User Comments - tvan

Posted on: Regional Accents Part II

Auntie68 and Changye, thanks for the explanation.  The fact that Cantonese almost won out in the early ROC days makes perfect sense given the Guangzhou and Guangxi's status as the center of resistance against Manchu domination. 

Still, I imagine that any decision made in the old ROC faced possible reversal under the PRC.

Posted on: Regional Accents Part II

pulosm, thanks for the history.  It's been pointed out many times that standard Mandarin is more a center than an actual language in common use.  I never had heard that the 儿 sound came from Mongolians before. I did have a couple of questions though.

First, I have no pretentions regarding linguistic history, but I find it hard to believe that Beijing would ever have chosen Cantonese as the national language given both physical distance (from Beijing) and its rather distant relation with other dialects.  Are you referring to Mao or an earlier period?

Also, I have to take issue with your contention that speakers of other Chinese dialects/languages only vaguely try to communicate in Mandarin.  It seems that the younger generation is pretty much native level.  Or did you mean something more subtle?

Posted on: Preparing to give an Interview

Frank, checking my dictionary,销售 is translated as , "To sell goods".  However, when combined with other characters (e.g. 销售计划/銷售計劃）its meaning changes into "Marketing Plan".  It seems that the meaning morphs, depending upon how it's used.

This could be because it doesn't have a direct English equivalent or, possibly, because the distinction between Marketing (broad) and Sales (narrow) isn't always clearly understood outside the business sphere.

Now that I've said all that and arrived at the conclusion that I don't really know, perhaps someone wiser can chip in.

Posted on: Chinatomy: Chinese Gods and 'Shanghai Diaries'

If you're not going to the Olympics, visas seem to be a real pain this summer. A friend of my wife's is going to China this summer with her daughter's school, which is a Mandarin immersion high school here in the States.  The kids got through no problem, but the chaperones are having problems. 

Also, as an aside, my wife's friend is a Canadian citizen (from Hong Kong) and her daughter is a U.S citizen.  She said that the American visa ran $100 more than the Canadian one.  Seems random.

I also ran into some hassles getting a Visa for a vacation to visit in-laws (Guangxi) from the Chinese consulate.  However, their other consulate (the Taiwan one) was very accommodating and polite.  Nolo contendre.

Posted on: Mosquitos and Olympics

Here's a link to a video included with that article in the online version of the Wall Street Journal.

As an aside, if anyone can explain to me why I couldn't insert that video (other than comments regarding my native intelligence/lack therof), I'd be much obliged.

Posted on: Pretty Ugly

xiawu, it does.

Posted on: 室内装修

Man2Toe, thx for the Chinese. 

I like where Changye's taking this.  I mean, what guy is interested in interior design?  Now interior designers...  (Let me know if I'm being ethnocentric.)

Posted on: 室内装修

Dave, what kind of lesson content are you interested in?

Posted on: Fortunate Cookies

To follow up on a1pi2's comment, like all cuisines, Chinese cooking morphs to suit local ingredients and tastes.  I've had some really delicious "Cantonese" food in Ventiane that included enough thai chilis to knock the socks off 90% of Hong Kong'ers.  Likewise, a San Francisco restaraunt used to carry an apple pie with traditional (i.e. U.S.) filling and a Chinese pastry crust.

It may not be "authentic", but overseas Chinese cooking has its strengths as well as weaknesses... as this lesson points out.

Posted on: 对症下药

auntie68,  too much information!!