User Comments - cinnamonfern

cinnamonfern

Oh...I distinctly remember the liquid kind - 我记得父母用洗手液. (wǒ jìde fùmú yòng xǐshǒuyè.) I can't remember if they used solid soap or not. They never used too much and they didn't want us to swallow it...that could make you sick. It just tastes really really bad (which is kind of the point).

Posted on: Where's the soap?

January 6, 2011 at 1:35 PM

When I was a little kid, if my brother or sister or I (usually my sister) was disrespectful or used bad language, my parents would literally 'wash our mouths out with soap'.

可以说吗？：我们爸妈用洗手液洗我们的口。

kěyǐ shuō ma?： wǒmen bàmā yòng xǐshǒuyè xǐ wǒmen de kǒu.

I'm not sure how to be more specific...where would I put me (我 - wǒ), my sister (妹妹 - mèimei) and my brother (弟弟 - dìdi) in the sentence?

Posted on: First Snow of the Winter

January 6, 2011 at 7:27 AM

Thanks Jen! Ah CPod - bringing me even more ways to procrastinate. ;)

Posted on: First Snow of the Winter

January 6, 2011 at 7:26 AM

Apparently to "run on the smell of an oily rag" is an Aussie term that originally refers to a car being economical (able to run on only the smell of an oily rag) and now refers to anything being economical. (All you Aussies out there - please correct me if I'm wrong!)

I like it! It's such a colorful phrase...I may have to try to transfer it into American English. :)

Posted on: First Snow of the Winter

January 6, 2011 at 1:21 AM

@tingyun ~ On MDGB it says that you can also use 次 with 战争 and 比赛. Maybe 场 is the more common measure word for these words, though?

What do your last three examples mean? My grammar isn't so great and I can't quite figure them out. I think the first one is a big illness?

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 5, 2011 at 5:15 AM

I once made the mistake a few years ago of saying that someone who was from Taiwan was from China - and yes, I received a very forceful response. :) But I can understand a little because I got an almost identical response when I said one of my friends was from Detroit (they were actually from one of the suburbs). They are from the Detroit Metro area, NOT from Detroit! Detroit has certain negative perceptions that people who aren't from Michigan might not understand. I think there is a similar feeling toward Mainland among people from Taiwan and Hong Kong that might be difficult to understand looking in from outside the history and culture.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 5, 2011 at 3:46 AM

Oh - it isn't just Canadians. I have a friend from Guatemala who also considers himself to be an American, and several friends from South America as well. When my friend first came to the U.S. he was very offended that we call ourselves Americans as if we're the only ones. But it's just too difficult! What should we call ourselves instead? Anything else would be really strange or cumbersome (although I seem to use "people from the U.S." rather frequently). I guess we could adopt the word they use for us in Guatemala - "gringos". :)

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 4, 2011 at 12:36 PM

Haha - I'm just really efficient at tracking down information. :) Here is the worldwide Girl Scouts/Girl Guides website.

http://asia.wagggsworld.org/en/organisations

And you have to trust Wikipedia about the banning issue, but I'm inclined to agree because...well, it's China. And I think I've mentioned Girl Scouts to my friends from China once and they had no clue what I was talking about.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 4, 2011 at 12:28 PM

Nope. There are the Girl Guides in Hong Kong and Girl Scouts in Taiwan, but neither in the Mainland - though there was before 1949. The Chinese government banned the organization in favor of more patriotic activities for young people.