User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: English Teaching Jobs in China
May 5, 2011 at 12:46 PMalexandravv your plans seem to have progressed .. you were going to Oceans University Qingdao to study Chinese, then Shanghai to study Chinese, now you are planning a tourist visa, and teaching jobs (English or French)? A lot of people find it difficult to learn Chinese and teach a foreign language at the same time, food for thought.
Posted on: A Trip to Nanjing
May 5, 2011 at 12:08 AM'When you buy things in small Shanghai convenience shops the assistants don't even look at you and just put your change on the desk.'
I love this wonderful indifference displayed by shop assistants in China, and the mechanical 慢走 when you leave. In contrast I REALLY hate the false smiles and "Have a nice day!" staff are instructed to use in the US and Australia. I wonder why that is? I think maybe in China employees make no attempt to make the greetings genuine. In China, employees are often blissfully indifferent to customers (texting, doing make-up, staring into mirrors, or picking their nose while they work).
If you interact with the owner of a small shop of course it can be different. I find the interactions with shopkeepers in China a lot of fun usually.
Posted on: Checking out at a Hotel
May 3, 2011 at 11:02 AMHey RJ
'You get free shampoo, shower gel, skin cream, and tooth brushes every day.'
I am trying to decide if you have impugned my character. (Kidding.)
I collect these free things too, even though there is a school of thought that they are only 'free' in situ. I don't agree - if you can stand the embarrassment help yourself.
But I collect them (on those rare occasions that I stay in a place that actually provides these things) for language learning purposes (harumph), I never actually use them. And I keep the stuff they give you on China Southern - toothpast, toothbrush, ear plugs. etc. - so I can read the instructions, ingredients in Chinese.
I also recently pinched the advertising they put in your tray at KFC - so I could translate it (ads are often hard.) Even I took a number of looks around the KFC to ensure I wasn't seen pinching the ad.
It says 肯德基联合
全国35个城市的媒体及高校
共同倡导“三早”理念
等等 。。
。。“三早”生活好精神！
早读
早餐
早锻炼
I am sure it is just a lot of fat and sugar, but the Chinese manage to convey the idea that KFC is almost a spiritual experience.
Posted on: Transferring Money
April 29, 2011 at 9:11 AM'there is a pretty small limit of RMB that you can bring out of the country'
Working strictly to the law I can take out 70% of what I earn (you need to check in your employment contract), and the paperwork is not that complicated. You just ask your employer for a statement of what you earnt in a 12 month period and take it to your bank. But in reality you can take it all out without any hassles at all - just use your Chinese bank transaction card in your home country.
Posted on: Getting Satellite TV
April 26, 2011 at 8:05 AMThanks for that toianw. It still has a 9 there in the title on-screen: CCTV9 纪录. I can't remember what it was called before, can you? They all had a name as well as a number I believe. I get CCTV 1 - 15, 9 is there for me; CCTV News is at about channel 65. I can't see the 英 version of 9 either but I get just the basic subscription with about 100 channels. Maybe you pay extra for the 英 channel. And maybe they experimented with the mixture of Chinese and English and decided that it pleased no-one.
Posted on: Getting Satellite TV
April 25, 2011 at 12:28 PM' I also get CCTV9 but it's almost all in English'
That's interesting - they revamped CCTV 9 at the start of this year and on Jan 4 I checked the program and found that it was mostly Chinese in peak times (Chinese 2:30 am - 3, 3:30 - 4am, 7:30am - 9am, 11:20 am - 1:30 pm, 6pm - 7pm, 7:30 - 8, 9 - 9:20 and 10 - 11 pm); it was mostly English in the middle of the night when no-one is watching. Has it changed again I wonder? Have you looked recently?
Posted on: Management Localization
April 25, 2011 at 3:14 AM不久前我工作了一家国际性的大公司里面，我们一般赠送给了我们的客户和客户的家庭还有我家庭礼物，不便宜的，还没有觉得贿赂。但是国际公司来到中国以后这个景况是则然违反道德准则的对吧，为什么？
Posted on: Buying High Quality DVDs
April 24, 2011 at 4:50 AMah, this is the problem I referred to in the dictation - but I forgot that the exercises are shuffled so it is not always the second sentence.
Posted on: When Opposites Collide (1)
April 23, 2011 at 3:46 AM请问我也最爱的节目。 (QinWen is my favourite show also.)
坐在沙发看电视的人。。(The Couch Potato)
Posted on: 5000 Years of History
May 6, 2011 at 12:49 PMMaybe we should define the start of history as the point in time when at least two thirds of the population can read the TV Guide, and point to the capital of America on a map. Or when the first MacDonalds restaurant opens?