User Comments - tvan
tvan
Posted on: Xīnkǔ 辛苦
April 23, 2008 at 1:52 PMbigkev, If you're talking about the phrase I think you are, I used to hear louwai in San Francisco. It is a Cantonese coloquial term for foreigner and has the same meaning as WàiGúoRén/外國人/ 外国人. It's Mandarin equivalent is LǎoWài /老外.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part I
April 22, 2008 at 2:45 AMI once struck up a conversation with a guy in one of the quintessential remote villages in Sichuan near the Tibetan border (i.e. no road, phone, or electricity). I couldn't understand what he was saying, so I asked him to please speak Mandarin. He became quite agitated and, after a couple of minutes, I finally figured out that he was speaking Mandarin.
Posted on: Online Shopping
April 19, 2008 at 3:04 PM有一句话我不明白。那位购物的姑娘说，“哦，谢谢老板"。我本来以为老板就是我的監督員。所以我的问题是，除了你真真的老板以外，什么时候可以叫别人老板？如果这个姑娘跟女的讲话，也会叫她老板吗？
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
April 18, 2008 at 7:40 PMFor all the musings in the dialogue about the need for competition, I wonder what the reaction would be to a loss of dominance? Many Americans wanted more competitive International Basketball; in 2004 we got it and lost. Talk about traumatic! Of course, in classical U.S. fashion, we blamed it all on the referees.
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
April 18, 2008 at 2:15 PMChinese domination of ping pong was recently the subject of a front page Wall Street Journal article. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120787257649606529.html The gist of the article is that, if you're Chinese, over 21 years old, and immigrate to another country, you can't compete on that country's national team. (Olympics are still OK.)
Posted on: What is a Chengyu?
April 16, 2008 at 1:41 AMSparechange raises an interesting question. When I tell somebody my occupation, I say that I am a 会计师/會計師/KuàiJìShī. Now to me that sounds like "Accounting Master" when in fact it seems to be a common way to say "Accountant". So, if I can use a specific example, how would I praise another accountant using language that would sound arrogant if applied to myself?
Posted on: Ending your sentence with 嘛 （ma)
April 14, 2008 at 3:42 PMRescued by QW! I've heard and seen this particle many times in speech and writing (most recently in 经济特区), but always been too lazy to look it up. I suppose that's an argument for Henning's "vacuum cleaner" approach to reading of letting no good character go misunderstood. On Dave's post above, I think Connie just landed a Cpod "best actress" nomination with the whiny routine, though a fall release would have been better timed.
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Math class
April 2, 2008 at 1:55 PMOne of the terms in the supplemental vocabulary was 袋鼠/DàiShǔ meaning... kangaroo. I might be exposing my mathematical ignorance here, but is 袋鼠 a math term, Brit/Aussie slang for a class dunce, or an escapee from the 悉尼/XĪNí/Sydney lesson?
Posted on: Bike Riding Rules and Living Quarters
March 21, 2008 at 3:20 PMBambi Eyes and TīngBúDǒng/听不懂/聽不懂 works in China too? I guess that's one of those universal cultural experiences. I seem to remember hearing that you had to register your bicycle in China... like a car elsewhere. Is this true? Do you get a ticket for an expired registration?
Posted on: Regional Accents Part I
April 24, 2008 at 11:24 AMI think this lesson's most valuable point is that "Standard" Mandarin is more of a central reference point than an actual language. That it exists at all is, I think, an oddity of Chinese. English, at least, has no equivalent. (Remember the post asking CPod to stick to "International" English?)