User Comments - getthroughwinter

Posted on: Dubai

the intro to this lesson has "city-state" , how do we say "city-state" in Chinese ?

Posted on: Family Member Terms of Address

Asian languages are different. Even West Asian and Central Asian languages can have this complex system for addressing family members

Posted on: Using a Character Dictionary

can the 提手 be used to say "handle", as in a tennis raquet handle ? 
If not, how do I say the word "handle" (tea kettle handle, umbrella handle, etc ) ? 

Posted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat

I'll tell you one thing about the air in Shanghai. Chinese smokers do a hell of a job making sure that Shanghai smells like cigarette smoke. Not only do they smoke everywhere, they also never put out their nasty cigarettes by stepping on them ; they just throw them on the ground, which is also littering, and the half-smoked cigarettes continue to let smoke out until they completely burn out.

Posted on: Fresh Air vs. Heat

interesting topic. I'm a westerner, and I actually enjoy heat on, with the window cracked open, because it feels really good. 

Here in China, whenever I get on the bus, I've noticed that Chinese people almost never open any of the windows, even when the bus is packed full of people, and the windows have fogged up. I'm usually the only person who opens a window.

For offices, I think it's very likely that since Chinese people smoke cigarettes EVERYWHERE, that this causes heaters/air conditioners to smell really gross , and it permanently causes carpets to smell like smoke, so this might be why office women like to open windows . Cigarette smokers are the worst part about China  

Posted on: Exchange Rates

question : 
what is the most common and colloquial way of saying "accountant" in Chinese ? 

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

I don't believe that either. I think famines occur when there are huge issues with a country's governance, such as with North Korea and with China during the Cultural Revolution. The famine in North Korea didn't occur because there are too many people. It happened because North Korea's great/glorious leader was a fat tyrannical idiot. During China's Cultural Revolution, the famine didn't occur because there were too many mouths to feed ; it happened because the country's farmers became the teachers and the teachers became the farmers. The result was chaos

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

your suggestion that the One Child Policy hasn't reduced the birth rate from what it would be if the policy were not in place is quite silly. No offense.

I know that you got this information from Chinese demographers, so I won't call you presumptuous, but does the birth rate not being affected make logical sense ? And even if you really want to stick to that idea, what about all of the other factors, like infant infanticide , widening ratio gaps between males and females in certain regions, the aging population , the cruelty that's associated with it , and so on ? I think the One Child Policy is one of the last products and ideas from the Cultural Revolution, and a great threat to Chinese culture, economy, and society .

Posted on: The One-Child Policy

I definitely don't believe the part about the policy not having an effect. It directly affects people in a huge way. Not everyone lives in Shanghai.

I think that it would be in China's best interest to lift this policy, or to modify it to 2-3 children per household, because China's population is beginining to age. I also don't beleive any of the bogus hype that China is too overpopulated ; I just don't buy that. If you're sitting there thinking,"But China is the most populated country in the world", my response to that is it's also one of the largest , and the population is spread out, with hundreds of big cities that have room to grow.

Posted on: New Year's Well-Wishes

I have a couple of questions about a couple of the sentences in the diologue section. The first one is : 你背得出吗 (in reference to the 12 animals of the zodiac ). The translation is : "Have you memorized them?" .  I could be wrong, but I think the translation should be "Can you recite them?". If I remember right, 背起來 and 背下來 are used for saying "memorize" . 

The next sentence is basically the same question, "...我背不出來". Same thing for this one ; I think it should be "I can't recite them"