User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 1: Officially Pregnant

Changye,

That may explain the origin of the word 孟 as you were discussing in the DA vegetarian discussion.They probably didn't have radiation proof coats in those days and so there were more Godzilla's.

That reminds me [of the Greek tradition;what do Chinese do with the placenta?

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 1: Officially Pregnant

Changye,

That's hilarious! lol.I think all first time mum's [mom's] worry they are going to give birth to a Godzilla.

Posted on: Pregnancy Series 1: Officially Pregnant

Very interesting lesson,esp the cultural differences.I was particularly interested in 防辐射的衣服 radiation proof clothing.Is this just for when hanging around radiology departments while awaiting ultrasounds ? Or is this for general wear? If so ,gee,how much radiation is floating around China [kinda reminds me of Homer with his radioactive bar in the Simpson's intro ] ? Or is this just being very cautious? How common is this advice given and taken up?

The word for foetus which sounds like tie,reminds me of how the foetus is tied to it's mother via the umbilical cord.Should make it easy to remember.

I like the lay way of saying pregnant;you le.Reminds me of the English expression "with child".

Is the advice in general typical of current Chinese practice? It reminds me of the sort of advice given here a generation or so ago.Can't the woman even have a massage? In Australia,we've gone a little the other way with some women insisting on their right to play contact sport which has had legal implications.Interesting article here.

I was also interested that the husband was asked to wait outside.Is this usual? Do husbands usually attend the birth? She didn't sound too excited at the news but I guess this was also Chinese reserve.

I liked the translation of baobao as bundle of joy.

Posted on: The Person Component

RJ,

Good point.I see what you mean.But even something like an interview,or shopping and talking to a vendor;anything with a bit of interaction.

Posted on: The Person Component

xiaohu,

I agree with your above suggestion.I just hope they haven't been too discouraged.While I thought WTS was great,I would love to see something that involved some interaction so you could see how people respond to each other in Mandarin.A soap opera type thing would be perfect [not that I'm normally in to soapies;quite the opposite...but somehow I would find it instructive and entertaining when trying to learn Chinese].Something like the diary series,but when they were actually dating/interacting [not the diary part obviously].

Posted on: ChinesePod News

Yeah,I loved the holy dog photo too.Like all good photos it tells a story too.For me it was like God decreed that the dog was holy,but whether through guilty conscience or maybe it was just more interested in whether the photographer had food or something to play with than any devine messages,it stepped forward out of the light.

Agree with RJ in both the great avatar [but have come to expect nothing less from Calkins who is so obviously a great photographer] and that it'd be great to hear him on CPod ,though think DA may be a better show to hear him on.Don't think we've had anything on Taiwan on a DA show either.

Posted on: ChinesePod News

恭喜Calkins !

我很喜欢Vocabulary Picture of the day.

谢谢你

Posted on: The Perfect Sandwich

jacheung,

...purely transliteration I believe.

Posted on: Learning the Lei Feng Song

Changye,

 "Foreign learners of Mandarin are not so naive"

Thanks for giving us this credit.I think Pete has more than adequately shown above the veracity of this statement.Interesting discussion and always interesting to hear both sides.

If there is doubt as to Lei Feng's existence,then I'm wondering who is in the photo? 

Posted on: The Person Component

John,

Having seen how you can morph the characters means I can see you have the ability to bravely go where no one has gone before [to my knowledge] and demonstrate how the characters have morphed from their origins.This video format would be perfect for that and would be so much better than books etc.I'm specifically referring to those characters that were originally pictographs but have morphed over the centuries so it's no longer easy to see what they were originally representing.Having the original character superimposed on a pic of what it is representing and then showing how the character has changed to its current form would be awesome and I think would really help understand them.Please reconsider scrapping the show and take this into consideration.Thanks :)