User Comments - marchey
marchey
Posted on: Qipao Dresses and Marathons in China
October 12, 2008 at 3:02 AMWhat about traditional costumes for men. As a taijiquan player I have several of these silk pijama-like suit (do they have a proper name?) and I also own some traditional styled jackets.
I am in China for the moment, travelling and learning more taijiquan. A few days ago, on television in one of these historic series, I saw a guy wearing one of these long, traditional robe-overcoats. I thought this looked very stylish and I asked my friend if I could buy one here. She said I should really not think about buying such a thing because it is considered soooo....old fashioned.
Marc
Posted on: Numbers in Chinese
October 12, 2008 at 2:40 AMGood lesson. I hope you will put up some form of table with all the numbers + pinyin + characters
Marc
Posted on: Changes on ChinesePod
September 7, 2008 at 12:34 PMI have been a subscriber since the beginning of 2006. Just a few observations:
- My Chinese has improved immensely
- The lessons keep coming and the content is always to the point, always refreshingly interesting, always useful
- Technical progress of the website has been remarkable
- I have upgraded my subscribtion recently to a praxis pass and I think the ....pod.com websites offer incredible value for money.
I hope you can pull it off guys, that you can continue to grow your base of paying subscribers so that I can continue to use this website for many, many, years to come.
Marc
Posted on: Microsoft
July 28, 2008 at 8:26 AMThere is actually a video of Bill Gates last day at work here: http://www.break.com/index/bill-gates-last-day-of-work.html
(and probably on youtube too...)
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
June 20, 2008 at 9:22 AMhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/tobie_openshaw/sets/72157594581621891/
Posted on: Going to the Pharmacy
April 20, 2008 at 5:36 AMStrange thing about pharmacies in China. People will indeed go in to buy some medicine without seeing a doctor. I remember going in with a friend to buy something for a sore throath. We got advice from someone who looked 15 year old. Buying medicin or toothpaste...what's the difference? I suppose it will take many scandals and accidents before things get as tight and regulated as here in Europe. Another thing is that 西药does not necessarily come into the same form as what we are used to. Take aspirin. I needed some and could readily buy it. But to my surprise the little box contained 3 strips of 10 little coated pills each. Trying to decipher the note inside the box, I sort of concluded that each pill only contained 30 mg of acetylsalecilic acid, meaning that the entire box only contained the equivalent of less than 2 aspirin pills as they are sold here in Europe. Now, I got very confused, because it basically meant that I had to take the entire box in one go. So during the meal I started pressing out those little white pills, then swallowing all of them at once...boy! the looks that I got from the other people at the table... Marc
Posted on: Death by Ninja
September 12, 2007 at 11:59 AMI wonder if you will make an alternative ending to this story too. Anyway, I am already looking forward to the next CP soap opera :-) Marc in Belgium
Posted on: A Chinese-Style Contradiction
August 4, 2007 at 7:37 AM1. 牢 second tone, not 老 Perhaps durable is not the best of translations given the context here, a shield, strong, inpenetrable, firm, etc. would have been better. 2.尖, yes pointed, sharp. As it is about a spear, this is the meaning. In English, sharp is good enough as a translation, it also covers this case. In Dutch the guy would have said: '....met de scherpste punt...' or with the sharpest point, but I feel that in English this is not necessary. Marc in Belgium
Posted on: A Chinese-Style Contradiction
July 31, 2007 at 4:15 PMThe same story as a flash animation: http://rghqxx.sdedu.net/UploadFiles/2005421214434463.swf
Posted on: Salt and Pepper
October 22, 2008 at 3:36 AMI just came home from China. I was there for 4 weeks, learning taijiquan most of the time. In 4 weeks the only western food I had was an ice cream at Mc Donalds.
2 observations about the topic of this lesson:
- Speaking Chinese so that Chinese people understand you is not at all easy. Pronounciation and tones play a role, culture too, but what is often overlooked is 'expectations' of the listener. People just don't expect you to speak Chinese. They just expect you to mumble something in a foreign language, most probably this 'English' they have been struggling with at school. So, their ear is often not tuned to a slightly 'off' Chinese. I found that for short conversations, like in a shop, it is often better to play the game and just point at things and use some sort of sign language.
- Chinese food comes in various degrees of spicyness, but overall I found it to be very salty. I have had the experience of eating in several restaurants and in private homes. I have also helped my friend with cooking many times and she used a lot of salt, more than I would ever put into a dish. Then there are also the pickled vegetables that contain tons of salt. Only the steamed breads tasted quite saltless, so maybe they don't put it in the bread, but all the other dishes contain plenty.
Marc