User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Ordering Fancy Coffee

Baba

Your 低脂牛奶 rings true to me, like if it existed. Because the 低中高 terminology is used for 白酒 you get in jugs at restaurants - seems to me that it could translate to milk. 高脂牛奶 - I would try that for full cream milk. Actually, some terms like this that are not so common can be different from cafe to cafe. The names of different types of 'Western' drinks are not yet completely standard.

Posted on: Ordering Fancy Coffee

'two shots of espresso with a bit of steamed milk equals a cuppa?'

Well no, I was trying to say that if you drink a "double short non-fat latte", in China I would give up and go home for a cup of Bushells. I think it would definitely be 小的 rather than 矮的.

Certainly things are changing fast in China - I can go not far down the road in a couple of directions and get very good coffee, but the best coffee was always in Yunnan.

I also like saying 卡布奇诺 .. and I like asking for a 芒果普丁 :)

Posted on: Ordering Fancy Coffee

Orangina - this is fantastic news! Seriously.

Not that I ever go to Starbucks. :)

Really? I thought that would be like asking for a hamburger at McDonalds without the bread roll.

Now .. about your .. drink. I take it this is a joke, right? (Remember I am Australian.) Why don't you just make yourself a cup of tea at home? :)

If it is not a joke, you have serious problems getting one in China, unless you live in one of those fancy cities in the east.

Do you ask for this drink in China? I have never heard ..矮的. Do they have that language at Starbucks? 免油牛奶 and 俩量 ?? If you mean a double shot you have to say 双份, okay? Far easier to say and nobody gets hurt. I can't comment on 免油牛奶 because we just get 'milk' where I live. :)

Posted on: Manly Men and Womanly Women

'when I called my waiter 帅哥，he looked at me very seriously and said, "我不帅。”'

Okay, another possibility, maybe he did have a sense of humour but he was from the deadpan school.

I never use the term (too old) but I think liberal is okay. I have been advised though that you never actually say this to a friend. (We had this discussion before on ChinesePod somewhere.) Your friends have specific names - don't use 帅哥, agreed?

Posted on: Leisure-time Activities and Mahjong

All these activities for older people that Jason and David mentioned I have heard described collectively as 养生 yǎnshēng - which literally means to look after your health, but it takes on more meaning than that in practice, at least compared to Western cultures. Older Chinese people seem to have a very wide interpretation of activities that 'keep you healthy' - like looking after pigeons, walking the bird, singing at Peoples Park, dancing, exercises, caligraphy, talking with your friends, playing majiang. It seems that they are keen to exercise the mind as well as the body. 

Posted on: Leisure-time Activities and Mahjong

Ever the doubting Thomas, can any foreign poddies claim to have consistently won money from a room full of Chinese players born and bred to the game? Over an entire Spring Festival? My limited experience is that there are just enough complexities and 'other' rules to bleed the native English speaker.

Posted on: I don't smoke

Hi Baba

I've been meaning to thank you for this link to a Reuters article on asbestos production in Canada - it certainly lends weight to sclim's original post which I was questioning. It seems that this might be a triumph of commercial/union labour interests over responsibilities as a global citizen. I don't mean to trivialize this, it is a complex subject. My concern would be about a lot of other countries (as well as China) importing the asbestos. China has put a number of bans in place in situations likely to lead to risk to health, and only recently banned its use in building. (Apparently it long ago stopped its applications in the motor vehicle industry.) Of course, whether this is enforced universally is another question.

Posted on: It's Stopped Raining

I listen to all the lesson discussion if I have time, at least, there is always something you will pick up. Don't want to miss out. :) Also being in China I feel like a newbie much of the time.

Posted on: Ordering Fancy Coffee

zhenlijiang

Thanks for reminding me of that conversation about flower pots etc. - and Changye telling me that 假花 is okay, but look out for 假发 (wig). :) Yesterday I heard 假牙 (false teeth.)

'Large/Tall'

After acronyms, these words are my second biggest 'hate'. :)

The smallest drink you can get at Starbucks is called 'Tall'. But I take your point - they are probably equating 大杯 with one of these copyrighted words that have no meaning.

And I agree it sounds less of a mouthful if you use 个 - really people are not too fussed about that. But I can imagine a waiter saying it all out properly as in the dialogue - I still think it is correct.

I did say 一大杯卡布其诺 above, well spotted. :)

As I was in writing mode I was being reductive (is that a word) - I should have actually dropped the 一. If speaking I would have said either 一个, or 一杯。

Posted on: Manly Men and Womanly Women

Hey wotingyu

I wonder if some these terms are difficult to use because foreign learners attach some humour which comes from their own culture (and the Chinese may not share this sense of humour.) So for instance, I was at a wedding last night and watched as a foreign woman spoke to a little kid dressed in his best (yeah, I know, unusual at a Chinese wedding) 你是很帅！ which was really the English saying 'hey, handsome!' you might hear in the US with a smile, a kind of little joke. Now the Chinese kid just looked back at her all solemn; like she was an alien. I think he probably understood - although I'm not absolutely sure kids of say six or seven would have this word in their vocabulary. My take was that the kid saw no humour in this comment at all. And he probably doesn't think of himself as handsome.

Of course I understand that 帅哥 has a distinct meaning - your story just made me remember about this exchange I saw last night which set me thinking.