User Comments - cinnamonfern

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

Alright - here goes! Here is my attempt at (loosely) translating an Austrian folk song into Chinese! Although it is a simple song, I had no idea how to translate the English onomatopoeias into Chinese (even after skimming the ChinesePod lesson that I found on onomatopoeias). This is the best I came up with. Any recommendations would be welcome!

If people think it sounds ok....maybe I'll even try singing it. Haha.

The Instrument Song (乐器歌曲)

小提琴：

小提琴都唱歌，音乐很好听

小提琴都唱歌，歌曲温和

xiaotiqin dou chang’ge, yinyue hen haoting

xiaotiqin dou chang’ge, gequ wenhe

单簧管：

单簧管，单簧管

吹嘟嘟嘟嘟嘟嘟嘟嗒

danhuangguan, danhuanguan

chui dudu dudu dudu dudu da

小号：

小号声喧闹

嗒嗒 嗒嗒 嗒嗒 嗒嗒 嗒嗒 嗒嗒 嗒嗒 嗒嗒 嗒

xiaohao sheng xuannao

tata tata tata tata tata tata tata tata ta

大号：

大号，大号

早说 “快起早”

大号，大号

早说 “快起早”

dahao, dahao

zao shuo “kuai qizao”

dahao, dahao

zao shuo “kuai qizao”

大鼓:

大鼓打咚咚

每次两个音符

大鼓打咚咚

每次都一样

dagu da dong dong

meici liang ge yinfu

dagu da dong dong

meici dou yi yang

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

Mmm...girls sometimes try. They usually hear about boys doing this and then wonder if they can do it to. But as orangina says, this is a much more challenging...and a much colder task for us females to attempt.

toianw - ha ha - that's hilarious...and a little disturbing...

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

Ha ha - read my post below. :)

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

Oh - yes! The most memorable day was when the school bus got stuck in the huge drifts on the way to school...only to find out it was canceled...and then got stuck again in a different place while dropping us back off at home :)

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

"And then, what is the usual reason for NOT eating it if it is nothing about it being dirty?"

Ha ha...ever heard of "yellow snow"? I'm pretty sure this is the "usual reason" (I guess it doesn't count as dirty?). Mix boys and nice clean white snow and they usually come up with an interesting way of trying to write their names in it.

I am from a land of snow - I've seen snow fall every month of the year except June & July...sometimes the snow doesn't melt at all in shadowy places. But I'm also not really sure why anyone would want to eat snow, though I'm sure I did it when I was a kid - probably because someone told me not to.

Posted on: Don't Eat the Snow

I went to undergrad at the Third Snowiest City in the U.S. (according to the Weather Channel). I miss the snow! I miss the snowplows the size of dump trucks and the sidewalk snowblowers the size of small cars (I call them snow munchers because they are so big)! No snow here in Hong Kong. :) (Although it was almost cold enough for it last week...)

Posted on: Lots of Musical Instruments

This lesson reminds me of a song which is sung in round called "The Instrument Song".  If I was brilliant at Chinese I would translate it.  But I'm not yet, so I guess that can be a goal...  How would you translate "doodle doodle doodle dat" into Chinese though?  :D

http://www.songsforteaching.com/orchestrainstrumentsong.htm

If it sounds familiar, a modified version was in "You've Got Mail"....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwqmFBttKW8

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/r9KtT7-S4nU/

(The song is at 9:47 in the second link)

Posted on: How to Protect the Environment

I find this all very interesting - probably because my work relates to alternative energy. I do have to agree with you that in the Western countries we (generally) like to talk big, but do very little to change, and then only if it affects our pocketbooks. People in the U.S. actually stopped buying the huge SUVs...when the gas prices were high. But started right up again when the price dropped. I personally have a really hard time with articles that talk about China's contribution to global CO2 emissions, in a sense accusing the country as if they are entirely to blame for climate change - but I don't really want to get into that. (Very few media outlets want to mention the U.S. per capita emissions...bleh...)

Yeah - I'm not sure it's fair to compare a developing country with a developed country in terms of environmental consciousness. The most significant environmental issues tend to be very different. Perhaps the reason that China appears to invest more in the more major environmental areas (cleaning up rivers, air pollution, etc..) is because these things have already been accomplished to a large extent in the Western countries. (And maybe because manufacturing and the associated pollution has shifted from the West to the East?) I'm not sure about other countries, but in the past 40 years, the U.S. has done a great deal to clean up rivers and air pollution, and with a quite a bit of success.

I definitely wish that the use of solar and geothermal energy would be more popular around the world. Hydro I have mixed feelings about. But my question is - are solar powered water heaters common in China because non-renewable options either aren't available or are comparatively more expensive - or are the renewable options subsidized?

That last comment is interesting - motor cars chosen over motor bikes for environmental reasons? I wonder why... By motor bikes do you mean motorcycles or electric bikes? Did they consider health impacts to be environmental reasons?

Posted on: How to Protect the Environment

That's so interesting! Please forgive my ignorance of environmental practices in China - I've only lived in Hong Kong, so I didn't realize that recycling was so prevalent in the Mainland! I guess I'm too used to the disposable mentality in the U.S. - it's just cheaper to buy something brand new than to recycle it or fix it. Although - I can understand recycling of old machines and other things that can be fixed, but is recycling of waste paper/bottles/cans also as common - things that have less value? These are the things that are more commonly recycled in the U.S. What dorrick said leads me to believe that this isn't as likely to happen in China.

Hmm...maybe this cultural difference can explain an experience I had in Beijing that startled me. I had just finished a bottle of juice and a 老太太 (lǎotàitai) came up to me and asked me to give her the bottle. This would definitely not happen in the states because you can't get any money for juice or water bottles, so I'm still not sure why she wanted it.

Posted on: How to Protect the Environment

Oh, I also just watched the new "Karate Kid" (功夫梦) yesterday - and Jackie Chan's character was talking about a switch for the bathroom water heater, and when told that we don't have these in America, he told the kid to "Get a switch. Save the world." Are these switches common in China? My apartment in Hong Kong doesn't have one.

Is recycling catching on in China yet? I was surprised this wasn't mentioned in the lesson somewhere. That is one of my favorite things about Hong Kong: where I'm living it is very easy to recycle plastic, metal, and paper (but not glass...I'm not sure why).