User Comments - hyzhenhok
hyzhenhok
Posted on: The Stepmother Role
June 5, 2011 at 1:51 PM有没有一个说法能翻译"father's second wife"？我爸第二次结婚后我一直没算是她我的“后妈”，而且他们今年离婚了。应该叫她什么呢？
Posted on: Food Poisoning
March 11, 2011 at 8:41 PMYou might also hear from Chinese people that you can get food poisoning because you drank coke or cold water instead of tea or hot water. Cold drinks apparently interfere with digestion!
Posted on: Getting Married in China
March 6, 2011 at 12:25 PMAnother thing to remember that generally in a Chinese context, marriage is always inevitable if they're calling each other boyfriend/girlfriend. That's the point of dating.
By Western standards it's old-fashioned, yes.
Posted on: Tea Refill
February 9, 2011 at 8:30 PMMakes me glad to be out in the boonies (in a city of 2 million). There just aren't that many Westerners out here, and only a small number of us are tourists. We just don't have this sort of predation out here (yet!).
Posted on: Chinese Baijiu and the Best of the Worst
February 8, 2011 at 7:39 AM我习惯了喝白酒！
Another thing westerners might notice is the average Chinese's ability to hold their liquor. This past 年夜饭 I was being called 厉害 for drinking a few cups of baijiu, even though 我一点没喝醉.
Most 老外 I've met have stories about how easily they've drunk Chinese men under the table.
Posted on: Of Soldiers and Military People
February 5, 2011 at 7:19 PMChina (like most countries) has a small marine corp that is a detachment of its navy.
That said, my dictionary translates Marine Corp as 海军陆战队 (hǎijūnlùzhànduì) which seems to literally translates to something like "Continental Warfare Naval Corp."
I can't find any reference to what you would call a single marine. Perhaps 海军陆战军 (hǎijūnlùzhànjūn)?
Posted on: Marco Polo in China
February 5, 2011 at 7:02 PMI have a friend here at my university (in a second/third tier city) who definitely has MPS. She was the first American exchange student here, and lived here a year before more of us started to come.
As far as newcomers are concerned, she is indeed an expert on living in this city. But you can tell she considers herself to also be the foremost expert on Chinese people and China itself.
I do have to check myself with a different but related syndrome: feeling superior or better understanding of China than other 老外 because I've studied Chinese history and literature, something most 老外 don't seem to touch, even if they've been here for a long time.
Posted on: What's in a name?
February 5, 2011 at 6:27 PM
我的中文初级老师给我叫白杰慕。中国人都觉得好名字。
But lately I've been trying to convert my online moniker into a Chinese name, mostly as my Chinese has gotten to the point where I can wander out onto the Chinese web. I'm looking for a transliteration to hujianhuo. 胡 is the obvious choice for the "surname." I kind of want to use 剑, but I realize 建 might be a better choice in general. For the huo, I'm clueless.
胡建活 Hu Build life/work?
胡剑活 Hu Sword-life/worksmanship?
胡剑伙 Hu Sword-Companion?
胡剑获 Hu Catch-a-Sword?
胡剑攉 Hu shovels-with-swords?
胡建祸 Hu Builds Calamity?
Posted on: Chinatown Diary
January 13, 2011 at 6:34 PMFair enough, but my experience when I was a newbie trying to practice with Taiwanese was that they got confused even by zhōngwén, as they pronounce it as zōngwén. It's very frustrating to be doing well in your introductory Chinese course, only to be misunderstood the very first time you use even some of the most basic words!
It's less of a problem once your Chinese is advanced enough, definitely, and I'm not trying to make a blanket statement about all Taiwanese. Your mileage may vary.
Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures
June 5, 2011 at 2:06 PMSo which animal is associated with the Center? China has five directions and five elements, right? Surely there's a fifth mythical creature, too.