User Comments - dmartind
dmartind
Posted on: Traveling and Chopsticks
September 21, 2007 at 11:05 AMYeah, 30 is old. So much for the slogan "Marry late have few children." My Taiwanese wife were dating when she turned 32 as a student in the US. She sensed I would be popping the question soon, and phoned her parents to ask about marrying a foreigner. Her mom said, "Sweetie, It doesn't matter about whether he is Taiwanese. The important thing is that you love each other and will be happy." Her dad said, "Ah-Lian, at your age, if any man asks, you'd better just say 'yes' immediately."
Posted on: Personal Questions and Bargaining
September 21, 2007 at 3:03 AMAZERDocMom, My 3rd grader tells me that six is afraid of seven because seven ate (8) nine. She too is in a silly mood since today they are out of school early for some reason or another (Mid Autumn Festival maybe).
Posted on: Personal Questions and Bargaining
September 20, 2007 at 10:52 PMexecuter, Cannot speak for European food but.... Funny thing happened to me a while back. I was having lunch with local Chinese friends (in Chengdu) marking the impending departure of the twenty-something son of one of them to go to The US and Canada for 2 years. Our lunch conversations were all in Chinese, and since some of these guys have traveled internationally, one topic was about finding food when traveling. We figured that 20-year-old would be okay in Toronto with lots of ethnic Chinese around. The US part (in Utah) might be tougher. But the consensus was that the actual travel en route to the U.S., including at least 3 stops (we're not really on a well-served travel route from here) would be the most vexing food-wise. One man noted that he always worries in the airports and in overseas cities about restaurants. Chinese restaurants seem hugely expensive and are often not the food he expects from reading the menu. Western food is also expensive and he finds he cannot choose good foods from a menu. "Ham Burger" for example is actually beef not pork. And sometimes foods have weird names that do not tell what is in them, and then there are all kinds of foods with Spanish or French or Italian names that are hard to read if you only know English and Chinese. So what can a traveler do? According to this group of local Chinese living deep in Southwest China, the answer is easy: Just keep looking around. Soon enough, you can usually find a McDonald's or KFC, then your "heart will be at ease." It is true that these restaurants are perhaps less common in the U.S. than they are here at home in China, they said,but you'll find more and more of them are now appearing in U.S. and other international cities every day. There may even come a time, they think, when McDonald's and KFC restaurants will become as common a sight in American cities as they are here at home in Chengdu. They have noticed that McDonald's and KFC in the U.S. have had to change the menu a bit from the "real" menus (found in Chengdu), eliminating some of the "normal" menu items like the super-spicy chicken and a certain hamburger with a spicy sauce, since those apparently are not popular with Americans. And in the U.S. they seem to be sizing most items larger since Americans are bigger and expect larger portions for their money. Other than those few differences, though, these KFC and McDonald's branches overseas are reasonable facsimiles of the standard KFC and McDonald's here in China. I went from shock to amazement. My wife had to keep elbowing me to stop me from laughing the whole time. So if you are Chinese, from the city with arguably the best Chinese cuisine in the entire world, traveling internationally, and missing the tastes of home, just look for those Golden Arches or The Colonel and stop in for some comfort food.
Posted on: Personal Questions and Bargaining
September 20, 2007 at 4:05 AMSo, Amber, is it a conicidence that International Women's Day is 3-8, 三八节? I remember giggling the first time I saw 三八妇女节 written in Chinese. http://chinesepod.com/learnchinese/international-womens-day/discussion
Posted on: Death by Ninja
September 12, 2007 at 4:04 AMI see in the "topics" tags for this lesson "terminating_a_conversation." And I noticed on the phone in Chinese sometimes ending a call is a bit awkard so they just hang up on me (or is it just me). But a Ninja sword, now that's another alternative to termate a conversation. More seriously, is there a "right" way to end a phone call in Chinese, besides an English "byebye" or just hanging up?
Posted on: Death by Ninja
September 12, 2007 at 3:54 AMSuch dama. The hammer business is pretty rough. We anticipate a violent end for those who choose such a life. But I'm with Henning -- Peter and Lili were meant to meet (and then maybe her rich husband could send the Ninjia for Peter).
Posted on: In-Laws and Drinking
September 8, 2007 at 8:29 AMAbout the alcohol allergy... For religious reasons I don't drink at all. But Chinese don't seem to "get it" about anyone deciding not to drink, and will keep pushing and pushing you to drink up. That is, unless you know the secret code: Tell them you are allergic. I don't know whether so many Chinese are actually allergic or not, but I do know that "I'm allergic" seems to be the only acceptable way out of drinking at social and business events in China.
Posted on: Traveling and Chopsticks
September 22, 2007 at 1:22 AMtianfeng, Maybe a funnier problem is the difficulty Chinese (at least in Chendgu) have with someone who looks Chinese and does NOT speak Chinese. We have had ethnic Chinese visitors in both Chengdu and Beijing going crazy trying to get people to believe they do NOT understand Chinese.