User Comments - briana
briana
Posted on: Hawaii
May 20, 2008, 04:11 PMi can't believe i missed this lesson when it came out! i'm from Kauai as well =) gregmcgrath: i thought Kauai in Chinese was 烤爱岛 Kao Ai Dao (although i'm not too sure which "kao" specifically) My chinese teacher here told me "kao ai dao" -so when I explained where I'm from to people when I was in Harbin, that's what I told them! ah well....most people i talked to didn't realize that Hawaii is 8 islands anyway! Everyone thought of Hawaii as just one big island! >.< Does anyone know the names of each island in Chinese? I think Oahu has a regular name, but most people that I talked to in China just called it Honolulu岛(i'm not sure which characters). As for big island, I just called it 大岛 and explained to them it's really called "夏威夷" as well... sophie: 但你知道吗？ 夏威夷有很多不会游泳的人！（我也觉得奇怪） 你如果来夏威夷玩，可以玩别的，比如骑马，吃东西（我们也有食物文化呵呵），看表演，爬山，等等。但是我也觉得会游泳的人会玩得最开心！ 你快学会游泳吧！ 欢迎你来夏威夷！ =）
Posted on: Chinese Music Taste and Registering with the Police
May 19, 2008, 01:04 AMVera...yes i like "Li Ge" by Shin too!! =) I like a lot of his songs...but he has such a high voice that it's difficult for me to sing along sometimes!! haha Hitokiri: yes, i know a lot of Chinese people that like many Korean things, like dramas and music! A lot of them like "Rain" (guy singer who stars in "Full House"--a k-drama) and "Dong Bang Shin Ki" (DBSK) I forget what their chinese name is though! >.<
Posted on: Chinese Music Taste and Registering with the Police
May 16, 2008, 08:27 AMthere's also SHIN! He sings Si Le Dou Yao Ai...really good =) I recently started liking Ariel Lin(from Taiwan), but i don't think she was very popular in Harbin...
Posted on: Pearl Tea
May 16, 2008, 08:00 AMsophie... when you say "i can't accept it", do you mean “受不了”？ In the U.S., i believe that a more common way of saying it would be "I can't stand (something or someone)". For example, if you were to say "我受不了她!”, we would typically say "I can't stand her!"
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Geology
May 16, 2008, 07:22 AMI wish that there was some way that I could help those people... It really is a sad thing. I've read that the death count might be up to 50,000 people because the roads are so bad that it's difficult for the rescue groups to reach the victims. There are a lot of people saying bad things about the Chinese gov't right now, but I believe that the Gov't is really trying their best to help those people. It's a difficult situation and with the state our world is in now, it seems like these kinds of natural disasters are only going to happen more often. The high death toll is inevitable but I hope the rescue workers and victims remain strong to get out of the mess over there.
Posted on: Pearl Tea
May 16, 2008, 06:27 AM哎哟 我的天！！ I just read all those comments about the calories in those drinks!! No wonder I gained so much weight in China!! Oily food plus drinking naicha so often= pang le hen duo hen duo!! Although we have naicha here, I don't drink it everyday like I did in China!! (here it's $3.50 as opposed to 3 kuai) Thank you Darylk for the shocking reality check!! nuevacarpeta: yes you can buy kits to make it on your own at home. They sell them at some stores here, but I doubt they'll have them available in Germany =P My family makes a LOT when we have parties so we order it online. Basically, they send you the tapioca balls, uncooked in an airtight bag, flavored powder, and the cups/straws. You have to cook the tapioca balls and soak them in sugar-water to make them all slimy/chewy and then just put them aside in a container to add before pouring the drink into your cup. The drink is typically water, powder, creamer/dairy powder (we add that to ours), a few spoons of premade sugar/water, and ice. blend it up, and pour into a cup that has a few spoons of tapioca balls in it. And that's it! (i can't believe i never really realized just how sugary it is!!!)
Posted on: Pearl Tea
May 16, 2008, 06:15 AM我也爱奶茶! ^_^ Here in Hawaii it's pretty popular too, but we only drink the slushie ones. I've only seen the hot ones in China, but I was very thankful for that during the COLD Harbin winter! Many of my friends here love bubble drinks, but don't like the tapioca balls, so they just drink it without them! We also put coconut or lychee jellies inside...they're really good! Some of the Dippin' Dots stores sell bubble drinks with dippin dots ice cream on top too. I've only seen it called "Boba" once before (here in Hawaii though, not China!). Interesting to know that it originated in Taiwan。。。I thought it was vietnamese! (My family orders packets of it from vietnam for parties =) hehe) I always thought that "zhen zhu nai cha" was the name for the regular flavored nai cha... i never realized zhen zhu meant pearl >.< is there a name for the regular flavor? i don't like the regular flavor, but i love the other ones! (taro, strawberry, mango, honeydew melon...etc.) --My thai friend was obsessed with the regular one though... =P
Posted on: Regional Accents Part I
April 23, 2008, 08:05 AM哈哈!! 我非常喜欢这堂课！！让我更想中国！！ I loved learning the various accents/dialects of the regions I had friends from or visited! I once made friends with a 东北人on a train who had a VERY strong accent, but was sooooo funny! He would tease the accents of us and people from other regions and countries... It was definitely an entertaining ride! After a year or so in China, you can probably understand most accents after a short time though...you start to realize what the little differences are and just piece them together. I think the hardest one for me to figure out was the "Y" instead of "R" sound. One day I had friends coming over and my grandpa asked me "duo sao yen?" (He meant "duo shao ren") !! haha I was like, "why is he asking me how much money/yen? he doesn't like japanese!" (because yen is a monetary unit in japanese, which i've studied before) One of the most confusing things is getting the 4's and 10's straight when you're in the south though! Thank goodness for 1-10 hand motions! One of my favorite northern phrases is "ni gan ha ne?" which means "Ni gan sha ne?" (or really-- "Ni zai zuo shen ma?" ) I can't wait to listen to part two!
Posted on: Chinese Parks and Working as a Tutor
April 06, 2008, 02:20 AMHAHAHA!! thanks bazza and yet no thanks...i just got all 4 wisdoms pulled yesterday so it hurt sooo much when i started laughing at this video!! >.< shanghai people seem a lot more eccentric than harbin people =P
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Xinjiang
May 20, 2008, 05:56 PMwow...i don't know if i could handle prices in Shanghai! in Harbin, we only pay 1-2 kuai per chuan! hahaha..i know a lot of people in Harbin who use "sha" instead of "shen me" =P it's pretty fun! ~ ni shuo sha? sha yi si? ni gan sha ne?