User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 10: Postnatal Recuperation
November 20, 2011 at 11:51 AMI was hoping it would go into dreadlocks, but I didn't do my research.
Actually I think I mis-represented the situation above, during the six months I occasionally washed my hair with water. After six months I went back to shampoo, but rarely - I generally just washed with water. Now I keep my hair so short my theory is that it doesn't need to be washed. (But I envy those bald guys where there is no argument.)
The gel/wax fashion helps out - it kinda looks like it's got 'product' in it.
Can we get off this subject now?? I sound like I'm hair obsessed. :)
Posted on: Teaching Japanese Go
November 18, 2011 at 5:16 AMThere are no lessons on the topic. I posted some time ago (one poddy responded) so I think that there is very little user interest. Here's the link though:
http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/11014
My interest is strictly limited to the language, rather watch it than play it. :)
Posted on: 中国人看汉语桥
November 17, 2011 at 1:37 PMHmm thanks for that Baba - as you say, they spell it out.
I can't quite line up 'In Victoria, which has by far the biggest number of students of Chinese,' with the figure of less that 1,000 in Victoria Year 12 compared to 1.901 in NSW. Unless the first sentence refers to students in all years, in which case there is something strange going on. Maybe the journalist and checkers have not done their homework?
Posted on: 中国人看汉语桥
November 17, 2011 at 6:09 AMI'm afraid that the Bridge competition does not do much to encourage language study in Australia.
In 2011 ...'just 9 per cent of 72,391 HSC students studied a language [... in the state of New South Wales]. Of the 34 languages offered, French was the most popular with 1471, followed by Japanese with 1376. For all the rhetoric on the need to move closer to Asia, Indonesian was studied by only 232, Chinese by 1091 and Hindi, the language of a future powerhouse, by just 42.'
The 1,091 'Chinese' students sounds okay until you find out that all but about 100 are background speakers. The large majority of students of Chinese in Australia are actually Chinese.
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 10: Postnatal Recuperation
November 16, 2011 at 10:44 AMhi babyeggplant - is cutting your hair off an option? I agree that waiting for your hair to 'balance' is a trial. i did go six months once .. then i tried just washing it with water. now i try to just abstain between haircuts. :)
Posted on: Chinese Dialects (Part 2)
November 16, 2011 at 9:09 AMHi bweedin
Your comment about 勺子 reminds me that I have encountered a few words for spoon - and raised the broader question: are there particular words (eg. spoon) that are highly 'local' (ie. variable)?
Potato is a good example (see Potato Atlas elsewhere on this site.) I think we listed about 25 expressions for potato around China from memory.
Posted on: Chinese Dialects (Part 2)
November 16, 2011 at 9:05 AMah - I did think that maybe you were relying on work colleagues although you did a good job of 'taking us to Wenzhou' etc. I thought there might be sources (soundclips) in the media; probably hard work chasing them down.
Couldn't you do a good Kunming accent? :)
Posted on: Chinese Dialects (Part 2)
November 16, 2011 at 9:01 AMHi Mark
These stats are interesting, thanks. We need to be a bit careful interpreting them because of problems common to all surveys .. including what does '42% speak putonghua at school, work or playing'??? At school it is 100% except for a very small number of minority groups who are given other options. Most minorities have to learn putonghua.
my feeling living in China was that the number of people understanding both their local dialect and Standard Chinese is higher than these stats could suggest. (Of course my evidence is anecdotal.) Rural people are often assumed not to use Mandarin but they watch TV and can probably survive in the big city, hey?
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 10: Postnatal Recuperation
November 13, 2011 at 11:42 AMHi zhenlijiang
On shampoos I think that he was 'agnostic' - along the frequently repeated line that shampoo strips out necessary oils and then a conditioner adds oils back in. So it probably does not do a lot of damage except to your wallet. If you don't wash your hair at all it naturally balances after (an uncomfortable) time.
Soap is bad for your skin but helpful in some situations such as when you get really dirty because it de-greases. A disinfectant will kill some bugs that are harmful. So you would like the nurse/doctor at a clinic/hospital to wash their hands between patients. In some jobs (eg. kitchen hand, doctor) you have to wash your hands frequently with soap. Still most people don't wash their hands effectively even with soap - surgeons who 'scrub in' before surgery have got the right idea I think. Time scrubbing is an important factor.
We could get onto toothpaste, which is even less useful than shampoo.. :)
I do however believe in moisturisers!
Posted on: How to Eat a Hairy Crab
November 22, 2011 at 11:01 AMI love the dialogue - I was amused by the possibility of someone who is so fussy about getting fresh crab would also (no doubt) eat crab extender. It seems to be yet another delightful contradiction.