User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Springtime on the River -- 次北固山下

Pete,

Yeah,very common saying..wild goose chase.

Maybe 王湾 was contemplating the wrong approach with letter writing and a wild goose chase.He might have had more success taking a goose whisperer approach[you'd think this sort of talent would be right up the alley of a poet ],and getting the geese to pass the message back home by word of mouth,but on the other hand being in China maybe he had considered this already and the potential problem of Chinese whispers.I wonder what sort of message the family would have got from a gaggle of honking geese passing on a third hand message in poetic form ?

Posted on: Springtime on the River -- 次北固山下

Of course carrier pigeons have been around since ancient Egypt,but have geese been used for this also? in China? I realise that in this poem it is just a whim and he doesn't really expect an untrained wild goose to know where to go,but I just wondered if it was something within the known realms of possibility.

Posted on: Hot and Cool 热, 烫 , 凉 , 冷

lotsofwordsandnospaces,

Thanks for that recipe.Certainly different and thus worth trying.[Interesting the way you managed to post it like that too]

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 6: Shopping for the Newborn

Aahh,now I'm in the picture.I generally avoid reading posts on lessons until I've gone through the podcast as I like to form my own impressions first,then I look at the discussions so have only just caught up with this thread now.I'm feeling really great right now because I've just been flattered by teach-beach who has implied that 50% of my posts are above trash level.I would have been happy if just a few made the grade so thanks mate.High praise indeed.

Miantiao,

Trouble is mate you just do too many great posts all round.At the very least you'll have to dumb down your Chinese and stop being so genuinely helpful if you want a mention.Yeah,as Oscar Wilde said,the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. :)

Posted on: Heading Home

tvan,

Thanks;that rings true.I take it spouses in China do refer to each other by these titles usually then and not by what westerners would call their "first name" as we do in the west.

Posted on: Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

paulinurus,

I mostly agree.Of course they already had the subtitles in English.I wouldn't mind if they were Hanzi subtitles ,but the only potential problem if that was all you had would be if you had a character you weren't familiar with at all and had trouble thus looking it up if you couldn't accurately catch the pronunciation.So both a pdf/posted transcript [like they do in poems with pete and qw] and subtitles would be great,but if I had to choose one,it's easier to pick things up from a transcript for me where you can copy and paste into an online dictionary.

Posted on: Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

Thankyou so much Cassielin.I really appreciate it.I have been wanting so much to fill in those gaps and you've come to my rescue.I'll enjoy the dialogue even more now.

Matt,

Any plans to either pdf or post a transcript of the dialogue in future menu stealer episodes? It would make a great series even better.

Posted on: Candles and Sweatshops!

The series are great,esp 老王，so looks like a great week ahead.I'm looking forward to working out the relevence of that line quoted from the poem;有意思。Interviews really add a lot to this N&F programme.That book sounds really interesting.

Posted on: Dealing With Depression

The bell at the end reminded me of the old Monty Python argument clinic as shown here.Also reminded me of a scene an excellent 1980 movie Ordinary People,but the doc came through when it counted.

我希望炒老王的鱿鱼不导致忧郁症。加油老王 ！！

挺好课 ！

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Taiwan

yi1hui3r