User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Rowing a Boat

Ah thanks cinnamonfern, I can see them now. I believe that these are 画舫 huàfǎng, I was told that the 画 refers to the decoration on the superstructure. Nice memories, I used to live in this district.

Posted on: License Plate Characters

胸牌 xiongpai and 车牌 follow the same logic.

Posted on: Rowing a Boat

I can't see your photo cinnamonfern (if you use Flickr we can all see them) - but I was thinking about Hangzhou boats when I saw this lesson. The little tourist (pleasure) boats are 画舫 huàfǎng - I copied that into page 1 of my little notebook on 2006/10/04. I think that these days they are usually motor boats, right? Never went in one but I did 划船 huáchuán one afternoon.

Posted on: Mending Clothing

I think 倒是 (contrary to what you might expect) does convey a different meaning to 'technically speaking'.

This sentence says: 'although it looks like the hole cannot be repaired, I can repair it' - the speaker is saying something that could be a surprise to the listener.

‘Technically speaking' does not convey this sense of surprising the listener, does it? It is more 'in point of fact', 'really', 'probably', etc. In Chinese you would usually say 可能 。。。

My dictionary also has this expression: 严格说来，我可以补，。。。(strictly speaking I can repair this)

I would use 可能补 。。可以补 。。。

可以补, 不过补好以后不太好看.

Again - this means something different to the sentence in the dialogue.

Posted on: Signs in China and Mistranslation

Baba

There's no photos in this thread to shed light on the discussion, but rest assured that is exactly what is on the cars: 'Police', when English is used. In fact I'm not clear what sign SouthernChineseComfort is talking about - possibly the sign at police stations.

Posted on: Signs in China and Mistranslation

I don't really know why poddies are de-constructing the English translation - who cares really? :)

To show that I do care (& it isn't like me to get in a grammar argument), I think you were right the first time, China Police sounds fine. I am not sure which sign SouthernChineseComfort is referring to (did anyone post the Chinese?) but I think it refers to the geographic area. The 公安局 in a hierarchy from local area to the national level is:

区公安局

市公安局 (see the recent detective lesson)

省公安局

中国公安局

Posted on: Rowing a Boat

I think what Baba means is that the photo shows people paddling, definitely not rowing. The dialogue is a little ambiguous I think, but if I had to choose I would say they are paddling.

Posted on: Rowing a Boat

What I find interesting here is the 电瓶船 diànpíngchuán (electric boat) - they use this term 电瓶 for battery. It seems to take the figurative meaning of 瓶, curious. Those little electric cars/trains used in parks etc. are 电瓶车 diànpíngchē.

Back on boats and rowing: do you know how they refer to 快艇 kuaiting speedboat racing, given that 赛艇 saiting has been taken for rowing? 赛快艇?

Posted on: Rowing a Boat

Hey Baba, I think you may be right; the Chinese do seem to be a bit vague about the difference between paddling and rowing, both can be referred to as 划 huá. But surely when you get to professional sport they must draw a distinction - maybe someone can enlighten us.

Maybe they just add 运动 - 划艇运动 - I'm not sure, because a 划艇 is also a canoe!

Posted on: 康熙来了

Jenny

Thanks for introducing us to this show - intriguing. I can't say I understand much; it certainly has a foreign feel to it (not mainland.) But watching it last night with a native speaker helped a lot. It's difficult because they resort to euphemism so much (I had to have the jokes explained.) Is it true that they have had on senior religious figures? They must change the suggestive style of humour for some guests!

That is interesting about his book - is it published for the mainland with a different grammar/expression, as well as simplified characters? Have you read 上山上山敖？

I'm surprised at how risque it is - it just goes on and on - you would not get something like this on free to air TV in Australia. My friend referred me to 快乐大本营 for something similar, home-grown, and a little easier for me to follow.