User Comments - matt_c
matt_c
Posted on: Baby Photos
June 27, 2009 at 2:32 PM@bababardwan It's not a baby 邓小平 is it?
(edit 5 mins later)
oh crap, I just worked out when this photo would have to have been taken between 1904 and 1910. Lets say it was taken in 1906 it would look something like this:
Not to mention the haircut is from a more recent era.
Nup. I'm stumped.
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 21, 2009 at 2:51 PM@Paulinurus You make a valid point :-) We try to do that in the Podcasts, but perhaps we could try to consider things from a true 'rookie' cultural perspective too.
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 21, 2009 at 3:13 AMFor the people like me who are not living in China now, the manner the sentences are translated is important for not only learning Chinese but also to appreciate the culture... ...this sentence is gutter language used by pimps, whores, and gangsters. Surely the culture in Dongbei has been slighted by such gutter language translation.
@paulinurus Drawing such conclusions as those above doesn't seem so open minded to me - it's as if there are preconceptions at play here.
If you were to walk in to the average hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Dongbei - which you would do if you really wanted to have an authentic culture/food experience, the boss/wait staff would probably ask you "吃啥呢?" This would translate as "Waddya wanna eat?". It is authentic, it is perfectly acceptable in s small restaurant where the focus is on eating and drinking, not well-spoken service. Is this making them look bad? No, it's just representing, in a non-biased fashion, reality.
Of course if you were to go to a more upmarket restaurant the staff would be trained to be much more polite - but remember our Hungry Traveler is out there trying to have the most grass-roots, authentic experiencer possible.
As for the HK "What would you like to order Sir" - fair enough, but that is HK and there is a vast difference between the former British Colony and Mainland China - at the grass roots level. I'm sure if a local went into a local Wonton shack in HK they order would be taken with little care for pleasantries, expediency is the key. If a Westerner were to walk in, there would be Sirs a plenty.
Please trust that we are doing our best to provide you with a window into the culture. Try keep an open mind culturally. Discussing these issues is great, but I would also suggest that if you want to get serious about these issues - please do some reading on translation theory, issues, and ethics in order to gain a greater understanding on the variables at play here.
In future please post translation related comments on Pete's translation Post - remember that not everyone is as concerned about these issues as we (you, me, Pete and others) seem to be.
Posted on: June Will Be CPod's Greatest Month Yet!
June 20, 2009 at 3:28 PM@Mystic I'll pass your enquiry on to Gulam, I'd have thought you could use Itunes to convert the cd tracks to MP3. The itunes help function should be able to help with this if you aren't sure how. PM me if you continue to have issues. Good luck :)
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 19, 2009 at 1:34 AM@xuchen where are you living?
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 19, 2009 at 1:33 AMHey if y'all are buying I'll gladly do the sourcing :D
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 18, 2009 at 8:28 AMa1pi2 I don't mean to sound arrogant, but the best Baijiu isn't going to come as samplers. Please note that there is also a lot of fake stuff out there too. Funnily enough, the best stuff anyone is likely to drink is bottled in 'whitelabel' bottles and drunk at small government dinners. Let me know when you are in town next and we'll try to find some Baijiu and properly paired food to see if we can't change your mind. :-)
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Dongbei
June 18, 2009 at 3:52 AMbáijiǔ 白酒 is great if you can drink the top quality stuff (albeit much more expensive). A 10yr Maotai (10年茅台）would do the trick - the key is not drinking ridiculous amounts.
Posted on: 沙漠寻踪三
June 17, 2009 at 4:11 PMThis is my 麒麟 . It's a naturally formed 灵璧石 (the most famous type of all Chinese 奇石). It's my baby.
Posted on: Summer at ChinesePod
June 28, 2009 at 2:13 PMHi Poddies!
With regards to the levels on fixed days issue, I understand arguments both for and against. We conducted a sizeable survey, the results showed a majority preference for levels/days to be random.
As for the allocation of resources, despite maintaining as much general transparency as possible, it really is an internal business matter. Suffice to say, we are striving to provide you with the best product possible.
However, in the spirit of transparency, N&F takes about 10 mins planning, 10 mins to record, 20 mins to edit and upload, and the length of the podcast for my QC check, give or take a few minutes. Hardly a dent in our resources, and as Mattiask pointed out, it's a (fun) source of CPod information.
That being said I appreciate you sharing your views and they have been noted. :-)
Regards,
Matt.