User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Translation Tools
August 22, 2011 at 1:53 PMHi Kimiik - thanks for that; I wasn't patient enough to find any reference to en.Wikipedia.org on that link, just Chinese Wikipedia. I went to live in China in 2006 just after they started blocking some sites (though MySpace & Facebook weren't blocked in those days) but they must have upped their censorship 2007/09 when I was in Aust, and cut it back before I returned in mid-2009. No, I don't recall Wikipedia ever blocked. I seem to have avoided the Google interventions of late suffered by many; I joke they must have me on a 'do not disturb' list. I have suggested before here that I don't share the hysteria of a lot of foreigners on the subject, no surprise there hey? :)
Posted on: Translation Tools
August 21, 2011 at 8:33 AMhi kimiik
I notice a couple of references in this thread to Wikipaedia not being available in the mainland - I'm curious where this idea originated. I've lived in China for 3 years, I use Wikipaedia a lot, and cannot remember ever having Wikipaedia blocked. Maybe there are certain search words that yield a block??
Posted on: Too Young to be Dating
August 12, 2011 at 9:27 AMIt is 18 in a minority of US states (about a dozen states?) according to Wikipaedia ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Age_of_Consent_-_North_America.svg
Posted on: Punctuation Marks
August 7, 2011 at 4:52 AMHi marlon0511
An example of the 破折号 follows (from my primary school writing book): “谁来养活中国“，听着这轰鸣的钟声，我想在大水法的残骸前跪倒，抓把泥土，写下我们共同的宣言 —— 我们就能养活中国人。
It seems to be used much like in English.
Note that it has to be very long to avoid confusion with 一yī; it is said to be twice the length of a Roman dash but looks longer to me.
生词 ：
轰鸣的钟声(roar of thunder)
残骸cánhái(skeleton, remains)
前跪倒(kneel,grovel in front of)
抓(grab)
共同(joint)
宣言xuānyán (manifesto)
Posted on: Punctuation Marks
August 6, 2011 at 4:06 PM!? I did not know that; at least I didn't keep it in my head. But what a clever logo!! (There is an art in the use of exclamation marks, isn't there? A subjective situation, not easily reduced to rules.)
[I don't live in NSW until next Wednesday; that is my excuse for not knowing. That and forgetfulness that comes with great age, having lived there previously for 21 years 左右 ... :) ]
Posted on: Punctuation Marks
August 6, 2011 at 3:56 PM... not all keyboards are the same, so mine has 顿号，、，above the Enter and to the right of the ] (bracket.)
Posted on: Punctuation Marks
August 6, 2011 at 3:53 PMThe Ouyang Yu book I have made some references to before has a chapter that largely discusses the way Chinese ups the ante on English in this respect - from memory he says something like 'the Chinese like to exaggerate'. There are numerous parallels one can draw, like the English 'at sixes and sevens' with 乱七八糟 (at 'sevens and eights'.)
Posted on: iPhone vs Android
August 6, 2011 at 3:09 PM'Virtually useless if you don't have 3G'
I use it at home and in free wifi hotspots so I'd say it's useful for me. But I can't sit down at the park and Skype, true.
Posted on: iPhone vs Android
August 5, 2011 at 8:43 AMFor those interested in Chinese Androids (eg. HTC) Skype just became available in the HTC market - I'm not sure why it wasn't there before but all now is well.
Posted on: Translation Tools
August 22, 2011 at 2:00 PMHi baba
Yes, this is intriguing - I guess that means a focus of Chinese Wikipedia, maybe that is why I never had a problem. If trying to block 'foreign influences' on Chinese citizens you would probably focus on the Chinese language. A tiny minority bother reading anything in English and those that do on a regular basis can resort to vpns. Most of the really critical stuff originates offshore, surely, I agree, but by Chinese and in Chinese.