User Comments - hughchina
hughchina
Posted on: Table for Three
December 05, 2008, 11:42 AMSun Jiabing did a great job of being very natural in the programme but it was all a bit fast for me to distinguish the individual words. At this elementary stage I think that is important.
The lesson brought back some nice memories for me. One was of laughingly declaring 'Kai wanxiao! Tai guile!' to staff at Shanghai Pudong airport when given a price for something that could be bought in any store in China for about one third the price, even in a no bargaining department store. The supervisor was definitely trying not to laugh with me.
The other memory is of waiting an hour one New Year for a table that had been booked in advance. My friends talked animatedly with the staff until our 'pre-booked' table was finally given to us. I have seen crowds of people waiting for a table at restaurants in Wuhan at Christmas, Western New Year and Chinese New Year. Not quite as bad as Railway station crowds on a public holiday but impressive to an Aussie like me.
Posted on: To bag or not to bag?
December 04, 2008, 01:25 PMIt's amazing what you can get away with so long as you try. I picked up the incorrect phrase 'sulian bao' and most shopkeepers in the area where I lived looked a bit puzzled for a moment then handed me a plastic bag. I wonder how many other linguistic sins I committed but was forgiven without even having to confess!
Where I live in Australia, Brisbane, I am constantly given plastic bags when shopping and don't know where to take them for disposal. We have recycle bins as well as general rubbish bins but the recycling plants don't allow plastic bags. I always carry a shoulder bag and if I'm not buying much I use it. Some supermarkets have strong cloth bags for sale and other shops boast biodegradable plastic bags. It is not a strong movement but at least it's a start.
When I have a car instead of a motor scooter I'll always take cloth bags and repay for the exhaust fumes by using them.
Posted on: Do you have a cold?
November 27, 2008, 04:26 AMThanks to everyone who took the trouble to put their Chinese comments in Pinyin as well as Hanyu. I'm a newbie with some basic Chinese but I can't even get the tones right in Pinyin, let alone read characters. I hope you advanced learners who are good enough to slum it with we beginners will help us out with the Pinyin too. One day we will move on to higher levels, when we have learned to read. Until then, kan bu dong.
Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex
November 24, 2008, 03:15 PMIn my four years in China I talked with a lot of people and held discussions as part of my teaching method and many facts came out. I heard of or knew lots of couples who were living together before marriage. It was so common I began to assume it was the norm for engaged couples and common for others. I gathered that the villages are more conservative.
Kissing in public was actually illegal during the Mao era and the laws were repealed not too many years ago. However, in a university quadrangle in broad daylight, I have seen a couple passionately kissing and embracing and whose hands were where even Americans don't put them in public.
I taught at a High School where to be caught kissing, cuddling or hugging a member of the opposite sex meant instant expulsion, for the students :)
I saw several articles in The China Daily on the subject of the permissibility of relationships for university students incuding one where a student faced expulsion because he enrolled while already married.
It is common for Chinese business people to include a prostitute as part of a business meeting; beginning with dinner, then a trip to a bath house and finishing with 'special' massage. I was offered the same as an enticement to take part in English Corners. I know of two foreigners who accepted. I had a midnight knock on the door of my hotel room on the very first night I was in China!
In contrast to this many Chinese women and perhaps men will not even kiss before marriage.
Very few Chinese people are told anything about sex by their parents. I totally agree with the video on that.
I concluded that China is slowly moving away from the sexual repression of the Maoist era where sex other than for procreation was frowned upon. See Amber's other video on sex to hear a longer historical perspective. The cities and the young are leading the movement towards Western permissiveness, as is usually the case.
Some people choose to respect and practice what their elders practiced, rejecting sex before marriage, and of course they have every right to make that choice and as with all choices this should be respected. I'm thinking about the American with the girlfriend who doesn't want to. He has to respect that.
Whether a relationship continues or not has little to do with sex or love. Three people confided in me (an ex-counsellor) that their or their partner's parents had forbidden their relationship and they had no choice but obey. The reasons were always economic. It is a fact that seems very alien to me that Chinese people's marriages are still dictated strongly by economic factors. This applies from both the male and female side. I am told by the young that this is changing but those people often contradicted their opinion when stating their 'shopping list' for an ideal partner.
I hope this adds to the discussion helpfully.
Posted on: Catch the Train
November 23, 2008, 11:10 AMrjberki, how about 'laojia'? I picked that one up and used it as a substitute for 'excuse me' when I had to get off a bus before the doors closed, for example. Was I wrong? It seemed to work.
Maybe it means 'Make way for the old man' or something like that. Perhaps it wouldn't work for you:(
Oh, and cattle prods don't work for all Chinese, the ones I worked with while teaching English at a factory, for example. The static discharge from the door handles after walking on the super long wearing nylon carpets conferred immunity after a while. It's nice to be back in Australia where we don't have to dodge so many people and we don't let the cattle onto the carpets to become immune.
Posted on: Catch the Train
November 21, 2008, 11:04 AMI have been using the free version of Chinesepod for a couple of years now and have finally been able to repay by buying in. Listening to Ken and Jenny has always been an enjoyable experience with the banter and quips between them adding to the learning experience. It's possible to pick at anything if you want to. Just now I just want to pick at mmysdf but I'll hold back. His comments are subjective and of no consequence. I have no hesitation in recommending this learning experience as profitable and enjoyable at the same time. Next time I'm rushing for a subway train I will remember the vocabulary and phrases and not the negative comments about presenters I think are great.
Posted on: Thank You Note
November 12, 2009, 03:39 AMI would love to know what you are all talking about but obviously some of you are actually at advanced level. If you would be considerate to newbies and ellies and use both Pinyin and Hanyu I and many others would gain something from your knowledge. My thanks to all of you who do this already.