User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: Calling a Supplier for a Quote
August 19, 2008 at 1:49 AMHi cttse. I think that "Free On Board" and "Freight On Board" are both acceptable long forms for the incoterm FOB.
But I'm not qualified to confirm whether this would still be the case if "FOB" is not being used as an incoterm, but rather, as convenient shorthand for one of those quaint North American shipping terms. Potayto, potahto.... HTH.
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 18, 2008 at 2:36 PM@changye: I love this! Thank you so much. Does the Japanese "bako" (for 凹) have anything to do with the Japanese word for box ie 箱 (hako)? To my over-excited imagination, the character suddenly started looking like a beautiful sake "box"... Just wondering... Thanks uncle changye!
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 18, 2008 at 1:48 PM@mattwhyndham: Yup. The character 凹 (ao1) means "concave", and 凸 (tu1), "convex". However, my (unschooled, non-native) sense is that they don't cancel each other out to convey "flatness". Rather, the two characters together convey the idea of a bumpy surface/path, both in the literal sense as well as in a figurative sense. Here's hoping that a native speaker will weigh in and "save" us...
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 18, 2008 at 12:10 AM@obitoddkenobi: Thank you! We Singaporeans know how to laugh at our own "Olympic dreams"; I hope the Hokkien/Singlish dialogue in this satirical podcast isn't a major problem for anybody:
http://www.mrbrownshow.com/2008/08/18/the-mrbrown-show-the-singapore-chase-for-olympic-gold/
@rjberki: I think changye gave a pretty good explanation above:
According to some of my dictionaries, Chinese 乒乓 originally means “rattling and clattering sounds or high ringing sounds, such as hailstones drumming the roofs, gun shots, and sounds of fire crackers”.
乒乓 is one of those wonderfully graphic Chinese words; my all-time favourite is 凹凸 ao1tu4.
Posted on: Measure Words for Counting People
August 17, 2008 at 11:01 PMHi xiahu. Okay, I'm not a native speaker, but here goes: I wouldn't use the word 堆 in the sentence you gave, because it conveys the notion of some kind of scrum. In fact, this was confirmed by a usage note in my Little Dictionary: 注意：对所尊敬的人不用“堆”。
Not forgetting that I'm not a native speaker, I think it's possible that this is one of those situations where the Chinese mind would use a different construction.
Eg. Instead of a construction using a classifier (what classifier would you use in English, anyway?), the idea might be conveyed by an adjective. So maybe:
奥运开幕式观众如云。
奥运开幕式的观众非常多，简直是人山人海。
奥运开幕式云集着成千上万的观众。
I know I've probably massacred the Mandarin in these sentences (sorry cassielin!); any corrections would be welcome. HTH
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 17, 2008 at 3:11 PMThank you so much, cassie! And the kind words mean so much more, coming from you. China is so powerful in table tennis that losing to your country's team may be better than beating some other countries. I'm already hearing reports that the Chinese citizens in the stadium were very warm towards the few Singaporean supporters... our country is so tiny (population 4.5million, of which nearly 1.5 million are foreign-born). That was beautiful!
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 17, 2008 at 1:36 PMI know, uncle changye, but they were simply too good for us! We were tourists, to be honest, incredibly fortunate to get so far. Hey, I am blowing kisses at my TV screen now because the China team is receiving its medals now. They deserve it!
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 17, 2008 at 1:19 PMOkay, we didn't get the gold, but I am happy all the same. Well done, China! I love you. And I shall do something which I've never done before, which is: Go to Changi Airport to welcome Singapore's team home, if I possibly can.
Thank you so much, Li Jiawei... I love you.
P/s: Whenever I saw shots in that stadium of Singaporean supporters who were of every shade of human skin from Tamil to pinkest European, I couldn't help feeling emotional. The Olympics... there's nothing to beat it.
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
August 17, 2008 at 1:14 PMI don't even know the rules of ping pong (shame on me!), but at this moment I am GLUED to my TV watching the Singaporean players being spanked by the Chinese female doubles team.
No matter what the outcome is, this is my tiny country's first Olympic medal in... 48 years. So I don't care if Li Jiawei wasn't born in Singapore, I'm cheering for her.
If you can believe it, our traditional "National Day Rally Speech" by our Prime Minister has been postponed -- for the first time in my tiny nation's history! -- so that people like me can watch the match. I wish the players from both sides well.... this is the Olympics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nobody loses (but it would be nice to win, as the tiny under-dog!!!
Best love to all...
Posted on: The 是...的 (Shì...de) Pattern
August 19, 2008 at 1:59 AMWow, watch out Chinese ChickBabes! light487 is armed and dangerous...
But I do have a question for connie 老师:
你是怎么保养的？Nǐ shì zěnme bǎoyǎng de?
To a non-native speaker like me, the phrase/line sounds a bit like, "Wow, you really take care of yourself!" or even "How come you are so well-preserved?"
Did I understand it wrong? Can you really flatter and intrigue a chickbabe with these words? Thanks!