User Comments - auntie68

Posted on: Bad Service Restaurant

Another "verb?/adjective?" example: 吓 (xia4; to frighten) As in - 你别吓我！"Don't frighten me!" 你别吓 ！"Don't be frightened!" 他吓呆了 "He was frightened silly" And to boot, Chinese seems to have intransitive forms of verbs that can function as adjectives, such as I've seen in the Japanese language. Phew. Thank God for Amber.

Posted on: Bad Service Restaurant

Dear tvan, I think you've actually asked a very subtle -- and useful -- question there, which I hope Amber can help to answer. This figurative use of 地方 (di4fang5) to indicate an "aspect" instead of a physical location feels natural to me; I habitually use it in speech. Having said that, I sometimes use a different, but rather similar construction which uses “令我“ (ling4) in place of "让我“ (rang4): Eg. 这就是令我最失望的一点 Cf. 这就是让我气的地方 My first question for Amber is: Are the "-的地方" and "-的一点" interchangeable? As to the choice between 让 and 令, is this guided by some rule of grammar? Thing is, I do seem to have a clear preference in any given context, but can't explain why. To my fuzzy mind, I think that this may have to do with the fact that in the Chinese language, the delineation between "verbs" and "adjectives" can be pretty different from English. Meaning, a word which normally functions as a verb in English may be an adjective in Chinese. And vice versa. In the specific examples I mentioned, are "气“ and "失望“ adjectives, or verbs? You would say, "他气死我“ ("he made me so angry"), but I don't think you would say, "他失望我" ("he disappointed me"), would you? Sorry to everybody for the excessive posting of the past few days. Since Monday I have been spending the best part of each day wrapped around the needs of a 2-year-old nephew who is just starting school, and adjusting to some complicated new routines. All this posting feels so good when I am trying to rest my brain from that! Thanks!

Posted on: Singapore

Hello bryan. Just in case you want to have another go at cracking it yourself (before Amber rescues us), does the sentence make more sense to you if you break it up as follows: 1. 虽然小，但是。。。很有活力 2. ［为什么有活力呢？］ 因为［新加坡］是个多民族的国家 I believe those are the 2 key ideas. The "有华人， 有马来人， etc..." merely qualifies／expands the 多民族的国家 . Hope that helps! Btw, I think you could vary the sentence slightly if you liked by replacing 多民族 with the set expression 多元种族 (duo1yuan2zhong3zu2) which we (over-)use in Singapore to say "multiracial/multi－ethnic", with the emphasis being on the melting pot quality. Amber, how does one say, "multilingual"? Is it 多言多语? 万言文化? Help! Thanks.

Posted on: After You

Oops, 我来 in hanyupinyin is wo3lai2 ("I come"). Please, no jokes about what it means literally in English...

Posted on: After You

Erm, I do love the sound of 你先 (ni3xian1), but I don't think I've ever heard it said to me before. Somehow, I don't think it's very "Singaporean" to 让 ("give way to-") others! Having said that, Malays do have a nice, almost reflexive expression -- "silakan" (or "sila" + verb) -- which approximates, "please go ahead" or "you go first". One Chinese expression which I've been delighted to hear a lot of since attaining Auntie age is, "Auntie, 我来， 我来“ which in Singapore means, "let me get that for you"/ "I've got it". Very heartwarming, when it comes from a well-mannered young child. Though a bit unsettling when it comes from some good-looking, boy-scoutly young man who is too tall for you to pat on the head and offer a sweet to, but old enough to make an Auntie feel guilty and inappropriate for being tempted to slip him her cellphone number. I wonder whether "我来" is considered correct Mandarin, or is it only Singapore slang? [changye: I got the message, sorry! If pasta is scarce where you are, may I suggest that you try to increase your pizza intake? Hot and chewy pizza crust baked in a wood-fired oven is no substitute for pasta, but it is said to relieve pasta withdrawal pain temporarily. Good luck!]

