User Comments - timlb

Posted on: First Snow of the Winter

I think it's interesting that Dilu wants to know why John is interested in the difference between "Is it raining now" and "Did it rain". Is this an example of the cultural difference I've read about concerning specificity in language and speech patterns? As a native English speaker from the US, it would never occur to me that the difference between those two statements would be anything less than crucial to understand when talking with someone.

Posted on: First Snow of the Winter

Hi, I just want to say that I completely disagree with this assessment of John; I've also been a subscriber for three years (maybe more) and I think judycarruth is misreading John's playfulness. As a matter of fact, if you listen carefully to Jenny's comments, she rarely passes up an opportunity to point out where Chinese "makes more sense" than English with a certain phrase or word. I think it's just the give and take and I hear great respect in John's approach to the Chinese culture and people.

Judycarruth, I respect your opinion, but didn't want it to lie here unchallenged. I think you're completely wrong.

Posted on: The Many Sounds of Chinese

Have to be careful about learning to use "en" -- a Chinese friend gets annoyed with me now when I use it but I didn't really understand everything she said; to her it doesn't just mean "I'm listening" but also "I understand what you're saying."

These cultural things are fun; my friend heard me make a dismissive sound recently when I heard something I thought was stupid: a quick shake of the head and a kind of "Ph!" sort of sound (with a hard P plosive). She laughed and does it now all the time; she thinks it's great fun!

Also, thanks for the explanation of the "ai" descending sound. My friend says that when she answers my phone call; I've sometimes said it back to her after she says it, I guess that's not correct usage though.

Posted on: The Frog Prince in the Well

I think the earliest versions (Grimm's) also had the transformation the result of being thrown against the ground, or against a wall. Apparently, a 19th century English translator decided that this method of transformation would be too violent for his readers, and replaced it with a kiss, and that then became the standard version in the West.

I thought it interesting that in the Chinese story of the Frog and the Well, it wasn't enough to just live a life of small vision -- just as bad would be that people would laugh at you! (there's 中国特色）！

More frogs in fairy tales: http://allaboutfrogs.org/stories/fables.html

Posted on: Reinstalling Windows

John, thanks for the explanation of how to remember that 过 is placed after the second verb (我去这个饭店吃过饭）。I've struggled with this and have constantly failed to get it right. English and Chinese have very different ways of placing a memory into a current conversation, I guess; your suggestion to think of the whole experience as one item (bracketing it), and putting the 过 after it makes sense to me -- now let's see if I can put it into practice...

Posted on: Ordering Food for the Group

I don't know if today's Chinese youth know who he is; in the late 80s he was the first big Chinese rock star. 一无所有 was his first big hit, at the time considered both the first Chinese rock hit and also a bit hit in the then-popular 西北风style. He really can be said to have started Chinese rock music.

Posted on: Revisiting Before and After

Liliana's reference to MCHammer -- priceless!

Posted on: Discussing a Thesis Topic with an Advisor

xiaoxue101， 恭喜恭喜！

Posted on: Discussing a Thesis Topic with an Advisor

You're right that in the US post doc work doesn't usually require a paper, but its reason for existing at all is to provide funds and time for research, so it's assumed that publishing will be an eventual result.

US graduate schools, for Masters students, often allow them to choose thesis, report (a shorter thesis, more like a term paper), or extra coursework. Some doctoral degrees don't require a dissertation, but the Ph.D. does, as it is specifically a research degree. In addition to being larger than a thesis, it usually is required to be considered a unique contribution to the knowledge in a particular field (this also separates it from a Masters thesis, which can be such a contribution but often isn't).

My dissertation (1992) was on Chinese music. :-)

I think that in Canada the thesis is for the Ph.D. (that is, the terms are flipped vis-a-vis the US terms)

Posted on: 中国的戏剧

wonderful lesson as always; I have an appreciation for many types of 戏剧。I did research in Beijing in the 1980s on the modernization of music since Liberation; it's interesting that the final lines of the dialogue have to do with suggesting a modernizing of the form. That's been tried over and over since 1950 to no success so far. The youth don't like it no matter what the content because it sounds so different from pop music, and the older generation doesn't want it changed.

For me, I love the melodies of Yueju more than Jingju, but the artistry involved in Jingju (you HAVE to see it live and close to the stage so you can see the eyes) is amazing. I have several friends who were performers in the best Beijing Jingju troupe in the 80s, and saw many performances in 87 and 89 when you could still see good performances fairly frequently.

But everything is temporary, isn't it?