User Comments - xiaophil

Posted on: How to Say "and" in Chinese

Another fine lesson.  Really appreciate it.

I just thought I would add, although 而且 technically means 'furthermore', in many of the example sentences I have seen it acts like the conjunction 'and'.

For example:

他们常打麻将，而且输赢很大。

(They were always playing mahjong, and the winnings and losses were very high.)

In the examples given in this qingwen, it doesn't appear that you used 'and' as a conjunction between independent clauses.  I'm wondering, besides 而且, can I use 还有 to combine sentences?  What is the most common way?

Thanks

Posted on: Chinese Idol

Since 老师 literally means 'old master', I can see why there is flexibility.

Posted on: Chinese Idol

xuchen

哈哈！我刚才看了你的链接，太可笑！

Posted on: Chinese Idol

在我看来，对一个人说“你很特别”听起来有点patronizing。有可能这是中文与英文不同的看法。

Posted on: 淘金热

我是个美国人，尽管我爱上我的国家，但是我还是觉得当年的中国人的生活在美国太可怕（可怜是美国的历史充满了各种各样的歧视），因此我的确支持加拉佛尼亚的道歉（Isn't it obviosly the right thing to do?）。美国的华人的历史真有意思，所以如果CPod在产生这样的课程的话，我都很满意。

Posted on: China Street Smart with John Chan

Now learning Chinese for business situations.  That reminds me of something.  I had a Chinese student who works for a foreign company.  One of the foreigners was always around.  The Chinese staff would complain about the company around him in Chinese thinking that he couldn't speak or understand Mandarin well.  Oops.  He could speak Mandarin very well, and he was taking notes.  Let's just say, he didn't have many friends with the Chinese staff after they found out about his abilities.  I can't decide if what he was doing was right or not. 

Jenny

Thanks for your insight.  It is nice to get a native's perspective.  Sorry to draw so much attention to one small aspect of your new show.  I guess the problem with me is that I am not in China to do business or run businesses, so the other parts I don't have much to say about.

Posted on: China Street Smart with John Chan

yingshilangbu

Like I said, there is more to the picture.  I'm not willing to give them the benifit of the doubt.  But yes, your points are reasonable.

RJ

I'll have to mull over what you said.  But my initial reaction is, yes, it can spread misconceptions, but I also think that not discussing something also in a way condones it in many people's minds.  Furthermore, in this case, it relates to the question, "Where do we draw the line?" which I think is a very  worthwhile question.  And as to "why worry about why care what other people do?"  These guys being on top set the tone and standard for my wife's company, and believe me, the effect has been negative. 

I'm glad to hear that you feel it isn't predominant, though.  I really don't know many foreigners that work that high up.  I always respect your straight shooting style, so I'll think about it.

Posted on: China Street Smart with John Chan

Hi Matt

About number one.  Yup, I agree, but... 'is' and 'should' are two different things.  It is without a doubt that some people will dislike certain other people, no matter how honest and upright those certain people are, due to association.  In this case, I resent both people who started this and the people who are now unfairly judging.  That said, please understand this isn't a burning issue with me.  I don't lose sleep and walk around with rage and paranoia about it.  Still, it is displeasing.

I had to pause and think about number 2.  Actually, I can't say your reasoning is wrong (although I do find something troubling that I haven't quite pinpointed).  But I guess I would have to say you would have to know the entire background.  If it was just the prostitute issue, maybe I would say, yeah, you are right.  But these guys I'm talking about leave a trail of bad behavior.  I guess for time consideration, I'll have to leave it at that.

As for three, yep again.  Actually, I am equally offended by this behavior by anyone from anywhere.  But the topic is about foreigners doing business in China, so I thought I would forgo criticizing Chinese people.  At any rate, being universal doesn't really make it less awful, does it?

Posted on: China Street Smart with John Chan

Hi Jenny

Thanks for the great interview with John Chan.  (And thank you too, John.)

I felt John sort of avoided dealing with the question, "Where do you draw the line?"  I wish he would have confronted ethics problems here, but I understand that maybe that is a bit much for a short interview. 

Anyway, it got me thinking about my (Chinese) wife's work.  She works for a foreign company.  She says that many of the workers say that the foreign bosses were pretty upright right after arriving in China, but over time they slowly got corrupted.  Just from a personal conduct standpoint, one married a bar girl (aka prostitute), and another has a mistress.  This is quite public knowledge, except for the wife and family in his homeland I presume.  Who knows if they are corrupted financially wise, but given how Chinese mid-level managers there seem to think bribes are a part of their salary, I guess those foreigners might be padding their pockets as well. 

Because of the riciculous behavior of these people, my wife says many of the workers openly say, "I hate foreigners."  To be honest, it pisses me off too.  I hate being lumped in with these immoral bastards. 

So I'm like xuchen, I would like to hear John's views on ethics.  Even if John doesn't stop in to comment, I would be interested in other people's experiences.

PS: Street smarts would be 街头智慧, right?

Posted on: Hotels, Hostels and Restaurants

Hi lujiaojie

Thanks for the answers.  Rich has one question that hasn't been answered.  He wants to know if words containing 馆 (e.g. 旅馆，报馆 and so on) are more commonly used in the North than the South.