User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: Trip to the Vegetable Market
September 12, 2008 at 6:16 AMHi henning. I think it's a cucumber. Those bumps on that monster veggie...
I love "Mittel Europa"-style gherkin pickles, and I can imagine the (totally Prussian) "Tante Ilse" of one of my former boyfriends turning that monster into maybe 10 normal-sized jars of pickled gherkin... she was the kind of lady who could marinate raw herring in sour cream (the most delicious I've ever tasted!) herself and then serve it up on fine Meissen china with perfect boiled new potatoes. Yum! She lived through two world wars, by the way...
P/s: But you are a real German, so the verdict is yours!
Posted on: Trip to the Vegetable Market
September 12, 2008 at 1:40 AMThe guerilla style of shooting made me feel queasy from motion sickness. I am not joking. :(
I am guessing that this one was shot with a cellphone? Most video cameras these days are equipped with stabilisers which do a pretty job of stabilising the image. Well, thanks for the vocab, anywayz...
Posted on: New Lessons, Video, and Groups
September 10, 2008 at 12:31 PMDear rockynash, I do hope that you don't consider service complaints by paying customers to be just "negativity"! I'm not so "evolved" that I can feel happy when such "negativity" is disregarded by CPOD staff. Still, welcome on board, and all the best with the Chinese studies.
Posted on: At the Hair Salon
September 10, 2008 at 12:26 PMHelp, somebody! What has happened to my Praxis RSS feed? Why have DOZENS of old files suddenly appeared in my iTunes? CPOD/ IPOD/ FPOD are the only "-PODs" which have done this to me. Hmrhph.
Posted on: Prescription Drugs and Overseas Chinese
September 8, 2008 at 2:05 PMHello, sebire and bababardwan. My personal "take" on this is that the Chinese officials simply could believe that the Foreign Minister of Singapore might not be Chinese. This was the 1970s, not so long after the Cultural Revolution.
The impression I get from reading various accounts from that period of history, is that China was still fighting for diplomatic survival. Not so many countries even recognized the PRC then. They were still building up their diplomatic corps at the time. Cf. the relatively slick diplomatic corps working out of Taipei at the time, which was being developed with the help of -- inter alia -- the US State Department. Just look at the hairstyles of the 外交部 ("Foreign Ministry") spokesmen from as recently as 10 years ago...
And the Chinese mentality towards race does bear thinking about too. To the average Chinese person, the idea of being mistaken for a non-Chinese -- a 鬼 -- is the worst imaginable slight. I'm not surprised that the valiant Chinese official stuck to the script just in case he had wrongly labelled the visiting envoy from a "Chinese" country as a swarthy Hindu, when he actually had some (all-important) Chinese ancestry!
P/s: Yes, I'm quite sure that somebody from our Foreign Ministry would have translated Mr Rajaratnam's name into Chinese characters, as a courtesy. The Minister didn't speak any Chinese; his wife was not a Chinese Singaporean, but a natural blond Hungarian lady who was much-loved by Singaporeans!
Posted on: Prescription Drugs and Overseas Chinese
September 8, 2008 at 10:19 AMCan you guys out there handle one more overseas Chinese anecdote? During the days before Deng Xiaoping's reforms, Singapore didn't even have official diplomatic ties with China yet, but a lot of effort was put in -- by both sides -- to maintain a close and cordial relationship. Because we were a "Chinese" country, and China wanted to keep us in the fold.
Our first diplomatic mission to China was led by our Foreign Minister at the time, Sinnathamby Rajaratnam. I'll never forget a TV interview he gave, many years later, in which he described his reception in China (he was a gifted "raconteur").
As you all probably know, China loves to play the "cultural affinity" card with foreign visitors, wherever possible. They will spare no expense, or effort, in organizing special visits to "ancestral villages" and family tombs. No request is too much trouble for them.
According to Minister Rajaratnam, the Mao-jacketted officials who received him gasped before falling into a stunned, courteous, silence. A swarthy Singaporean Minister born in Sri Lanka was NOT what they had been expecting. All the necessary details had been transmitted to the 外交部 beforehand, but it seems that a rather important detail had not been registered by Beijing.
Finally, as the story goes, one of the Chinese officials swallowed hard, and carried on. Incredibly, that very brave man managed to stick to the script.
He asked our Minister, "Excellency, would you like to visit your ancestral village in China? There is still time to arrange this. It would be our honour."
More silence. Mr Rajaratnam said, "Erm, that is very kind, but my ancestors are not from anywhere near here."
Even more silence. The Chinese official was working hard to think of something to say. "Are you perhaps a Muslim? Maybe you are from our Western provinces?" Mr Rajaratnam: "I'm afraid not."
The Chinese official paused, and then broke into a huge smile of sheer relief, "Ahhhhh! You're a Chinese Jew! It's no problem, we'll arrange the visit..."
I can say that this story is largely true (although I think my version isn't meant to be totally accurate); I know because Mr Rajaratnam was my family's next-door neighbour for over 50 years!
P/s: In Singapore, new immigrants from China can often be heard asking each other (and Chinese Singaporeans), "How come there are so many foreigners here?"
Posted on: Changes on ChinesePod
September 8, 2008 at 12:55 AM@hape: Thank you SO MUCH for the heads-up on the free content! It is EXACTLY what I had been wanting from CPOD, ie podcast + chinese-only transcript. Looks like I'll be able to at least follow what's going on at CPOD after my Basic subscription expires in mid-Dec 2008!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't think that every single lesson will be put up at the Confucius Institute site, but that doesn't bother me. The odd CPOD podcast will be a nice break for me as I'll be concentrating on reading and writing, studying with different materials. Again, thank you!
Posted on: Bangkok
September 7, 2008 at 10:45 AMTry "This design (even a little) special characteristics also doesn't have". That's still not English, but does it make more sense? HTH. Do get that native speaker second opinion!
Posted on: Prescription Drugs and Overseas Chinese
September 7, 2008 at 10:25 AMJP is Borg? CPOD are Borg?
Posted on: 妈妈在哪里？
September 12, 2008 at 6:23 AMHello CPOD, this comment of mine is late, and I am posting in English, what's more, but FWIW: Thank you for giving us an "Advanced" lesson which was EXACTLY what I had asked for.
Namely, a lesson which deepens my understanding of Chinese, rather than merely enlarging my vocabulary. The different format of this lesson -- a dramatic monologue -- is a nice bridge between the "spoken" Chinese of most CPOD lessons, and the very different "written" form of Chinese.
This one could be a nice voice-over in some movie or radio play. And you did it so well; not only the writers and the voice actors, but also the sound engineers and the teachers/ hosts. I really appreciate that. Thank you!