User Comments - mclarty
mclarty
Posted on: Taking Two Taxis
April 23, 2013 at 3:35 PMSure. But I'm sorry you found what I said confusing. Slang terms often stay popular after losing their original sense -- especially simple ones that sound good, like 打的.
Posted on: Taking Two Taxis
April 23, 2013 at 1:30 PMYes, I'm sure 打的 is popular mostly as short and sweet.
Posted on: Taking Two Taxis
April 23, 2013 at 12:59 PMI always took that as the 打 of 打电话, as in the standard English phrase "call a cab."
Posted on: Chinese Street Food (Part I)
March 31, 2013 at 2:59 PMYes, but mutton is rare and expensive in the US because there is nearly no market for it.
Posted on: Chinese Street Food (Part I)
March 31, 2013 at 1:37 PMOthers here will know more, but I can say that in Beijing, Taiyuan, and Xi'an I've seen (and bought) lots and lots of 羊肉 (yáng ròu) as soup, in noodles, stir fried with peaches, and as skewers, but never 羊羔肉 (yáng gāo ròu).
I mean not just that it was billed as 羊肉 (yáng ròu) but it had the texture and flavor which has pretty much disappeared in the US in favor of lamb.
I suppose 羊羔肉 (yáng gāo ròu) must exist as a speciality but it is not common.
Posted on: Making Soup
January 23, 2013 at 1:49 PMI too am curious what people who know this would say. But I'd guess (after many breakfasts in China) there is no standard usage for this, unless it is standard among workers in international hotels. Would people be likely to call our breakfast cereal "粥", zhou1, usually translated to English as congee?
The web uses ""吃粥" about half as often as ""喝粥".
Posted on: Making Soup
January 21, 2013 at 2:46 PMA terrific Chinese take out by my university includes "soup or soda" with many orders. I never thought much about that. Plenty of restaurants offer soup or a salad. It is just a cholice. But one day the counter man said to a Chinese customer "你喝什么？" I realized soup and soda are not different things! They are both drinks.
Posted on: American Chinese Food
November 30, 2012 at 4:34 PMI have been in high-volume low price restaurants in China aimed at Chinese tourists where they offer more things than Panda Express but basically the same food.
Here in the west, for my money, Panda Express is often the best food in an airport, always the best for the money.
Posted on: Internet Slang (Part One)
September 3, 2012 at 4:41 PMNo, I am not talking about what a network administrator would use. I am talking about what an ordinary user would want to know when they turn on the computer in their hotel room and find the display in Chinese. Or when working on a computer with Chinese colleagues who want the display in Chinese.
What is the Chinese character expression for "control panel", and then for "clock, language, region" so that you could change the display to English? Working in Chinese, how would you know whether box that just came up says "the Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site" or is a virus warning? What is the Chinese for "font size"?
I have solved each of these problems, in fact, on a catch as catch can basis, and I only froze up the hotel computer once. Maybe twice. I'd like to be better at it.
Posted on: Is There a Service Charge?
May 21, 2017 at 4:01 PMService charges and tips are not the same in the US either. A service charge is not the customer's option, it is required, and so service charges are subject to sales tax. Tips are optional and not subject to sales tax. Also traditionally the tip you give goes directly to your server and a service charge goes to the restaurant--but in reality tips do not always go directly to the server.