User Comments - xiaophil

xiaophil

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 5, 2011 at 4:30 AM

I vote USAers. Keep everyone happy.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 5, 2011 at 3:33 AM

Got it. Hopefully you didn't take me too seriously either. I'm just having fun writing.

I met a Canadian once who thinks that Canadians are Americans, as in indicating a people who are from a nation that is in the Americas, and that it is unfair that people from the US get called Americans and no others do, as if they were the only nation in the Americas. I can understand this. Really. But it would be just too strange to say, "I'm a United States American." I my humble opinion, it is better to refer to people from North America as North Americans, and not just Americans.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 4, 2011 at 6:30 AM

Wow, you know someone is persistent if they can support the Lions. I support them, but it's so hard.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 4, 2011 at 6:23 AM

Yeah, sure. I would think it would be fun to learn about cricket from CPod. I know nothing about the sport.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 4, 2011 at 3:37 AM

I got a sports question. I did a search for what verb collocates with 橄榄球 gǎnlǎnqiú (American football/rugby). It looks like 打dǎ is the most frequent choice. But I noticed that a lot of people also say 玩橄榄球 wángǎnlǎnqiú. Is it normal to use 玩 with other sports? For example, can we say 玩篮球 wánlánqiú (play basketball) instead of 打篮球?It certainly makes for a smoother translation between English and Chinese.

Posted on: Which is better: China or the USA?

January 3, 2011 at 10:39 PM

Haha, another mitten state person. There is a Honk Kong Inn in GR. I think they sell whatever they think Americans will eat.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

January 3, 2011 at 10:28 PM

This comment strikes me as wrong in several ways. One, this is more likely to be for the Canadian customers as it is a far more popular sport there. But then again, I concede where I'm from in the cold north, the Red Wings are huge, which brings me to point two. Why would it be unlikely for a hockey fan to say at the bare minimum to a Chinese person, interested or not, "I am a fanatic about watching/playing hockey"? After all, this isn't an advanced lesson--they don't go into details. And besides, we would think it is silly for a Chinese person not to learn the word for "Buddha" because most English speakers aren't Buddhists. Three, perhaps it is just because Shanghai is different than where you are based, but why would rugby and handball be more relevant? I have never seen a Chinese person play these sports, watch these sports or talk about them with any interest. I haven't even walked past a TV and seen a game on that everyone was ignoring. They don't even bother to give rugby and American football separate words. I have never heard mention of handball.

But just to end on a point of agreement, I too think skateboarding, billiards, squash, golf, rollerblading, ballroom dancing and baseball would be topics some Chinese would be interested in talking about. I have come across all these sports in China. (There have been kids playing baseball behind my home recently, and I used to see some kids play at the university I last worked at, although they might be Japanese or Korean or whatnot.) I know there already are lessons on billiards/pool and ballroom dancing.