User Comments - Purrfecdizzo

Posted on: Hostel Curfew

what did you think you missed?

Posted on: Hostel Curfew

Good grief.... That was a long post... I hope that I am not violating the community guidelines by writing that. Truly, my motive was good in writing it, and although there are no language points discussed in my post, I do stay on the topic of the lesson. If this type of post is not welcomed, please inbox me (and I mean the staff members inbox me) and let ne know and I won't do something like this again.

Posted on: Hostel Curfew

Yeah, I am guilty of having to knock on the door to get back in the hostel. Some hostels do post a curfew, but I have never been to one in China that truly enforced it (meaning, no one truly cannot enter or exit after that time). Some are better about this than others. Those hostels that are known as the party hostels tend to be better about this, I.E. some of the Hostels in Xian or Dali (in yunnan). If the hostel tends to serve mostly Chinese patrons, they are sometimes not as flexible. Part of selecting an appropriate hostel depends a little on luck, and a little on what you need. Most of the patrons I have met (like 99%) are decent, but if you stay in a hostel in China, you really need to protect your valuables. Put your stinky dirty laundry in your dorm locker, and store the valuable stuff at the front desk. Sometimes, locals will book rooms in a hostel to steal things. This is particularly true in cities.

As far as the locals, for the most part, they are friendly, and really don't want anything. Some may want to practice their English, but other than that, they probably wont want too much. There is, of course, the minority. The group of douches that give the whole group a bad image. There are three things that I have observed; In a few cities I have visited, I have had a few small groups of Chinese men approach me, and start messing with me. The solution that seems to work is to simply stop talking, and move toward a public area. They get bored and leave. The second is with Chinese women. I was in one city, and I was sitting at a table alone and a Chinese woman sat down across from me. I continued to work, and I was minding my own business. She started to cry, and I continued to mind my business. Then she interrupted me and told me that she was nervous about the people she was with. She had told me this in English, and I was thinking, Wow, this is a first.  In my experience, a Chinese woman would never approach a foreigner and say something like this. As a person who has lived in this country for nearly three years (not to imply that three years makes me an expert on the topic, but I do think it does warrent that I can say that I do have some experience that may be worthwhile to someone who has never been here), and never seen a Chinese woman behave in this way. Ever. Struck me as odd, so I gave her a somewhat polite, detached response, and talked about maybe calling the police. That solved that problem. A short while later, I saw that same woman walking by with a bottle of booze in one arm, and her other arm wrapped around the arm of some other foreigner.

Does this mean that her intent is bad, not necessarily. It just means that it seemed a bit suspect.

For the most part, living and traveling in China is safer than in my country (beside traffic issues ha ha). Sometimes, it is frustrating from a logistical perspective, but the overall experience is worthwhile. If I am able, I will use the Internet to register at a hostel before I arrive at a city. Some places are OK, but other cities are a real nightmare for foreigners trying to find a hotel. This seems to be particularly true in my home province, Hebei, and I have heard stories about Tianjin, Beijing, and also Shanghai being the same way. The other parts of China that I have been to are better in this regard, but I have run into isolated areas that are harder. Ningbo in Zhejiang is an example that comes to mind. Reserving a registration at a hostel is certainly a wise move for these reasons. Plus, they tend to be cheaper and offer the chance to interact with other foreigners. Last winter, I went on an extended trip around China, and there were periods where I would go several days without speaking to other foreigners. I would look forward to those cities that had hostels because they would normally be foreigners hanging out in the common area.

Some hostels offer tours. Some of the tours are better than others. Some of them sucked, others were OK but somewhat expensive, and others were really good. I guess I would just say that the tours offered by hostels are not necessarily the best deal in town. Sometimes, it is best to simply arrange the trip yourself. It depends on the situation, finances, and your familiarity of the setting. As far as services offered, usually you can find better and cheaper outside the hostel. Honestly, I don't know if this is a universal fact. I know it seems to be true in China. My experience is that it is often better to step outside the hostel, walk a few hundred meters, and eat at some local restaurant, than it is to eat the food at the hostel restuarant (although the hostels usually have good coffee!). There are obviously some exceptions to this. Some hostels will serve family style local food dinners for a very reasonable price. I absolutely enjoy this. Places in Lijiang will do this, and I know this happens in other areas as well.

I hope this is helpful to someone, and I hope I don't sound preachy or anything. Wow, I wrote alot. So much for me simply typing a short post.. Ha ha, but really, Hostels are a good deal overall.

George from Amesbury

Posted on: Dreaming of You

Thanks, John

Posted on: "Thinking" in Chinese: 觉得 (juéde), 认为 (rènwéi) and 以为 (yǐwéi)

Is there a relationship as such that 简单 represents 'easy because of its simplicity' and 容易 'represents 'easy only because the difficulty is not hard, it can be simple of complex' or are they both absolutely equal when used to mean simple?

Posted on: Dreaming of You

Got it, thanks

Posted on: Dreaming of You

Hey guys, got a question;

My tutor taught me a term '梦到', does the usage of this term differ from        '梦见'?  Is one more common than the other?

Thanks,

George

Posted on: Dreaming of You

I may not be a dream reader, or like to share my dreams, but I do go to sleep at night, does that count? =)

Posted on: Eating in Korea

I listened to this lesson, and as I reached the end of the dialogue, I was thinking about the last part where the woman said 天天都吃，烦死了. One lesson I have learned repeatedly in China is to never make assumptions about culture. I have learned this through repeated frustration and misunderstanding. I listened to the explanation as to how 烦死了 is used here, and the explanation is very clear, but my question is, what is the role of sarcasm in Chinese conversation? Sometimes, someone my say, 'oh this is such a pain', but really it isn't. Even in this case, when I first read the dialogue, I didn't know whether to interpret the comment as sarcastic because I didn't know the attitude toward Kimchee (but this was all explained in the lesson). More specifically, do people use this expression in a sarcastic way that someone might in English?

Consider if it was an example of it were a food that no one was familiar with, or maybe a food that Chinese people may understand, but foreigners, or even Chinese people from different regions may not understand, how can they determine if the comment is sarcastic?

Posted on: Eating in Korea

So this means that, although both 法式 and 法国 both refer to french cuisine, you can't use it for both? is it because of the 国 character? For example, I know it was pointed out specifically in the lesson that we cant use 美国料理, can we use 美式料理?