User Comments - brendaninaus

Posted on: 会 (Huì) and 能 (Néng) Face-off

with that whole rules of a language thing, as has been said there is no official rule book or authority, but having rules would keep the clarity of a language, for instance there is a difference in the terms "may" and "can", so by intermixing their use you can destroy their slightly different meaning thereby making the language more ambiguous. It could be said that the value of a language is its ability to be able to describe unambigously.

However the grammer nazis who insist on certain grammer or pronounciation rules when the meaning is clear can be annoying.

Posted on: Aussie Rules

The reason Jenny didn't come across Aussies Rules much is that she was studying in New South Wales, which is more Rugby league territory. In Australia there is a sort of division in the most popular winter sport, with NSW, Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland the more rugby league states, while the rest are more Aussie rules orientated (the Northern Territory is sort of in between). There is some invasion from the various codes into the others territory, but it's still largely divided along those lines.

Rugby union is also popular in the rugby league states, but not as popular, unlike in the rest of the rugby playing world, where the rugby union dominates. Rugby league evolved from rugby union after there was a split over whether or not players could be paid. Union insisted they shouldn't, and in Australia, is seen as the "elitists" game as the rich could afford to get injured, while rugby league is known as the "working class game".

Posted on: Money Values and Beating the Summer Heat

You mentioned that having a fan can be a bit girly for a guy. Is it the same with umbrellas?

It is in Thailand. I was in Bangkok during its peak hot season and I was walking down the street when I heard all these locals laughing. They were laughing at another westerner who was using an umbrella to block out the heat, which suffering heat exhuastion myself in the 40C heat, I could empathize with, but the locals saw this as very feminine (although I couldn't see what was so unusual about a guy appearing feminine in Bangkok).

Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex

Premarital-sex certainly does happen in China, but you don't get the hypocrisy of many western nations where you get people taking chastity pledges only to get pre-maritally pregnant a few years later (i.e. the ones that say premarital sex is bad and they will not do it tend to stick to it). But from my experiences, even with Chinese who are very casual in their approach to sex, they will not talk about it at all, and will be shocked if you do bring it up, which is especially worrying when a lot of them know next to nothing about contraception and safe sex.

Betel nights are apparently addictive, and have a mild stimulant effect. However be warned they are highly acidic and will rot your teeth as well as stain them red giving you a vampire-like look. 

Posted on: Fortunate Cookies

What do you mean Australian Chinese restuarants don't have fortune cookies!?

They are not universal in Australia, but some certainly have them.

Posted on: Hiking

Wow. It seemed to me like a storm in a teacup, but it seems the water in the teacup was boiling hot and it's being thrown around everywhere.

The "correct" way to pronounce a language is always of some debate, as many "language experts" (uni professors etc.) speak very different from the way the language is commonly spoken. Which begs the question if a word is the most common way for a certain meaning, shouldn't it be that meaning? Who sets the rules? The majority of the speakers of the language or some language professor who spends all his time in a uni office.  Certainly it seems pa shan is common enough for it
to be a word to be used in everyday conversation, which is what I want to learn anyway.

I remember in a previous lesson, many people commented on Jenny's pronunciation of the word "pronunciation", which was supposedly pronounced in the "Australian way". I was surprised as it was is how I pronounced it, but I am an Australian.

Later I was watching the BBC series "The Story of English" which also pronounced it the "Australian way", and usually the BBC is seen as the guide to "correct" English. It is also how my British coworkers pronounce it. Although during that same series, in a segment on native Australian words incorporated into English, almost every one of the Australian native words introduced by the presenter were pronounced differently (and I could cautiously add, wrongly) from how they are pronounced by Australians, or at least the ones I have talked with these last 30 years or so.

Posted on: Chinatomy: Medical Treatments and Marriage Registration

Sorry to get all scientific on you, but the cupping explanation of getting rid of the oxygen by burning it is wrong as you would just replace the oxygen with an equal amount, or even more, of other gases (carbon dioxide, steam etc.).

It would be more likely due to hot gases taking up more space, so when a hot gas is cooled (like when the candle is removed and the cup placed on your back), the gas will shrink, thereby decreasing pressure inside.

Posted on: Scams and Bus Culture

I've had the tea scam done to me several times. The first time in Beijing I was taken to a tea ceremony. I was charged 168RMB for it, which was a little more than I expected but not that bad, but I refused the offers for the "special" 500+RMB tea tins. The second time some "english learning students" wanted to take me to a tea house. Seeing the menu made me a little reluctant with the chapest tea at 100RMB a cup, but I was saved from the scam (which also involved a 500RMB "room hire" not listed in the menu, by an American tourist who had just been done in the room next door, one of the few times I appreciated the American reputation of being loud. I left without paying a cent. The third time in Shanghai I was invited again by "English learning students" to a cafe. By this time I was suspicious but after assuring me it wasn't a scam I went with them. Again the prices were a bit on the high side, but I ordered a cheaper drink. Suddenly they start bringing all this food, which causes me to then ask "I didn't order this, whose paying for it". Upon been told I was, as well as paying for their drinks, I stormed out, without paying a cent, lucky I am also a fairly well built man. However i did get done by a "cheap bar" scam in Sanlitun in Beijing. It seemed like a good offer after seeing the bar prices were more expensive than at home. I was taken to a karoke room and some hostesses came in. Suddenly they start bringing in all this food and brandy drinkstrying to get me drunk, and later empty glasses later claiming I had drank them. I wanted to leave in which a well built large man enters the room demanding I pay them 3000RMB. They refused to let me go, physically stopping me, and after giving them all my chinese money (about 800RMB), they refused my Australian plastic money which they thought was fake (but actually was worth more than the Chinese money I had). They let me go, and I found some police. We went back there and in true Chinese fashion a round of bartering broke out into who much I owed them for the few drinks I had drank, and I got about half the money back. Finally, don't bother taking the bus to Tiananmen Square in Beijing unless you like being squashed and enjoy travelling at a pace that is slower than walking.

Posted on: Bumming a Smoke

I think some of the Chinese intercity trains are "meant" to be nonsmoking (at least they have no smoking signs everywhere) but it is undermined by having people walking up & down the train selling cigarettes.

Posted on: Nakedness and Thieves

Maybe the ease at being nude comes from their childhood. Everywhere in China I saw hildren had the area around the butt rippred out, so when they needed to go, the parents just held them over rubbish bins. Although I am tall, so largely avoided it except when climbing steps, it was offputting when a parent in front of you had their child on their back, so this bare bum is looking right at you.