User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: Please Speak Chinese
April 1, 2008 at 11:06 PMDear majamaya, that was a great example of culture shock, one of the "Chinese vs Gweilo" variations thereof. It will happen; but don't let it bother you. Here is my perspective on it (if you want it): In many Asian countries, people who are not so well exposed to foreign cultures are hostages of some very powerful cultural assumptions: Eg. "No way any foreigner would want to (or can) learn Chinese!". These odd assumptions didn't arise without a bit of help from foreigners, of course. Today, young Europeans working in my country (Singapore) are likely to be fluent in at least one, if not -- like maxiewawa -- two or three Asian languages. A mere 10 - 15 years ago, the stereotypical "expat" was a middle-aged European who only needed to learn enough pidgin Malay or pidgin Cantonese to instruct his houseboy or driver or cook. There was a certain "gentlemen's club" made (in)famous by the "No Dogs and Chinese" signs for certain parts of the clubhouse... the sign was only taken down after WWII! majamaya, I like to believe that the CS's role was a knee-jerk reaction. He didn't believe his ears and his eyes, and then the momentum carried him along until he was well and truly in a groove. One thing to consider is the Asian concept of "face". If you visit a rural Thai school and are introduced to the school's "English expert", who turns out to be barely able to speak English, it would be an unimaginable loss of face to him, and the school, insist on solving the obvious language difficulties by switching to Thai. I know it sounds daft, but the "Asian way" would be to do your best to try and show some respect to him/ the school by continuing to struggle on in English, even feigning understanding if you are truly considerate. Because the implications of switching to Thai would be, "Gosh, his English is so horrible that even the farang had to speak Thai to him in the end!" -- true, but best left unsaid! After all, the alternative could be, "Gosh, I think he was struggling a bit -- English must be horrendously difficult to learn -- but that farang seemed really intelligent and polite and so they got by. I'm so glad it worked out..." majamaya, what I would have done in maxiewawa's scenario is to ask -- in English, not Chinese -- whether we could switch to Chinese. That way, the CS doesn't lose face; there's no implication that your Chinese is so much better than the CS's English that there's no point continuing to mess about in English. And in a way, asking for the switch in English smooths things because it establishes that yes, your language is English and further, you are acknowledging/ appreciating that he is able to provide service in your language if you need it. Poor CS is not there to help anybody practice English; his job is to help you buy a computer. So all things being equal -- ie he has enough English to sell you a computer, you have enough Chinese to buy one from him --, I'd be happy to go with any language choice really, whatever was smoothest. After all, once you have dealt with the CS for a few minutes, and both of you are comfortable with each other, you can always introduce some Chinese words to soften/ warm up the transaction. Aiyah, maxiewawa, you didn't need to force that poor CS to speak Mandarin -- you had nothing to learn from him, Mandarin-wise, and if his boss hired him as the "English Expert Staff", it's his duty to speak to customers in English! ;-)
Posted on: April Fool's
April 1, 2008 at 10:03 PMDear majamaya, I love your sense of humour! That was so funny that I nearly spit my morning coffee all over my keyboard... thanks!
Posted on: April Fool's
April 1, 2008 at 6:13 AMOh no! Bad! BAD!! You got this silly Auntie! Bad! BAD!! ;-) but I don't mind if the joke is on me sometimes... I was feeling smug because I use a... MAC.....
Posted on: April Fool's
April 1, 2008 at 4:26 AMOh no, chand! You have my full sympathy, for what it's worth. I don't I could be as calm and decent as you are, right now. Speaks volumes about you. Take care, I wish there were something I could do to help.
Posted on: Basic Shapes
March 29, 2008 at 5:50 AMUncle changye, you're welcome. But beware of "learning" anything from me. Especially when it has to do with geometry! Eg. a 正八边形 is actually a regular octagon, not a regular octahedron, which I imagine would be a 正八面体. The 面 (mian4) there refers to a "facet", rather than a "side". And the word 体 (ti3; body, object, form) because a -hedron is a three-dimensional object. Sorry for the mistake!
