User Comments - tvan

Posted on: 世界经济危机

bostonphil, thx, that's exactly what I was looking for.  I think I agree with the author's conclusion, but his summary dismissal of the definition of "opportunity" seems a bit of a stretch. However, the rest of his critique of the statement, "The top part of the Chinese Ideogram for 'Crisis' is the symbol for 'Danger': The bottom symbol represents 'Opportunity'" seemed right on.

Posted on: Rome

luojieni, if I understand your question correctly, I would parse 条条道路通罗马 as 条条 （two consecutive measure words for roads meaning, in this case, "every") 道路 ("path/road") 通 ("passes through/connects to") 罗马.

Posted on: No Walking on the Grass

punter888, in this case the character 谁 can be pronounced both shéi and shúi. Both are considered "standard" Mandarin and the meaning stays the same.

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Chemistry

This is a picture circa early 1970's of a junior high chemistry class at an overseas Chinese school in Ventiane, Laos.

All students were required to take Chemistry for three years, most of which consisted of copying and memorizing terms written on the board.  After this, if you were still interested, you took advanced classes where you began experiments.

Posted on: 世界经济危机

现在好像不是经济危机，是股票危机。在美国 1981 的经济比现在的怀极了。优惠利率下了历史新高， 21.5%。而且我自己也被解雇。但是，那时候因为没有工作，我决定去大陆。除了墨西哥和家那大以外，是我第一次出国，第一次听到国语。山不转水转。

I do have a question concerning 危机.  On this side of the Pacific, you always hear that the Chinese word for crisis means "danger and opportunity."  However, a recent Economist article stated that the character 机 as used in 危机 means turning point, not opportunity.  It's a minor point, but does anyone have any idea on the truth of that assertion?

Posted on: 世界经济危机

我在某某公司上班，金融危机的音响很大。那家公司没问题，而且不贷款。但是我们的顾客都是建筑房子的，所以很多顾客没办法付款,临近破产的边缘。星期五我跟我公司的银行家一起去喝闷酒。下个星期就行了。

Posted on: Transliteration into Chinese and the Long Pinky Fingernail

I know some Chinese who prefer to skip the transliterations because they aren't sure who the candidate is. Some Taiwanese friends of mine in the Bay Area went as proud new citizens to their first election ever; they had to ask for English ballots because the Chinese was transliterated using Cantonese.

奥巴马/AòBāMǎ/Obama or "profound 'empty syllable' horse."

麥凱恩/MàiKǎiēn/McCain or "Wheat Victory of Kindness."

I asked a local Cantonese friend to pronounce both.  Obama is still pretty close in Cantonese; however, pity the Cantonese speaker trying to locate McCain.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hunan

lando, just realized that I didn't answer your question.   湖南菜/HúNánCài and 湘菜/XiāngCài are both fine; just two different ways of saying the same thing.

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hunan

lando, provinces/regions have shorter versions of their names.  For example, for Cantonese you can say 广东话/GuǎngDōngHùa or you can say 粤语/YùeYǔ。  Likewise, 广东菜/GuǎngDōngCài or 粤菜/YùeCài.

The only other ones I know are 吴/Wú/Shanghai (吴 is one of the three kingdoms), 湘/Xīang/Hunan (either named after the Xiang River/湘江/XiāngJiāng or vice versa), 闽/Mǐn/Fujian, and 赣/Gàn/Jiangxi.  For purposes of describing Fujianese, I often hear 闽南语/MǐnNánYǔ used to describe the southern version, but I've never heard the northern version described.  Possibly 闽语？ 

Anyway, my understanding is that you can get by fine without knowing any of these.  However, it's good general background and good to know for comprehension's sake and, if you can use it in conversation, an indication of fluency. 

I've never seen a comprehensive list of these terms.  Anybody know the one for Sichuan?

Posted on: Last and Next

mikeinewshot, that's what I thought at first.  However, Cantonese, especially Hong Kongers, do use traditional characters in idiosyncratic ways (e.g. they write 是 as 係).  In fact, there was a thread on that very subject, though I can't find it.