Posted on: Singapore

Ooh, chilli crabs! Yum. Instead of black pepper seasoning, the crabs are tossed in a blazing wok with chilli sauce, garlic and ginger, spring onion, tomato sauce (yup), a mystery ingredient which I am guessing is nutmeg and ground coriander, and then at the very last moment they stir in egg whites to thicken the sauce so that you can sop it up with pieces of crusty bread. Thanks for the heads-up on ChiTaglish. Looking forward to hearing it. I know I haven't heard this yet because my sister-in-law is -- culturally -- pretty much a "pure" Filipina (well, with some Spanish and a bit of Chinese and a dash of...). Here's to code-switching! But from what I've enjoyed discovering of Filipino food, Filipino culture seems to include just about every kind of style, from Chinese (pancit! lumpia!) to Spanish (menudo! champorrado! ensemadas!), via the kind of cuisine that uses wonderfully fresh seafood, vegetables (eg. wing beans, mongo, bittergourds, green papaya, yams, tapioca etc), and fruits in a way that good Malay chefs would appreciate. Even corned beef tastes special when it is done Filipino style, fried with onions and served over garlic rice with a runny fried eggs and a side of mild achara pickle. Your paella can hold its own against any paella I've had in Spain. Sigh. Grilled squid (inihaw ng pusit - sp?), tangy but clean-tasting sinigang soup, EVERYTHING is great. I like the bottled sardines marinaded in olive oil... crispy pata... The only thing I miss in Filipino cuisine is duck and goose, which seems to be unpopular, and I also get the (general) impression that Pinoys find Indian spices really scary. Oh dear, where did all these words come from? I think I have quite a lot in common with Patty, changye's food-loving dog. It's dangerous to mention food anywhere near me.

Posted on: Singapore

P/s: This is a country that has the death penalty, although I understand that this is (very discreetly) under review. And although our Prime Minister has made it explicit official policy that gays have full and equal rights to work in the civil service and the armed forces, pressure from conservative -- mainly older -- Singaporeans is making sure that gay sex remains a crime in Singapore! Can you believe it? Although I am QUITE certain today that no prosecutions will ever be brought under this quirky Indian Penal (pen-what?!!!) Code relic in our statute books, it's something to think about...

Posted on: Singapore

kien, whoa! It's fun to visit Singapore, but living here is... a different matter. I think to be really happy here, one's patience/ sense of humour has to develop a whole new set of muscles! The heat and humidity is unspeakable; it's a good thing that most Chinese, Malays, and Indians don't have naturally frizzy hair, or we'd all be walking around with big 'fros all the time. How about we drag Singapore to the location you suggest, but also convert the Singapore food to Malaysian food? And teach Singaporeans Australian courtesy? Life would be perfect! sebire -- My late father was Peranakan, his in-laws were Hakkas. He begged my mother to teach him some Hakka words in order to impress his mother-in-law, but Mum refused. Finally she gave in and taught him something that sounded like "moy moy or ngoi nee" and told him that it was a traditional Hakka greeting that he needed to say to his mother-in-law immediately everytime he visited. It actually means, "Miss, I love you. (妹妹我爱你)" She also (wickedly) taught him "orr-lee-dtuu" ("cow tripe", meaning "codswallop") and told him that it was "thank you!" in Hakka. I remember the giggles around the dinner table when my granny was giving him more food and he was saying, "orr-lee-dtuu! orr-lee-dtuu"! He remained oblivious for a few years. The upside was that my stiff Hakka grandparents really warmed to him.

Posted on: Singapore

P/s: changye, you have to take into account the fact that Singaporeans will walk much faster if they are heading towards a steaming hot plate of char kuei teow -- broad rice noodles flash-cooked in very hot and fragrant pork lard, and flavoured with soy sauce, garlic, fresh shelled cockles, "sweet sauce", sweet Chinese sausage, deep-fried pork rinds, silky egg whites, and just enough bean sprouts to keep the Health Police at bay. Yummm!!! This is a dish that I almost never cook; it's really tiring to turn and toss the noodles in the wok, my arm always aches for a long time the next day. And being the cook, I can't run away from how much hot pork lard goes into the dish... even thinking about it makes my ventricles twitch.

Posted on: Singapore