User Comments - djinni
djinni
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hong Kong
June 13, 2008 at 10:50 AM虾饺 (xia1jiao3) is pronounce hargow in cantonese. that is the issue with this lesson, you can learn the words in mandarin, but since 点心（dian4xin1/dim sum) is truly from hong kong and cantonese, most places you get it, they waitstaff will recognize cantonese much better than mandarin.
another tidbit, most cantonese refer to dim sum as "drinking tea" 喝茶 （he1cha2）yum cha.
maybe that last sentence:中国人不但敢吃，还很会吃。translates roughly as, "chinese people not only dare to eat (these things), they really enjoy eating (them)."
Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Geology
May 18, 2008 at 11:23 PMthe beginning of the podcasts has chipmunks
Posted on: Weather, Man
May 5, 2008 at 10:58 AM对的。第一提应该写“李先生在干什么？“ 而且这种练习有其他毛病。答案的顺序和问题的顺序都一样。
Posted on: Country Standings
April 17, 2008 at 9:56 AM丢脸 diu1lian3 to lose face. yes, it's not common, but it is an idea the west has borrowed from the east. another way to say it would be "to be shamed or embarrassed" by the loss.
Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Day
April 7, 2008 at 10:47 PMa little more about the incense and food and other offerings. in the traditional chinese mythology, the dead were in an afterlife place. the purpose of the burnt offerings is so the dead can have things to ease their situation in the afterlife. i remember seeing some tv program where in singapore or hong kong, families did elaborate funeral rites of burning paper cars and mansions as offerings to the recently deceased so they would have those things in the afterlife. so these aren't the same as the western idea of burning offerings to a god. growing up in los angeles, my grandmother would set out an offering and we would also pray to my mother (who died when i was very young). we would pray for everyday things like asking her to look after my brother and i, us getting good grades etc. you can choose to have a knee-jerk western christian reaction and say this was worshipping my mother. or you can open your mind a little and see this as the same as people in mexico praying to the virgin or other saints to intervene on the behalf of god, since he's too busy and impersonal to bother with the little people in their everyday lives.
Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Day
April 5, 2008 at 9:28 AMso what about those green rice balls? how do they relate to 清明? i can guess they're green because 青 qing1 the root for 清 means green / blue. then a question about 老家. my family is cantonese / hakka, from near 广州 guang2zhou1. but i was born in 越南 yue4nan2 (vietnam) and then i grew up in the 'states. when i talked to my shanghainese tutor about 老家, he said it would be 西贡 xi1gong1 (saigon) where i was born. 广州 would be my 祖籍 zu3ji2 ancestral home.
Posted on: Upset
March 23, 2008 at 6:55 AMhi ken, fyi, the english onomotopoeia for crying is "boohoo" or "wah wah". so i guess you could translate 呜呜 wuwu as boohoo or wah wah.
Posted on: She's Easy
August 17, 2007 at 6:31 AM拎 ling1 to carry (手偏旁和令偏旁) doesn't seem to be a very common character. doesn't show up for me either.
Posted on: Instant Noodles
June 22, 2008 at 6:08 AMi'm hearing the chipmunks on the radio quality mp3