User Comments - wildyaks
wildyaks
Posted on: Weather Forecast
November 17, 2007 at 1:23 AMChangye, I like that use of "什么", too. Very useful pattern. I wish I could think of an expample phrase right now. maybe somebody else can help out?
Posted on: Eileen's Big News
November 17, 2007 at 1:20 AMsebire, well, the toilets... it's changing fast. When I first came to China, in many places, were not even partition walls. Now, in the fancier places (such as the east coast) private cubicles (with doors) are the norm, I hear. In our parts (southwest China, countryside) if there are doors, they are hardly ever locked, sometimes left open and tend to break real fast. When on long-distance bus trips out to the country side, and there is a loo stop, you will very likely have to squat in a place with barely a wall between the different "toilets" and you will have a whole lot of women waiting right in front of you to finish your business. They may even talk about the laowai travelling with them. And if you speak Chinese they will use this chance to ask you where you are from, how many children you have and some such small talk. No privacy whatsoever! It takes some getting used to.
Posted on: Nakedness and Thieves
November 17, 2007 at 1:20 AMsebire, well, the toilets... it's changing fast. When I first came to China, in many places, were not even partition walls. Now, in the fancier places (such as the east coast) private cubicles (with doors) are the norm, I hear. In our parts (southwest China, countryside) if there are doors, they are hardly ever locked, sometimes left open and tend to break real fast. When on long-distance bus trips out to the country side, and there is a loo stop, you will very likely have to squat in a place with barely a wall between the different "toilets" and you will have a whole lot of women waiting right in front of you to finish your business. They may even talk about the laowai travelling with them. And if you speak Chinese they will use this chance to ask you where you are from, how many children you have and some such small talk. No privacy whatsoever! It takes some getting used to.
Posted on: Eileen's Big News
November 16, 2007 at 3:20 PMOne of the great cultural divides between most Europeans (am not sure about the British - but then they put themselves into a different category anyway) and the rest of the "West" - We grow up having to shower in public showers as Lunetta describes after sports classes. It's normal and does not carry any of the connotations AuntySue is describing. Once I travelled farther than Europe I discovered that this was not the norm everywhere... Now, that I have come to China and to an area of China where those toilets with barely a one meter high partition between the different openings in the floor are still the norm, I am glad that I was brought up not to be too shy in these respects. Many an animated conversation happens in those places...
Posted on: Nakedness and Thieves
November 16, 2007 at 3:20 PMOne of the great cultural divides between most Europeans (am not sure about the British - but then they put themselves into a different category anyway) and the rest of the "West" - We grow up having to shower in public showers as Lunetta describes after sports classes. It's normal and does not carry any of the connotations AuntySue is describing. Once I travelled farther than Europe I discovered that this was not the norm everywhere... Now, that I have come to China and to an area of China where those toilets with barely a one meter high partition between the different openings in the floor are still the norm, I am glad that I was brought up not to be too shy in these respects. Many an animated conversation happens in those places...
Posted on: Weather Forecast
November 16, 2007 at 6:37 AMIt's funny what kind of memories from the very first Chinese lessons come to mind when reading certain phrases such as 晴天... （I am also able to recite the first few phrases of my English textbook from way back when I was in junior middle school） The phrase that came to mind went something like： 今天是晴天。玛丽和约汉打算出去玩儿。
Posted on: Wang Wei's Diary: The Importance of Brains
November 16, 2007 at 12:24 AMHey, thanks for the explanation of the "have your cake and eat it too". I always thought of it in sequence, of having a cake and then you eat it - and then you "have" it in a different sense... And if it's your cake - you have it - then of course it is your very right to eat it. I was probably distracted by our own saying "Me cha nid beides ha, dr Füfer und ds Weggli" - "You can't have both, the five pence (to buy the bread bun with) and the bread bun."
Posted on: An Anonymous Tip in Jizhou
November 14, 2007 at 1:47 PMYes, exactly. Thanks. Is that known outside the German speaking world?
Posted on: Wang Wei's Diary: The Importance of Brains
November 14, 2007 at 1:11 PMThis English saying "You cannot have the cake and eat it too" has always puzzled me. Why ever not?
Posted on: Eileen's Big News
November 17, 2007 at 2:02 AMI don't think any of the Cpod staff is up yet, since last night they had their grand birthday bash. 不醉不归... I would think. Hope you guys had fun. Sorry to hear that Eileen is leaving. Wish you the very best for your next stage in life. You are returning to the Philippines?