User Comments - xiaophil

Posted on: Festivals, Holidays, Vacations, and Leave

I'll call any day holy if it will get me the day off, hehe.

Posted on: Festivals, Holidays, Vacations, and Leave

We are drifting into an American/British English difference, but still, surely you would label Christmas a holiday and not a festival, right?

Posted on: Festivals, Holidays, Vacations, and Leave

I can't listen to the podcast now, so hopefully what I'm about to say hasn't been explained, but I have always wondered why the 节 in holidays such as 春节 is translated as festival? Would n't (Chinese) Spring Holiday make much more sense?  To me a festival is a large public gathering to enjoy some sort of entertainment, whereas a holiday is mostly for family and possibly friends to enjoy in private.

Posted on: Help at the ATM

Okay, we can see it is legit in a dictionary sense. Thanks John and everyone else. But I wonder if any normal native English speakers use 'advice'. The Americans seem to be unfamiliar with it. Our Brit friend Trevorb seems only very vaguely familiar with it. Does any English speaking country actually use this? It's strange that international English can sometimes not conform to any form of native English.

Oh yeah, Chinese....

Posted on: Help at the ATM

I have a question that is about English in China.  Most ATM's I use in Shanghai say to me when I am all done, "Do you want to print advice?"  In this case, 'advice' equals 'receipt.'  Is this bad English, or do certain parts of the English world use this wording?  I have wondered this for quite some time.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Thanks Connie!

By the way, I thanked Connie several hours ago, but now my comment is missing. I definitely saw it here earlier. Did somebody delete it? Did I make a mistake that I wasn't aware of?

Posted on: Chinese Fruits

I'm going to go on a limb here and say that 娘 here would refer to mother. The reason I say this is because while I don't doubt that the 老板娘 would love a little flattery, being called young lady would lower her status. After all, 小姐 and 小妹 roughly mean young lady, so 娘 would just put her in the middle of that pack. Another thing is that while my pop-up dictionary does list 'young lady' for a definition for 娘, nciku doesn't. I think 娘 mean young lady when one adds 姑 to it, as in 姑娘. Another thing is 'mother' just seems to fit into the Chinese psyche better. They do love calling middle-aged women 'Aunt' 阿姨 regardless of family relationship or not. Also, I imagine that long ago, and to a certain extent today, Chinese restaurants were staffed by family (hence 一"家"饭店), so I bet that in many cases, the boss's wife really was/is the mother. I think it is best to treat 老板娘 as two titles fused together, as in 'boss mother,' and not 'boss's mother.'

Speaking of Freud, I was once asked in class what to call someone who is excessively detailed and organized. I told them 'anal.' They looked in their dictionary, and apparently it doesn't list this definition, if you know what I mean. I spent the next 5 minutes trying to convince them that I am not a filthy person, and yes, it really is very natural to use this word this way. I doubt they believed me.

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Bump

Posted on: Separable Verbs

Thank you for your insight and advice!

Posted on: Chinese Fruits

Baba, LOL!

I just got the answer the easy way. I asked my wife. Ta da: 老板娘.