User Comments - geiwotangba

Posted on: City Series: Bali

I think you picked the wrong translation for 大便咖啡， maybe you should use 'pu pu' 

Most Americans grew up going to Chinese Restaurants with the option of ordering a 'pu pu platter' a dish that contained various deep fried finger foods, like egg rolls and fried dumplings that was served on a large plate usually with some kind of dipping sauce in the middle. Even as a kid I thought the name 'pu' used in a food context was a bit unappetizing but using the word 'crap'  Americans will not only use this to refer to excrement but also things that are substandard, like, 'He did a crappy job.' or 'This coffee tastes crappy.' So, the combo of pu pu coffee sounds a whole lot better than crap coffee. Personally, I like bitter and sweet, and wouldn't mind trying this drink with a lot of sugar added of course! But I wouldn't even think about it if someone asked me to try some crap coffee...I know, you'll probably even 'pu pu' the idea of even considering what I'm writing.

Posted on: The Various Guises of "Until"

There's too much English here. I like the Chinese music a lot, and I like the feature of the dialog tab to just hear the Chinese in isolation. They really should let John speak more Chinese, he could be a good inspiration for those learning, to show them that yes, it is possible for a foreigner to speak good quality Chinese, and the same goes for the foreigner Jenny as well. Too much entertainment destroys the learning environment. So much potential for the students to learn here is being ignored. And, of course, we should hear mostly the native Chinese teacher's voice, this is only common sense. So much English is too distracting and renders the downloadable MP3 file a waste. I guess the main point here is it can be fun if we let these people joke around more in Chinese and use English only when utterly necessary. We can go to the millions of other websites to get good English humor if we want to.

Posted on: Turn in Your Homework

我住的地方狗不吃作业，但人吃狗。

wo3 zhu4de5 di4fang1 gou3 bu4chi1 zuo4ye4, dan4 ren2 chi1 gou3.

Where I live dogs don't eat homework, people eat dogs. (you can substitute cats and any other animal you wish into this sentence, but those substitutions are not known for their appetites to eat homework in the West.)

Was going to the market one day, rounded a corner and saw a dead dog impaled upon a stick hanging over a fire. They do this to burn all the hair off the dog before preparing it for cooking and eating. I guess this kind of stuff only happens in the south, but I do see pet stores here that sell dogs for pets and I'm quite surprised to see them trying to sell some pretty big dogs for pets.

The school I teach at has a dorm, where many of the students will live during the week and go home to their families on the weekend. At night I see the classrooms lit after dinner until about 8:30pm where the students are still in their classrooms doing their homework.

Posted on: You've been everywhere!

Anyone know why foreigners used to say Nanking or Peking and now we pronounce these closer to the official Mandarin? Was this a regional pronunciation or was this simply a mispronunciation? I know in Hong Kong you see signs for Kowloon, but the real Cantonese is Gaaulung （九龙）..., sorta strange.

Posted on: International vs. Local Schools

teachers are required to have a great sense of joy over the success of others, if we didn't have that kind of outlook, teaching would not be interesting or fulfilling. We foreigners are the light in the darkness. We definitely shouldn't sugar coat the description of the darkness either, as it is reality. What would make us a massive success would be if somehow others could discover that same joy of being able to profit spiritually from another's success, and that 'another' just happens to be us, the foreign teachers. There is plenty of spiritual profit to be made if one can understand the real game being played here. If one has the slightest misunderstanding, as in the mindless drive to be the best one can be at a certain skill no matter how it affects the 'relationships' around one, one can succeed in bullying one's way to the top, but what a tragic victory it would be. As, such a victory would doom one to a life of loneliness. It is up to us to hold out the hand of a beggar, and with each generous response to our own spiritual poverty...a joy that is not quantifiable or economically rewarding in any way, simply a victory over loneliness if but for a few brief moments....Like the Tao says...there is great power in weakness, and doom to the rigid and unbendable...

Posted on: International vs. Local Schools

My students can barely handle a foreign teacher, I would never even consider letting my kids into the closed cultural environment that still is China. No rap on the average Chinese kid, it's just the way the culture is. And, I'm not even taking into account the rigorous training the educational establishment puts their students through. Our 20 year old-Chinese niece is an emotional infant who has little or no regard for the feelings of others outside her career goals, no way I could stand for my children to grow up with such a narrow minded mentality.

Posted on: 色彩与性格

她们有时喜欢点夸张。

Posted on: How to Address Someone

congratulations!

Posted on: National Day Holiday

I really like this sentence found in the 'expansion' tab:

寿司不用加热。

Posted on: Which is better: China or the USA?

At one time i would confidently and unhesitatingly answer the good'ole USA...but with the umpteenth corporate bank bailout and the hard cranking money printing machine that is our government, and the sole desire of many voters to have their legislators pass laws to benefit themselves with a mythical free lunch, I'm just not in that camp anymore. Come to think of it...it appears I've been fast asleep for most of my adult life. Oh, what a wicked farce it all has come to be...I now trust no one. So the answer to the question or either-or is NEITHER.