User Comments - bababardwan
bababardwan
Posted on: New Clothes
January 29, 2009 at 3:37 AM哈哈 Classic stuff.Sense and sensibility.Mars and Venus.我喜欢“哼” and the excellent expression the actress gave it. The guy should learn that when you're not going to win the war,don't enter it.hehe.
I love Chinese traditions like this.Great lesson.谢谢
Posted on: Gong Xi Fa Cai!
January 28, 2009 at 12:50 PMRJ,
I can well believe about your Bangladeshi friend playing cricket;I'm sure it's huge there and they would be very passionate about it.Yeah,I know what you mean.That wiki article discussed the possible origins of the name under the history section.
Sebire,
Hey,I found that the word for cricket bat in Chinese is qiu2 bang4 球棒 which can also mean baseball bat,so I guess the Chinese don't draw too much of a distinction between the bats at least :P ...hehe.
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 28, 2009 at 6:11 AMbtw Matt,
..if you'd had George from Seinfeld in that game you'd not have needed the Doris Day lens.
Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲
January 28, 2009 at 6:08 AMChangye,
Thanks for clarifying that mate.I've spotted it just after the 3rd character which is presumably the traditional one for qing1.
It's similar to the English ditto mark,but sideways instead of vertical.
Posted on: 麻将风波
January 28, 2009 at 4:41 AMalexyzye,
A link to the rules is here.
http://santiago.mapache.org/games/mahjong/rules.html
A more comprehensive link is here.
You can even play online but that doesn't appeal to me as much becuase it is the whole social thing as much as anything else.Matt's great photo helps demonstrate that.Everyone's hands are meant to help shuffle the tiles at the start.I like these sort of traditions behind the game.I'd be interested to know which rules you're playing with Matt.
I bought a beautiful mah jong set as a gift for a relative recently in Chinatown in Sydney.It was handmade in China and made from bamboo.I was so pleased with this find.
I agree with you Johns.I can't wait to get home from work and download this podcast and see what I can pick up,especially as I love mah jong and 'tis the season for it.Matt must be having a ball.Xin nian kuai le he gong xi fa cai Matt.
Posted on: Gong Xi Fa Cai!
January 28, 2009 at 3:06 AMlol.I had wondered whether someone would pull me up on this one.I thought aficionados from either game might be up in arms.I was of course trying to give a very rough idea of the sort of sport it is.Cricket is certainly more like basketball than it is like grasshoppers,or even basketball.In both you use a club to hit a ball pitched or bowled at you and then run.But I realise the differences are numerous.hehe.
Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲
January 27, 2009 at 11:38 PMThanks heaps mate.Well explained.That makes a lot of sense.I knew there was a different convention for which directions the characters were read but I wasn't sure what it was.Now that you point it out,I think I more or less recognise the character for Wang,qing1 is the character to be repeated,and I spot the character for yi1.I'm intrigued by just how the character for repeat works though.Is it an easier character to write than qing1 ? And it is then taking up a character of it's own accord which should bump it up to 7 again? Does ke4 or she4 also have the meaning of repeat?
Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲
January 27, 2009 at 10:43 PMPete,
Well done again.I love getting the background info first to introduce it and then beautifully read.I agree,could definitely be used for relaxation.
It sounded like you mentioned Su DongPo which we discussed in the Hungry Traveler:Hangzhou lesson here.I posted an English translation to one of his poems in that discussion but it would be cool to look into some of his poems.
Pete,Kesirui,Changye,
I'm interested in Changye's comments about the poems structure which lines up with Pete's posting of the poem but I can't quite reconcile that with Kesirui's painting which doesn't quite seem to line up that structure.Am I right in presuming that you read the poem in the painting starting with the left column and reading from top to bottom? If so ,the middle two lines appear to have only 6 characters and there seem to be an extra 2 lines [unless these last 2 equate to something outside the poem like his signature,date,place or something else ]
Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲
January 27, 2009 at 11:20 AM我也说谢谢你 for the magic painting.Really adds a dimension.
Posted on: New Clothes
January 29, 2009 at 5:39 AMcustodian,
I'm at work now and thus can't confirm,but I'm pretty sure it was dan shi and bu4guo4 that John explained the difference between towards the end of the analysis [before the final replay of the dialogue] in podcast "will you marry me" which is here
He pointed out a very good example of how bu4guo4 is a lighter "but" [single t ].She was basically throwing in a condition to her acceptance of the marriage proposal but wasn't wanting to put the guy off with the stronger dan shi.I'm not sure exactly how ke shi fits into this scheme of things ,but I don't think it's as strong as dan shi either.I have a feeling one relates to a negative situation and the other to a positive situation.
hehe.Yeah Matt,Zhangfeng's " wúsuǒwèi" was also priceless.So authentic.I love that word.It somehow reminds me of "wussy" which in some ways is what you have to be in these situations when you resign yourself to such a fate.hehe