User Comments - pretzellogic

Posted on: Cabbie Culture and Driving in China

Actually, the only police show I tended to watch in the States was "Cops", which isn't really much of a drama. Even then, I didn't watch it all that much :-)

Posted on: Cabbie Culture and Driving in China

I was thinking that ultimately, it depends on how many interviews Cpod plans on giving us as to how many at a lower or higher level. if you're planning on doing 10 interviews, then maybe 3-4 can have plenty of translation, 2-3 can have a bit of translation, and 2-3 can have no translation. But if cpod is only planning on 2 more interviews, then maybe one with no translation and one with translation.

Posted on: Cabbie Culture and Driving in China

yeah, a grizzled big city Shanghai cop who walked the beat, then became a detective. That would be great. Especially if he could tell funny stories in Chinese of the dumbest criminals he's ever come across.

Posted on: Houyi and The Ten Suns

bought the farm, bit the dust, kicked the bucket, taking a dirt nap, sleeping with the fishes, walk the plank, expired.....

I forget who's language it is, but I think I heard this on a radio program. I think it's spanish, but the spanish equivalent to "you're not going to leave me holding the bag", is "i'm not going to pay for the duck". I would agree Chinese metaphors in their original form would be much cooler, especially if there's a duck that's not going to be paid for. :-)

Posted on: Houyi and The Ten Suns

I didn't know Chinese used the term "kicked the bucket".  Cool story.  This is a myth i've never heard of (not that I have a large catalog of Chinese myths under my belt).

Posted on: Cabbie Culture and Driving in China

Thanks for the reminders about everyone from other parts of China.

Posted on: Checking out at a Hotel

And to think I thought this only happened in China that the lights went off in hotels.... although I think the argument likely would be made that they were both trying to conserve electricity. But in that case, I know some hotels in Las Vegas that would benefit from such a policy.

Posted on: Checking out at a Hotel

I had an early morning flight, so I was trying to check out of the hotel around 5am.  I was surprised to find that the hotel turns off 90% of the lights in the lobby at that time, and it was really dark, especially since the sun still hadn't come up.  The girl behind the counter was asleep, but once I woke her up, I had no problems checking out. 

Posted on: Cabbie Culture and Driving in China

Cool interview.  Outstanding listening practice opportunity.  Unfortunate though that if Cpod only interviews people connected with the Cpod, that we'll likely to hear Shanghai-area/region accents, not accents from any other regions of China. 

I did hear that Dong Shifu had been driving a cab for three years, but what was he doing after he left school? I don't think that was asked, but it might be my bad Chinese.

I wonder if the next interview is going to be with one of the cleaning women in the Cpod building?

Posted on: Cabbie Culture and Driving in China

Jason, i've never tried just changing the subject when talking to a cab driver.  I'll have to try that.  I'm still in the "hooray, I think I understand 20% of what you said!" stage, and just savor that for a bit.