User Comments - bababardwan

Posted on: Which Train Station?

I see this Pasila is considered a suburb even though it looks pretty built up to me:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/It%C3%A4-Pasilaa_ilmasta.jpg

...but it does look like a fair dinkum station:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Pasilan-asema.jpg

...but I note you said "mostly" and I guess this one is probably the main exception

Posted on: Your Mandarin Is Really Good!

haha, I suspect you didn't get where I was coming from and I'm not too clear what you're saying/ where're you're coming from so I guess we're even. I'm not sure if you're just making a straightforward comment or there's more to it. Looking at it simply, here's what I make out of it:

very interesting. recently sometimes life is very hard. But if someone needs the help of his "mountain man" he [mountain man] should not rest

So the bit where I really lost you was: 他的帮

This bit was very clear: very interesting. recently sometimes life is very hard

and the end was clear but I lost you in the middle. Clearly mountain man refers to you...I recall that. I'm not sure if you're referring to others helping you or you helping others.

Posted on: Which Train Station?

yeah, well it was a bit of a flippant comment on my part and I realised shortly after that I shouldn't have had tunnel vision. I knew Shanghai had a few train stations and wouldn't presume a large city wouldn't but I guess if you come from somewhere where that's the case then I guess it might not occur to you. I note that Helsinki has several stations but that is only when you include it's greater metropolitan area and of course here we are only referring to the city centre itself and not the burbs.

Posted on: Hot Dogs and Fried Rice

lol

"This week I'll be out and about looking for hot dog stalls."

haha, great to have our man on the ground out there on the job. Looking forward to your report mate. Jiayou!

Posted on: Difficult Cake Choices

George,

I hope that between myself and bodawei we have answered your question. You see this is the extent we'll go just for you mate. Next question...

Posted on: Lesson Brainstorming

我支持你的要求，好时机

Posted on: Difficult Cake Choices

“I think you'd get a bigger number if you searched 蛋糕店... This is based on a short walk this afternoon, I saw a shop calling itself 蛋糕店. Didn't see any 面包房”

mate, haven't you heard the expression "can't see the forest for the trees"? How much of an overview of the whole of China and the use of a word in Chinese can a 老外 get on personal experience alone, let alone what you can glean from an afternoon stroll? I'm not discounting personal experience as a valuable source and particularly not yours which I always enjoy reading and learn a lot from, but it can never be all encompassing.

btw, it wouldn't have surprised me at all if “蛋糕店” got more hits as you suggested but as it turns out, it gets 8,400,000 results vs 面包店 gets 9,960,000 results.

"I imagine (stress imagine) cakes, and bread, being made in a big factory somewhere here, and then being distributed to various types of outlets, none of them much like a bakery"

...yes, well that seems to be the case with 沁园 at least. But 静安面包房[note 面包房 in the title] for example seems to make fresh bread on site ["Freshly-baked breads are getting more and more popular in China as they taste much better than pre-baked buns” ]:

http://www.jinganbakery.com/

"but not calling themselves either 面包房 OR 蛋糕店"

...well I've just above given you an example of where that's not the case, but you're missing the point. It wouldn't matter if not a single "bakery" used 面包房 OR 蛋糕店 ....the debate is on whether 面包房 is a valid word for bakery in Chinese. It may arise in more general contexts....like, hey, where's the nearest bakery. Or developers of a shopping centre discussing that they need to have a bakery and maybe in should be near one of the entrances to entice passers by in. Bakery for sale. The number of potential contexts for such a word are myriad, and how it is used will only be revealed by a closer inspection of the huge number of google hits for it which I think pretty much proves it is used. Even for Chengdu "“成都面包房” gets 299,000 results. I doubt there are that many 老外 referring to Chengdu and writing about bakeries on the internet...so I'd be pretty confident it's being used by Chinese.

Posted on: Your Mandarin Is Really Good!

you can ask, 可是这是机密的。。。我能告诉你但我就得杀你 ：）

Posted on: Your Mandarin Is Really Good!

akalovid,

"Would

你学中文了多久?

(Nǐ xué zhōngwén le duōjiǔ?)

also work?"

...good question, but I'm afraid I don't think that would work [ I think it's grammatically wrong but at the same time I'm thinking they'd still get what you were trying to ask]

Posted on: Difficult Cake Choices

"Tom and Jerry, Ren n Stimpy, you make me work hard Baba"

haha, soz mate, I was being cheeky but I figured I knew you well enough to know what a good sport you are, sense of humour and all that, that I could get away with it ;)