentiated by height. Or consistently. Let's say the terms are interchangeable for buildings of say 20 floors +, and sometimes for smaller buildings.

Posted on: Finding the Office Building

user23060

Quite right, he was just asking about 楼 - I went off on a tangent/hobby horse, sorry.

Posted on: Finding the Office Building

hi toianw

you are right about 号 (on reflection) - thanks for shedding light on this, but I'm not clear on your reasoning: 'you're not counting buildings, just labelling them (as part of an address)' ..

Measure words are applied whether counting or labelling ..

一号 and 一号楼 here substitutes for say A and A栋 - so in the first case 楼 is the measure word and in the second case 栋 is the measure word. Sound right?

I'm just not familiar with the labelling system 一号 - but it seems to work just like the A, B C system I am familiar with .. A栋，B栋, 等等 (in which case 栋 is the measure word.)

I am not just talking about residential buildings, by the way, neither is user23060 - but the system works for all buildings. 座 is used for apartment buldings as well as office buildings, factories etc.

It does not seem to be a case of one term being superceded by another through time - I go in new buildings here where some use 座 and some use 栋; same for old buldings. Granted 栋 is more common.

Posted on: Finding the Office Building

mw ... oh thanks mate, I recognise it without the superfluous dots.

So 号 would also be a mw in this example provided by our fellow poddie. I think it may be rarely used this way but, if so, should also be flagged as a mw to be consistent, don't you think?

Actually, the Roman letters A, B and C are also used here to 'number' buildings - A栋，B栋 - should have mentioned that above.

Posted on: Finding the Office Building

Not really clear on what you are saying here user23060, particularly 'one (m.w.) building'?? I would agree without the (m.w.) because I don't know what that signifies.

But nomenclature for buildings varies across the country - there is no single system.

The terminology for numbering buildings varies, even within the same city; the most common in three different provinces I have lived in are 一栋 and 一座 (building #1). I don't doubt that there are cases of 一号楼 because I find it hard to doubt anything in China.

The 'first floor' (what in some countries is called the ground floor) can be 一楼 or 一层。 一层的 can also describe a single storey building.

Posted on: Internet Slang (Part One)

Hi Mark,

I did actually use these (back in the distant past) - but perhaps I am not hard core because my memory of them dated from internet days, from about 1988 I would say.

I don't remember them as particularly difficult to use although it was all pretty slow in those days over your phone lines (pre-adsl). Occasionally I come across websites that have a forum system that looks a bit like the old BBS, usually a computer forum.

In concept it is not that much different to the nested threads we have at ChinesePod, but ChinesePod looks nicer.