User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Google vs. Baidu
April 14, 2011 at 4:18 AM'its interesting how polarized chinese are about using baidu or google.'
Really? 'Polarized' suggests some kind of debate - the debate, if any, would involve a tiny tiny fraction of the Chinese population. Hardly anyone I come across uses Google. But it is really about functionality - if you want to explore foreign matters in English you might use Google. Personally I don't think that this has anything at all to do with nationalism.
I'd be interested to know how you came to the view that the Chinese are polarized about Baidu and Google??
Posted on: Explaining Your Job
April 13, 2011 at 11:15 AMI think you misunderstood my story somewhere along the line. I cannot give you data but the drug treatment & prevention places are government, the youth development places are government, and the aged persons facilities are government (or mostly government - there may be some non-government places in the east, I'm not up with that.)
The NGO places may have social workers but from the one I was introduced to it seems to staffed by well-meaning volunteers who may be trained but more likely not. The NGO concept is still relatively new in China - this kind of function has until recently remained with government.
Posted on: Explaining Your Job
April 13, 2011 at 7:14 AM不好意思，我打错了， 社会员。 ‘rehab' centres may not be a good translation - don't get an image of the Betty Ford Clinic or luxurious rehab centres you have in the west. Where I live they are fairly grubby looking treatment centres. I forgot to mention that there are foreigners working with private charities; one here is Taiwan-based (the workers are Chinese descent or local Chinese), but there are also non-Chinese charities doing social work with alcoholics and people with mental disease. These work pretty much like in the West - periodically people are picked up, fed, given a bed, they attend to medical problems, maybe dried-out, then they put them back on the street.
Posted on: Explaining Your Job
April 13, 2011 at 6:32 AMHi Baba. It might be clearer to ask 你属什么星座？ (what's your star sign?) to avoid ambiguity. Also, I wonder if this term 星座 is only used for the Western zodiac, I think so.
Interesting if user42108 had a problem with this 星座 if he said 你是做什么的？Might have been heard as 你星座什么的？ but wouldn't it be more correct to say 你(的)星座是什么？
Posted on: Explaining Your Job
April 13, 2011 at 6:07 AMI actually met a social worker not too long ago; he sold my wife a mobile phone. While the paper work was being done I asked him if he sold phones 7 days a week - he said 'no, from Mon - Fri I am a social worker. I work here on the weekends.' From memory he described himself as a 诗会员 but my dictionary has a couple of other ways of expressing this. But one of the big employers of social workers in the West, child protection agencies, either don't exist or operate in a very minor way. I see drug rehab centres and youth development agencies & increasingly facilities for old people - these would all feasibly employ social workers.
Posted on: Car Crash
April 13, 2011 at 4:21 AMHi zhong_bide
There are 1.3 billion stories in China; most of them contradictory?
For what it is worth (and this is not exactly the case you are referring to where I assume you mean a foreign driver is involved in an accident), the only time I have actually been in a car accident I was a passenger in a taxi. After the matter was resolved between between the two drivers (no serious damage), the driver offered to drive me to my destination for free, because I hung around there for maybe 20 minutes while they argued. I paid him the full fare because it was an invaluable experience. :)
On the second matter my experience is also different - I left my wallet in a taxi and sought police help - they actually drove over to the restaurant where I was eating, to hear my story. I think that police all over the world will avoid investigating a break and enter if they can, but in China police resources are thin on the ground - they have an excuse. Are they lazy? Not especially lazy (compared to myself for example.) :)
Posted on: Sales Localization
April 12, 2011 at 10:17 AMThere are many interesting consumer habits in China, different to what many of us find in our home countries. And while the idea of producers catering to different consumer habits ('localization') makes sense, this discussion is strangely unconvincing. Eg. the popularity of Taobao seems to contradict the main point here - it's almost acknowledged in the commentary.
Some things that are interesting: computer markets (vast warehouses of small businesses/kiosks); the even more labyrinthian networks of commercial contacts that ensure that you get what you want quickly.
I have been a Dell customer in both Australia and China - the difference is in support rather than sales. In Aust you have to talk to someone in Malaysia or Philippines, then they put you onto a servicing business (not Dell), and then you wait; in China you talk to the guy at the local market and he says 'wait here, I'll go get it for you'. Or they fix your problem right there.
But the lesson introduces a number of interesting terms, thanks.
Posted on: How Did You Learn Chinese?
April 11, 2011 at 2:00 PMThanks Baba for 爰 - definitely not one I keep in my head. But now, dammit, it probably is there. Ha ha.
Posted on: Car Crash
April 16, 2011 at 1:47 PMHi zhong_bide
Gidday mate (didn't realise you are Australian). :) I was also referring to a Chinese taxi.
Your perception about police resources isn't backed by data - 'thin on the ground' doesn't sound very scientific I know, sorry about that but you can check it out yourself. I don't know exactly why it is that you think 'they seem to be everywhere' cf. Australia. Maybe we believe that Australian police are nice and cuddly, or perhaps extremely lazy (never seen), and we believe that Chinese police are harshly enforcing rules we don't like, and this affects our perceptions. If we don't like them, or fear them, maybe we 'see' them everywhere. Any ideas?