User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Detective Li 2： The Mysterious Text Message

Baba, you have great insight and I agree with others that you are probably there, or nearly there. I don't know whether I can add anything but I wanted also to have a go at analysing the characters: '五木：朝阳区'

五木 - I assume we don't need to go further than the 解释 given, 这无需解释， 对吧？ I think they are meeting in a forest. (Love that 五木 = 林森).

朝阳区。。

朝 cháo, I think we can ignore 朝 zhāo as it means morning and they are meeting tonight; also too obvious, they already mention it in the lesson.

So 朝 .. it's a 左右结构，朝字旁部。 Start with 朝字旁; I've got nothing because it doesn't mean anything by itself. So I think you can either break it down as you have (probably the right answer) or look at 朝 as a whole character for clues; there are several meanings.

One of which is 对着，向着(facing toward)：eg. 坐南朝北

阳，山的南面的 (south side of the mountain)

区 (place)

A meeting in the forest on the south side of the mountain, just have to sort out the time of meeting.

Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures

Ha ha. That's the spirit! :)

Posted on: These Napkins Ain't Free

One cultural practice that I don't think has changed in a while is that you steal the napkins, unless of course you are aware that you paid for them. :)

But don't do this at the cheap restaurants where the napkins consist of a roll of toilet paper (see my first post.)

Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures

'the extreme left, which can be pretty hard-core about being soft and cuddly.'

Knowwhatyoumean. I have met some scary soft and cuddly types. Today I was re-calling the Greenpeace fund-raisers in Oz who dress up in koala suits; if you don't throw money in the bucket they are likely to turn nasty. (I say that kindly; I have thrown money in the bucket but objected eventually to the flood of junk mail that used to be triggered by membership.)

Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures

'" Four be Two's", - ridiculous.'

LOL. I love it... even if you and orangina are having a little private joke at my expense.

Actually, I don't want to sound all know-it-all (that is, I don't want you to hear this from a shiny-bum), but 4" x 2" is the dimension un-dressed. When the timber is dressed of course it loses a little weight. A very precise weight I would think, otherwise our houses would be more wonky than they are. Despite your childhood memories when everything seemed bigger because you were smaller. :)

And China invented four-be-two's - why wasn't that mentioned at the Olympics may I ask?

PS. I'm writing this listening to Aunty Jack on the wireless - look that one up?

Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures

In Australia I think left-wingers are often portrayed as soft and cuddly, fairies-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden, green, Green-cum-Democrat folk who believe in crystals and reiki, while right-wingers are hard core, tough, ute-with-a-tinnie-and-dog-in-the-back, No Asians, let's-kill-the-Commie-bastard types - so a vegetarian who sensibly cheats on eggs, dairy and fish I categorised at the softer end of society. But I'm probably wrong - these political orthogonals are so twentieth century.

Yes, I do like your double contraction. :) I looked everywhere for it for a while and there it was right in front of me.

Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures

Baba

'unless it's a coffee shop'

(for a bit of atmosphere) let me just breathe in the aromas, have a bite of my gluten free muffin, fold the back page of the Herald to tackle the cryptic .. if I follow you it has sort of spoiled my anticipation of that perfect cappuccino. :)

Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures

Yes, of course you are right. Same with dogs. Although I would have thought that few people can afford the space to keep a cow as a pet.

'(lacto-ovo-piscan) vegetarian' - does that mean you DO eat dairy products, eggs and fish? Your're at the left-wing end of the vegetarian cultural dimension?

One more question .. nearly forgot .. '2x4s' - I'm guessing this what we in Australia used to call 'four-be-twos'? I think that term went out of general use in, say, the 1960's in Australia. Measuring the cross-section of a piece of timber in inches? Do Americans say 'two-by-fours'? And I am also wondering how many people on this site have the remotest idea of what we are talking about? I'm hoping you do because if you don't I'm starting to feel lonely. :)

Posted on: Of Mysteries and Exploding Melons

First a confession - I made that 看菜 restaurant thing up (the Chinese version of Chinglish.) I am of course hoping that they are called this (I will check.) The reason I refer to them this way is that when you go there Chinese people say 我们看菜吧？

I don't want to do a treatise on restaurants but .. (ok, I do) there are broadly three types: restaurants with menus brought to your table (tend to be the most expensive); restaurants with the menu on a board out front or on the wall of the restaurant; and restaurants with no menus. In my area maybe a quarter to a third of restaurants have no menu at all. They are not necessarily the cheapest - they tend to be middle range in price.

So - somewhere in the restaurant (or outside on the footpath, in crates) there will be vegetables, tofu, noodles, meat etc. on display. Often this is in display cabinets, or shelving. There may also be a tank where the fish swim. (A variation on this BTW is the 烧烤 (barb-b-que) restaurants where the food is already cut up and arranged on the skewers. They are either on tables outside the restaurant or in cabinets inside.)

When ordering you say what you want and tell them how you want it cooked, and indicate size with some dishes. With fish you choose your fish (quoted per 公斤), they weigh it, and write the weight on your bill. Then you tell them how you want it cooked. As well as this there may be a few other items that you can order that you learn from experience are available, eg. 洋芋焖饭 yang2yu4men4fan4 (potato stewed in rice, with traces of ham, sometimes other vegetables.)

Posted on: What Are Your Hobbies?

'Old man basketball'

Ha ha, I like it. So there is hope for me you mean?