User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

You are on a good point here cinnamonfern, don't stop. Knitting is indeed a national pastime, if not sport. So many women at the market and in shops spend their time knitting, and serving part-time. That is not to suggest that they can't do both at once. They knit the most complicated designs without even looking. And, as discussed once before her in the past, traditionally men in China knitted.

Posted on: Discussing Divorce

Hi Baba

I watched a performance last night and noted some of the people involved in the production had names indicative of their roles. I'm not sure if some are stage names. (Sorry I can't remember them off hand). Some of the connections I made might also be imaginative, so that is another factor to consider. They weren't all of the Doctor Fang, Dentist variety. (That is one that we had in Sydney.)

As English speakers you can also have fun with the pinyin - the lighting guy last night was called 孙天 Sun Tian (sun, sky?). And a choreographer/dancer was called Li Ping ('leaping?)

Of course in English this was not necessarily chance; carpenters were called Carpenter and so on.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

Hi xiaophil

It was wrong in one way in particular: I said ice-skating and meant ice-hockey. Sorry about that - it's history and no way to edit it.

Aren't Canadians Americans? Don't tell me I have got that wrong as well?!

Actually you took me a tiny bit seriously; I had my tongue-in-cheek but that is hard to convey on these boards. I realise that some of the ones I mentioned are not big in China (I purposely avoided the obvious ones like tennis and field hockey), but they were all played at the Asian games so I'm guessing China had a team.

I also agree that a discussion on ice-hockey is possible - I said it was unlikely, a question of probabilities. And when that rare chance arises, damn, can't remember the vocab. :)

And really the sport doesn't matter - you can substitute whatever your interest is - eg. knitting - I was was just lamely trying to be funny.

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

Well, this is a lesson for the American customers, even though they are unlikely to ever discuss ice-skating with a Chinese person. More relevant sports include skate boarding, billiards, squash, rugby, handball, golf, rollerblades, ballroom dancing. Even baseball. [Welcome to add to this list.]

And, I suppose, cricket (cricket was a sport at the recent Asian Games in Guangzhou), but I doubt that anyone much in China wants to talk about it. Even I've lost interest because I am not allowed to watch (or even listen). I can't get to either cricket or rugby league on the Internet and it is nothing to do with China. The great Aussie firewall.

Posted on: A Visit to the In-laws

'This is the difference when speaking bad Chinese to a native Chinese person.'

I speak imperfect Chinese everyday to native speakers and have reasonable success with communication. I hear imperfect Chinese from Chinese speakers and again I can often understand. I would imagine that the vast majority of Chinese people speak imperfect Chinese, just like the majority of native English speakers.

Posted on: Which is better: China or the USA?

川菜坊的坊 ..

This 坊 could mean a number of things here as the name of a restaurant - the most likely being ..

- a laneway

- an archway or entrance

- a mill (most likely a water mill)

My guess is that it means 'water mill', because restaurants often invoke a rustic (romantic) physical setting, and a water mill fits the bill. I have eaten a few times at a Sichuan restaurant whose names translates as something like 'little mud hut situated on the side of a hill'.

I don't know the context; it could also mean workshop, particularly if it was developed in an old workshop. But I like ;water mill'.

Posted on: Merry Christmas!

Hi bweedin

I was talking about Chinese food names in general, not just transliterations, but I have my favourites there as well. Such as Afogato here at one place is called 热带岛屿 .. very cute, I love the image.

But gin & tonic here is 金汤力 and tonic water 汤力水.

Posted on: Which is better: China or the USA?

Actually you raise a good point - my observation in Australia is that almost every Chinese restaurant in the country has a Chinese name that does not translate to the English name. Some of the translations are truly imaginative but still give little or no clue to the Chinese. I have found some that are quite funny (along the lines of Chinese: Golden Chicken/English: Blue Star) but one of my favourites in Sydney is the 西北饭店 (English name: Sea Bay). I like both the name and the food.

Posted on: Which is better: China or the USA?

hi xiaophil

Just looked back on this now long thread and amused to see that my original comment was actually about 'East and West' within China's boundaries! I even pleaded in parenthesis that I was not talking about 'The West'. But it seems to have taken on a life of its own. :)

Posted on: Which is better: China or the USA?

Ah, this is interesting. I focused on so-called trade within the Empire's boundaries; it actually involved the extraction of resources such as wheat from Egypt rather than commercial transactions. But the movement of goods from outside the empire would be a different matter. I wonder if this was all 'government to government' - my reading suggests that trade did not occur successfully without the support of substantial military deployments.

I note your comment about diversity - it's something that means different things to different people. (I'm not claiming that I know about this, just doubting that the Roman Empire accommodated diversity except out of dire necessity.)