User Comments - auntie68

Posted on: High Maintenance Girls and the Elderly

laodie, ouch! In the Universe of Chinese Women, we are the frugal, frumpy ones who dress like hicks.

Walk into any investment bank or law firm in Singapore and you'll be able to spot the local staff instantly: Chances are we're the ones who do our own hair and wear cheap bad bras.

I get the feeling that expectations may be high here, but a typical Singaporean woman probably invests more time, attention and money on her StarHub cable subscription than on grooming herself, lah. 

Clay and Jenny, who've both lived here before, will know what I'm talking about... I do hope that nobody is offended by what I wrote!

Posted on: The Attitude Pattern (yǒu shénme... 有什么...)

Hello sfrrr, they did a QW on the [VERB] de chu1lai2 / bu4 chu1lai2 pattern:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/using-verbs-不出来-bu-chulai-得出来-de-chulai

Cheers

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Hainan

In my country, Singapore, the Hainanese are also known for their "fusion" cuisine, which reflects their long history of being cooks for European families (or for Peranakan families like mine, which are -- culturally -- Sino-Malay).

My grandmother's family had a Hainanese head chef who could whip up a full "European" (dinner) for 14 as easily as he could organize a full Peranakan-style meal. He was very dignified, would take individual breakfast orders from each family member, every morning.

Dishes which such chefs have turned into classic Singaporean comfort food are:

• "Hainanese Pork Chops" (not really pork chops, it's actually like schnitzel; served with fried potatoes and a starchy sauce which has green peas in it);
• Fried egg noodles cooked in a deliciously smoky roux (with sambal belachan garnished with a fresh cut miniature lime fruit on the side);
• "Inche Kabin" (a fried chicken dish);
• "Hainanese Chicken Pie" (with tanghoon -- glass noodles -- baked into it!); 
• "Beef Stroganoff"; and
  
• Very (very!) fluffy egg omelettes which are made by beating the egg whites separately and then folding them carefully into the yolk. Eaten with sloshes of tart Lea & Perrins sauce! 

Posted on: A Visit by the Police

Ah. Thanks, Clay. Hope you will consider offering an ad-free 68 kbps feed option too, eventually... I guess you want to keep things looking uncluttered, but it's one of those things where your users only have to do the settings once. Please?

Posted on: A Visit by the Police

Thanks Amber. You are right. But the MP3s in the RSS feed to my iTunes (the "auntie68" feed; it's not the free feed) contain the ads. And those are the versions I depend on.

My subscription may be only a Basic one, but I'm still a paying customer and I'd rather not be subjected to ads. Hope you can think of something. Perhaps we could opt in (or -out) of the ads somewhere in our profile? Thanks!

Posted on: 磁悬浮

!!! Thank you Connie, for explaining this!!!

And thank you for proving me wrong about the CPOD team's response to the questions I post. Sorry!

Posted on: 磁悬浮

@dubaobao: You make me feel like such a slouch because I don't listen to the podcasts with the same care. Okay, I think I heard 确切 too.

The other one is tricky. Could it be 余地开通(or 开头), perhaps? We do need an answer from Amber, Clay, or Connie, but I never seem to get an answer when I ask for one directly like this! 

Posted on: Golf

@richwarm2: I don't have time this morning to type out the examples offered by my dictionary, but -- in brief -- 杆 has two readings.

杆, first tone, refers to a stick or club.

杆, third tone, specifically refers to the barrel or the shaft of something. Eg. 笔杆 is the shaft (or the "grip") of a pen. Looks like it couuld also be a classifier for some such objects: 一杆笔， 一杆秤 etc.

So I think you could even say, "我想买一杆(gan3)新的木杆(gan1)。" Could anybody out there confirm this? I can't be 100% certain because I'm not a native speaker.

For what it's worth, a good print dictionary is very useful for getting a grip on 多音字 (duo1yin1zi4), ie., characters with different readings.

Posted on: Internet is Down

[Oops. This comment was deleted by me, the person who posted it. Sorry!]

Posted on: Internet is Down

@yagna: The answer you are looking for is somewhere in the Supplementary Vocabulary... It is possible that the glossary translation of 杀毒 (as "to poison") is incorrect. Happy weekend!

If you don't use 防毒 software, your computer may 中毒, in which case you will have to resort to a 杀毒 application.