User Comments - mikeinewshot

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mikeinewshot

Posted on: Park Activities in China
January 20, 2014 at 5:31 PM

When I was a teenager at school (in England) we invented a game using a shuttlecock which is identical to tijianzi, so many years later I found that I was a celebrity among the Chinese as I was still reasonably proficient to their astonishment

Posted on: Park Activities in China
January 20, 2014 at 5:24 PM

tai chi 太极拳 is a fantastic activity!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaT02YykVck

Posted on: Where Is The 在 At?
January 14, 2014 at 4:50 PM

Actually Adam I hate that too! I haven't listened to this podcast so my comment is about other situations.

For example, I go to a Chinese school and attend an advanced Mandarin class for adults some Saturdays. The teacher speaks in Mandarin but insists on using English words from time to time as if they were Mandarin. For example she uses the word 'change' as 现在都Change 了。 And there are many other examples. I absolutely hate it, but I fear that this is the way she speaks to her Chinese friends in England, so it is not particularly done for the benefit of students.

Posted on: Restaurant Recommendation
January 13, 2014 at 9:33 AM

Well, the xing (ok) in this dialogue sounds like xiang for me too. On the basis of this dialogue alone I cannot agree with your other comments though :-)

Posted on: Differing Attitudes to Medicine
January 12, 2014 at 2:32 AM

I think you are right and it is mistranslated, but if you just look at the sentence in isolation it could mean either perhaps.

Posted on: Differing Attitudes to Medicine
January 12, 2014 at 2:29 AM

I hope you get someone to give you an informed answer. My guess is that it is ambiguous and you only know from the context.

Much of this language/culture seems to thrive(?) on ambiguity ...

Posted on: Differing Attitudes to Medicine
January 10, 2014 at 2:10 PM

Interesting lesson.

However I have come across the complete reverse of this situation.  If I have a cold for example, immediately Chinese friends ask me 你吃药了吗 and when I try to explain that you can't cure a cold with medicine they then try to press Chinese medicine on me! 

In fact as far as I recall any statement that you don't feel well results in all sorts of wierd and wonderful medicines being proposed by your Chinese friends!

I do tend to sympathise with the views expressed for attention deficit syndrome though. Vera, please don't regard America as all of the West!

According to Wikipedia: "Different countries have used different ways of diagnosing ADHD-PI. In the United Kingdom, diagnosis is based on quite a narrow set of symptoms, and about 0.5–1% of children are thought to have attention or hyperactivity problems. The United States used a much broader definition of the term ADHD. As a result, up to 10% of children in the U.S. were described as having ADHD."  I must say pushing this medicine on 10% of the child population seems rather extreme

Posted on: Spending Christmas in China
December 22, 2013 at 8:55 AM

Yes I just asked a Chinese friend who told me that 给 here means 为。

为她庆贺

Posted on: 100 Episodes Special
December 22, 2013 at 6:55 AM

Happy Christmas everyone. 

Posted on: 100 Episodes Special
December 22, 2013 at 6:55 AM

Happy Christmas everyone.