User Comments - davidfong
davidfong
Posted on: The Tea Scam
June 2, 2012 at 1:18 PMActually, offering any food that you have on you is a good strategy for beggars anywhere....
In Melbourne, Australia --- I offer my sandwich. Or apple, or nuts. Not usually accepted. Once I bought fast food, but the guy was a big eater...Mc Donald's would have been cheaper. Perhaps in China you can buy the beggar a 6 RMB KFC 肯德基 （kěndéjī）breakfast?
In Bangladesh (child beggars) --- I carried around chocolate. They often look a little puzzled, but will eat the chocolate straight way with obvious enjoyment. If I gave money, it would mostly go to their 'minder'
In China --- at this time of year, lychees (荔枝 lìzhī) make a lovely gift to beggars, I think, they usually look happy. 圣诞节快乐！shèngdànjiékuàilè ( Now they know I'm crazy!)
Posted on: The Tea Scam
June 2, 2012 at 1:03 PMMost years, I see Australian prices for bottled water in the departure lounge of Chinese airports.
To my shock and horror, this year I actually only paid 2 RMB at Xi'an airport Terminal C departure lounge (only 0.5 RMB above fair price), and 5 RMB at Guangzhou airport international departure lounge (yes, overpriced, but still less than the Australian price).
Well, yeah, boiling hot water is available for free as well. I'm too Westernised to like that kind of water.
Guangzhou airport departure lounge eateries looked quite busy this year. Looks like everyone has just a bit more cash to splash...
Posted on: Help at the ATM
April 15, 2012 at 11:14 AMWhen automated teller machines (ATMs) were first introduced in Australia, the machine issued the money first, and only then could you get your card back. However, too many people, having got what they came for (the money) left their card behind in the machine, so more than twenty years ago the programming was changed so that ATMs gave the card back first, and only then issued the money.
It has always surprised me that ATMs in China are not programmed the same way!
Posted on: Please Heat My Food
April 15, 2012 at 8:36 AMNo, something like 他发烧了。 （Tā fāshāo le)。 The character 烧 shāo (roast) appears in the name of a few dishes.
Posted on: A Disgusting Man
March 29, 2012 at 10:34 AMApparently 分泌物 （fēnmìwù) is a more appropriate word than 屎 shǐ in a medical context. Thanks Alice!
Posted on: A Disgusting Man
March 22, 2012 at 10:06 AMWords like 耳屎 （éshǐ) and 鼻屎 （bíshǐ) are simple to remember, but can we use them in polite conversation? In particular, would a patient use these words when describing these problems to a doctor? Or would a doctor use these words when talking to a patient?
Incidentally, I am most familiar with the word 鼻涕 （bíti) when describing nasal mucous, in particular I very often use the phrase 流鼻涕 （liúbíti) = runny nose.
Posted on: Volunteering in China
March 11, 2012 at 11:14 AMRegarding the slightly negative attitude towards NGO work, I think there is (or was?) something between surprise and disbelief that people might actually go out of their way to help non-relatives without hope of personal gain. I well remember being asked repeatedly (along with my fellow doctor companions) what we stood to gain from doing non-paid work.
I hazard to think the rise of the middle-class, improvements in gender autonomy, the 'idle' (but still very philanthropic) wealthy and organizations such as mentioned by rods above is something that was very peculiarly European during the 19th (or earlier) centuries.
听说 I've heard that charity work has been more acceptable, among undergraduates at least, since the large volunteer movements for the Beijing Olympics, and following earthquakes in the west 西部。 Though some actress/model-wannabe idiot who boasted of buying a lot of cars whilst claiming she was employed by a large charity tarnished the reputation somewhat....
Posted on: Lesson Page Upgrade, Video Lessons and a New Office!
March 11, 2012 at 10:49 AMJust loaded the Chinespod app from the Android market! Great!
By the way, I purchased my Android tablet (ASUS Transformer) in China, and it DIDN'T have Android market installed. It was excruciatingly difficult to enable the Android market (I had to re-flash to a non-Chinese ROM).
In my case, the ASUS transformer came with Himarket's market app 安桌市场。 Which would be really fantastic if I could read enough Chinese to use all those Chinese apps!
Although I've heard rumours that Android market is now available as a separtely-installed app, perhaps for those people who purchased an Android-tablet in a non-Google friendly location there should be a place on this website where you can download the Android Chinesepod app?
After all, that is one of the advantages of the (slightly-less restrictive) Android system.
Posted on: A Qing Wen to Our Listeners
March 11, 2012 at 10:43 AMOn a pseudo-medical theme (but also of use to any health-conscious person living in China)
How to read food information panels
e.g. carbohydrates, sugars, fat (saturated and unsaturated), cholesterol, 'calories'
is that green tea drink really health? or even more sugar-laced than Coca-Cola?
Is that low-fat milk really low fat?
and for the more paranoid of us
source of product origin (where did that milk powder come from?)
location of product packaging
date of packaging. when should this product be consumed by?
Sometimes this information is even useful in Australia, when browsing in an Asian grocery (though most of the products have been re-labelled in English)
Posted on: A Detained Package
September 5, 2012 at 11:17 AMJenny was a bit unfortunate to have all her mooncakes 月饼 broken apart by Australian Customs 澳大利亚海关. I brought mine in through airport customs, I declared them of course (Australia customs is going to inspect about 80%+ of arrivals anyway, so even if I have nothing it is better to declare something to avoid trouble! If I am lucky, they will even clean my shoes to rid of agricultural contaminants, for free.) Customs just X-Rayed my mooncakes, looking for yolks. Several of my mooncakes had no yolks, because I preferred the novelty mooncakes with strawberry etc. anyway. And even then, they missed at least one yolk...