User Comments - xiaophil

xiaophil

Posted on: How to Start a Conversation with Chinese People

February 21, 2010 at 12:14 AM

This is a good sentence: 你放炮了没？

I think I will use it. Thanks.

Posted on: How to Start a Conversation with Chinese People

February 21, 2010 at 12:06 AM

What I think is hard for us Westerners to wrap our heads around is that Chinese are much more likely to ask someone if they have eaten rather than how they are doing.

It goes both ways. I have tried to start up conversations by saying something like, "The weather is nice today," and usually they just say "yes."

I think if one really wants to get a conversation going with an open sentence, perhaps 你最近忙吗？ pretty much equates to "how's it going?" And if they don't take the bait, perhaps something more direct would suffice, such as 你最近忙什么呢？

That's my 2 cents.

Posted on: How to Start a Conversation with Chinese People

February 20, 2010 at 8:41 AM

That's a bit interesting. I think the QW lesson says that 你好吗？ is not very common ;-)

Posted on: Western Zodiac

February 11, 2010 at 4:57 PM

Hey, if anyone is interested in reading astrology in Chinese, you can go here. I like that if you click on ther different zodiac signs, there are Greek mythological stories regarding them. (Look for ...座传说.)

Posted on: Female takeover of ChinesePod!

February 9, 2010 at 6:53 AM

I used to be in a band that had sort of a Devo meets Kraftwerk vibe to it. One of the songs I wrote was 'Ride the Square Wave'. It was a tribute to the fact most of my instruments were digital and that I rather enjoyed nerdy/square things.

Maybe I have just been away too long, but I would think that the 'cool' kids aren't saying things like, "Yo, what up nerd!" and it is actually a friendly thing to say. I would guess whether one sees being called a nerd as positive or negative depends mostly on what a person sees as being 'cool'.

Ah philosophizing on the concept of nerd...