User Comments - tvan

Posted on: Public Speaking Tips

Here is an example of a speech by Deng Xiaoping to the United Nations.

I certainly don't recommend listening to too much of it, but I think there are some interesting points.  First, he certainly had a script; however, I thought he also did a good job of maintaining eye contact.  His delivery style certainly seemed on par with the 2004 U.S. presidential candidates, George Bush and John Kerry.

 Second, his Sichuan accent was so heavy that even native speakers sometimes had trouble understanding him.  This was common in pre-Mao times.  My wife remembers that whenever Chiang Kai Shek gave a speech, teachers stopped class and made everybody listen on the radio. Most people (including the Taiwanese whom he was nominally in charge of) didn't understand a word he said because of his heavy Zhejiang accent.

Posted on: Transliteration into Chinese and the Long Pinky Fingernail

henning, I checked with a couple of local experts, and it's definitely not Taiwanese or Cantonese, so your explanation makes sense; though I wonder if any Chinese family names have two characters.  Then again, maybe there's a special rule for ducks.

Posted on: Transliteration into Chinese and the Long Pinky Fingernail

The first two were good examples in that they used transliterations for the first word, then switched to translations for the ending.

I'm still working on 唐老=Donald.  Cantonese or Taiwanese, maybe?

Posted on: 农产品补贴

在美国我们有一句俗语，就是, "farmng the government."  不知道中文怎么样说的。

Posted on: Introducing a Friend

Well, when changye's calling for help, you know it's trouble in Newbie Land.  I probably have no business here, but I would probably say:

"你介绍你自己，好吧/Nǐ jìeshào nǐ zìjì, hǎoba/Can you introduce yourself?" However, that seems too conversational.

Alternately, using Casselin's construction above, 你能给我们介绍一下你自己吗/Nǐ néng gěi wǒmén jìeshào yīxìa nǐ zìjì ma/Can you take some time to introduce yourself to us?"  Would that be a more formal way to word it?

My better half says both sentences are fine, but I often find her to be too forgiving.

Posted on: Overseas Chinese

lase, everything you say is true; no disagreement.  I'm guessing you wouldn't disagree with me if I pointed out that China, and indeed, humankind in general have the same problems.  First, Chinese often discriminate against blacks.  Second, one of the reasons that Taiwan was unable to continue Chiang Kai-Shek's dynasty was that his  grandson was half Russian; when do you think Taiwan will elect an aboriginal Taiwanese as president?  Third, as regards China proper, I'll bet the U.S. elects a black president before China appoints a Mongolian, Tibetan, Urgyur or, worse yet, a Cantonese as president; despite the fact that all four have long been part of Chinese culture.

No criticism of China and Chinese in particular... just mote in other's eye, beam in your own and all that.

Posted on: Using 'Almost'

bababardwan,

I think most Chinese would understand your sentence.  However, the sentence structure comes from English so, like most of my own Chinese, it's a little awkward.   I'm not sure how you would use the structures in this particular Qing Wen to say exactly what you wanted to.  I would restate it as follows:

多数的中国人都懂我的中文，就有少数不懂。

However, I changed the meaning slightly to, "Most Chinese understand my Chinese, but a few don't."  Maybe somebody else has an idea using 差一点 or 差不多。

Posted on: Here she comes

I also have a stupid question about 笨 v.  呆.  I've often heard 笨 or 笨蛋, but not 呆.  Are they largely interchangeable, or are there significant differences in usage (e.g. degree of "insultiveness")?  

Posted on: Chinglish in Reverse and University Culture

mattwyndham, I can't recall the author, but there is a saying that goes something like, 师不必贤于弟子，弟子不必不如师 or, "the teacher/master is not necessarily superior to the student and the student is not necessarily inferior to the master.  There's also an old Confucius saying that goes 三人行必有我师 (??), or whenever I meet three people, one of them can be my teacher/master; or something along those lines.

I wonder if the Socratic idea didn't exist in China at first, and then evolve later.  

Posted on: Using 'Almost'

差不多所有有的 Cpoddies 都好，不过好像每一个月一支小人来了。真烦死！

Please let me know how my grammar is.