User Comments - kdombros

Posted on: The Surname Code

I had a friend who used to introduce himself to people in China as "Hugh, Hugh Grant 的 Hugh"

Posted on: Funny Business -- 搞笑， 好笑， 可笑

Hi,

I've just been listening to some of my recordings of me doing interviews in my (upper-intermediate level) Chinese! I did these interviews two years ago, and I noticed today that I continually use 很有意思 to mean 'funny'. I understand the literal translation is 'very has meaning' or very interesting, but I picked up using it as funny due to the kinds of contexts my Chinese teacher used it in... i.e. she was generally laughing and one of us was telling a funny story.  Did I just pick up her personal idiom or is this a common usage. It's the ONLY word I had been using for funny. So thanks for giving me a few more!

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 3: Prenatal Checkup

The dialogue also said the US doesn't check "宫高" or height of the uterus.  In Australia and New Zealand, the midwife will measure this every check up, by pressing down on your stomach to feel the ridge at the top of the uterus and using a measuring tape to record the change.  Also, after you give birth they check this at your 6 week checkup to make sure the uterus has contracted sufficiently.  I have heard the US system relies heavily on expensive technology however??

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 3: Prenatal Checkup

Someone said: Do babies really take 10 months to come out in China?

Answer: If you think about it, they take 10 "yue" 月 or moons to come out in the West too ... 40 weeks???? That's 10X4.  When doing research with mothers in China this used to confuse me, until I realised after having my own baby that medically we calculate it as 10 'moons' too.  But it's around 9 calendar months, and that's what is talked about popularly.

Kelly

Posted on: Eating Dead Flesh 猪吃死人肉

Hi, Really liked this, and must say this is my favourite channel of Chinese Pod, although it would be nice to have some exercises etc too, because I forget the new words! But I should be more organised studying them -- I am clipping your post into evernote and attaching the mp3 to it so I can come back years later and listen again.

The guy that read this poem did a really good job too.

kelly

Posted on: Illegal taxis

Good lesson for the uninitiated... in some things the 'informal' market is cheaper and sometimes better but this isn't one of them.

I regularly get accosted with these sorts in travel in China, and my funniest was in crossing the border from Hong Kong to Shenzhen in a day trip.  Normally I have a rough idea,  but prefer to take a metered taxi. But the taxi queue was huge and my baby was tired so I thought I'd listen to the guy instead of brushing him off. I knew that to get home it should be 30 kuai, but the first guy we met quoted 100 kuai (we were speaking English). I immediately switched to Chinese “不行阿！因该三十块钱！”I must have pulled it off as being a Chinese speaker, because he wouldn't even bargain, just turned around, walked off to accost the next foreigner!  So I ended up in the queue (and got my cellphone stolen sigh)

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest

I've read several books on the different restrictions for pregnant women and new mothers in China, but I can't remember the names now! One was written for midwives and doctors who were dealing a lot with Chinese patients. I read one study that traced many of the Chinese restrictions present in Singapore (they were looking at Singapore Chinese) back to village conditions and also Chinese theories of health.

I remember the not washing or only washing with boiled water post-birth was to do with contamination in water with bacteria, if this got on any of the tears or wounds from the birth it would cause an infection and in pre-antibiotic days the mother would die.

After birth, Chinese women often dont' wash their hair for (I think) one month? or perhaps the 100 days? Anyway, that was to do again with concerns of the mother catching cold or illness while she was still weak from the birth. Again, to do more with Chinese theories of the body and health.

In my research with Hui women in Qinghai, I found they have less restrictions during pregnancy than the average Han Chinese women. Interestingly, they told me this was because they were 'more feudal' 封建 feng1 jian4 (I think) and hence didn't look after their pregnant women as well as the Han. My older respondents said it was because it was good for the women to be exercising right up until the birth. They weren't suprised when I mentioned that this was increasingly supported by Western science, with research showing that labours are easier if women stay fit during their pregnancy. The younger Hui were very surprised however, and pleased to note that perhaps the Han were more 封建 than they!

Posted on: Farewell, Son 游子吟

Loved it, but would like to also see the 'lesson'  in pdf form etc with vocab and literal character meanings like the other lessons etc.

I feel like I need to learn so much of this, and changye as well, because people really do draw on it in their speech and just a few lines can represent a huge idea.