User Comments - matt_c
matt_c
Posted on: Sign Here, Please
February 3, 2009 at 6:13 AM@chanelle77 Haha, that's so typical. I'd advise that you practice signing your landlord's name (fángdōng) as well as your Chinese name (if you indeed have chosen one - I myself have a Chinese nickname rather than a 姓名 xìngmíng - full name), that way in future they'll be gasping in awe at your mastery of written Chinese.
Posted on: Sign Here, Please
February 3, 2009 at 5:02 AMI used to find it amusing when I'd be told to 'sign here' and the counter person would vaguely point at the page and I'd have to try and guess where amongst the jumble of arcane symbols I was supposed to sign.
Things are different now of course as I've finally deciphered those arcane glyphs, but the counter people still vaguely point at the forms when asking me to sign.
Posted on: Talking with Numbers
February 1, 2009 at 8:10 AMI have had '444' in my various cell numbers ever since moving to China. When I used to sell phones in Brisbane back in 99 not a single Chinese customer would accept a phone number with a 4 in it. So when I bought my first number here it had a triple string of 4's at the end and me being my usual wicked self thought it'd be hilarious to court disaster and use that number. Ever since then I've always used phone numbers with triple 4's in them. That being said apparently it's not as cool any more to have multiple 8's and that 4 is the 'new' 8: because on the do rei mi fa scale the fourth in the series is fa (a bit of a stretch I think). According to my Chinese friends I no longer have a death wish. lol
Posted on: New Year's Cash
January 30, 2009 at 2:47 AMThe giving of 红包 this year was great fun with my in-laws and family. My nephew is still too small to kneel and bestow new year's greetings upon the givers of 红包 but we found other ways for him to ask for his goodies. Anyone else take part in Chinese New Year's morning silliness and festivities?
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 29, 2009 at 10:04 PM@zhenlijiang I also enjoyed the 麻将 scenes in Lust, Caution. Overall a very decent movie too.
@changye as always thanks for that etymological /historical background - something more I can add to my memory banks :)
Posted on: New Clothes
January 29, 2009 at 4:11 AMYeah, Jiaojie's Humph and Zhangfeng's 'I don't care' were great. Did you notice the bad Techno in the background? This is so common at streetside markets and less upmarket shopping centres (especially during sales) - really captured the feeling of seasonal shopping.
I finally got some new clothes before CNY - my wife finally bought me some decent black clothes! Woo Hoo!
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 29, 2009 at 4:03 AMHaving lost all my money to my wife in Mahjongg this CNY, I feel it has been a great success - at least losing to her means the money still stays in our wallets (hers and mine). It has been so much fun, and there weren't any arguments during the 'Pai Jiu' 牌酒 games either. I personally hate Paijiu as it really is a hardcore gambling game where the wins and losses happen qucik and big. Basically if a person loses too much and the person who wins the most exits the game and doesn't give the loser more chances to win back their money (in most cases they lose even more) then arguments can erupt. I feel that this game when played amongst family members should have a rule that at the end of the day everyone returns each other's money as I can't understand how one could take pleasure winning lots of money of their family members. Anyway, enough of my soapboxing. Time to go by some cherry bombs to take back to Shangers.
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 28, 2009 at 8:02 AM@Bababardwan We are playing Lingbi 灵璧 rules but without 放炮 (winning off a tile that someone else has dicarded), so one must pick their winning tile from the row. Although we do play with a 'wild tile' that is decided with the rolling of dice at the start - to add some spice into the game.
Posted on: A Day at the Races
February 4, 2009 at 2:31 AM@pretzellogic Try going through the lesson on the dialogue page, mousing over the characters for the popups, and clicking on the sound buttons on the right for a clear unimpeded reading of each sentence. I'm sure you'll gain a more solid grasp of the story after that. :D