Posted on: Basic Shapes
March 29, 2008 at 1:28 AMFor what it's worth, seeing the definitions given by my little dictionary for these shapes may actually help to "fix" these concepts: NB: 相等 xiang1deng3 = equal 四角 (si4jiao3) = four angles 四边 (si4bian1) = four sides 对着的 (dui4zhe de) = opposite 正方形 (zheng1fang1xing; "square") (名）四边相等，四角是90度的四边形。 长方形 (chang2fang1xing2; "rectangle") (名）四角是90度的四边形, 其中两个对着的边比另外两个对着的边长。 圆形 (yuan2; circle) (名）以固定的一点为中心，用相等的长度画出的封闭的几何图形。 = "using a fixed point as centre, use equal length to draw, closed, geometric figure" - phew!!!! 椭圆形 (tuo3yuan2; oval) (名）长圆形 The definition of "circle" is staggering, is it not?
Posted on: Basic Shapes
March 28, 2008 at 11:32 PMAiya! The third power of two is 8... I think.
Posted on: Basic Shapes
March 28, 2008 at 11:26 PMnicklyth, calkins The Stunt Toddler has just started on "shapes" （形状; xing2 zhuang4) in school, and I just looked up a whole lot of stuff because he was spouting a lot of shapes which I didn't know. First, it's useful to note that in the Chinese mind, shapes which have straight sides are 方的 (fang1de), and shapes which are -- more or less -- in the form of a circle are 圆的 (yuan2de). Example from my dictionary (culturally, very curious examples!): 他家的桌子是圆的， 不是方的。 ＝The table in his house is round, not [square or rectangular. 篮球没汽就不圆的。 Basketballs without air aren't round. 孩子的脸圆圆的。 The child's face is very round (圆圆的; see how it's doubled). A square is a 正方形 (zheng4fang1xing2) because 正 here means "regular" (in the geometry sense). Examples of this use of 正 from my dictionary: 正八边形 = regular octahedron 正多面体 = regular polyhedron So a square is called a 正方形 because it's a 方形 which is regular (正; zheng4). And a rectangle is a 长方形 because it is a 方形 which is elongated (长; chang2) A 方形 is any quadrilateral shape, ie four sides, 90 degree angle between them. Btw, I think it does make some kind of sense if you consider that the word "方" (fang1) can mean "to the power of": 二的四次方是十六 The fourth power of two is 16. 二的三次方是八。The third power of two is 9. calkins, good luck! Now I must go back to my morning coffee. It's Lavazza this morning, so I'm feeling very happy.
Posted on: Yang Jie's Diary: He's Not Stupid
March 27, 2008 at 11:45 PMYou're welcome. I wish somebody from CPOD would come in and "save" us, but they never seem to do! Just one little thing: This "inceptive 了" is actually emphatic (though it's not necessarily rude or brusque). Eg: A: Brett, 你在哪里？我们要走了。 B: 来了，来了！ = Brett, where are you? We're leaving. = ［I'm] Coming, coming... In these examples, the 了's don't convey any sense of the "past tense" or the completion/ perfection of any action/ state. 好了, let's hope this made some sense to you. Maybe the truth is that I shouldn't be so quick to rush in with answers to your questions, because it may make it less likely that you'd get an answer directly from CPOD! Your answers are always very valid, intelligent, ones; you definitely have a very good "feel" for Chinese.
Posted on: April Fool's
April 1, 2008 at 11:22 PMmajamaya, hee hee. Theoretically, I am the (inactive) member of two Bars -- a barrister-at-law of England and Wale, and an "Advocate and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore". But don't worry, the only thing I practise these days is... patience! I enjoy reading your posts, and I do admire very much your ability to write so fluently in English, master other languages on top of that, and -- most of all -- learn Chinese so well in such a short period. Ignore my history of philosophical/ pedagogical comments on "unintelligible" Mandarin posts, I'm a learner myself and will enjoy reading anything you care to post in all-Chinese characters. Best regards.