User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Job Shopping in Modern China

RCK

You're talking rubbish, but that's what threading is for. :)

[Is that 'flaming'? Not sure whether I've ever flamed before.]

Posted on: Job Shopping in Modern China

Aah, I pretty much assumed you are American. (I was being a bit cheeky.) I'm Stralian (or as some Americans say 'Ossie').

Never really understood that word 'ass'. I am assuming it is 'arse', and I respect your need to pronounce it 'ass', but why do you change the spelling? Is that along the lines of simplifying spelling so it looks like it is pronounced? (I like a lot of what has happened there in American English.) But what happened to the word 'arse'? Is that ever used in the US?

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Nice cultural lesson though - I was on the phone to Australia for 30 minutes cancelling cards (and still could not order new ones because of security rules.) With my Chinese bank I was in and out in 60 seconds with a new card ordered. And getting my staff card replaced was another language lesson.

舍财 免灾

旧的不去新的不来

Posted on: Job Shopping in Modern China

'It is probably just bad Mandarin'

(hysterical laughter)

Seriously RCK, ChinesePod provides good Standard Chinese.

Tone 'rules' are frequently broken in the real world.

Posted on: Fasten that Safety Belt

Yesterday I travelled in a cool new Chinese bus with individual seat belts – I wore my seat belt but I didn’t see anyone else wearing their seat belts. 

I have seen parents wearing seat belts while driving on the freeway, with their children PLAYING on the front seat of the vehicle. 

So China has the hardware but lacks the software. 

Lastly, I am intrigued by that sound that Jennie makes when John says ‘I have one more grammar question’.  In English I think it is written as ‘Ugh’.  What Chinese character is used to represent this sound of kind of distaste?  not 啊. (Don’t you like grammar Jennie?)

Posted on: Job Shopping in Modern China

'which doesn't translate so well into words in English, but rather changes the tone'

Is that why there is no translation for this sentence? I thought you could say something like 'you are such a child', or (worse?) 'you are such a girl [implying useless]' ?? I think Jenny said that this wouldn't be directed at a male, so yes it does carry a different sense to how it would be used in English, but it does still carry a sense of uselessness?

Posted on: Job Shopping in Modern China

your English friends say "kiss my ass"??? are you kidding us? the only time an English person would say this is in quoting an American. :)

I'm a little confused - are you a native English speaker?

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

hi shanghai_rocks

It was a shock to just lose it like that, everything in it, cards, photos, and cash as well cause I'd just been to the bank. So in future I will travel extra light, taking no bank cards at all. If you have the fa piao it does identify the taxi - unfortunately I didn't ask for one. I didn't get his name either because he was not carrying a name plate. (The name plate is a good idea - I usually make a point of reading their name.) And his meter wasn't working, dodgy all round. The taxis have an animal sticker on the dash to identify the taxi company but that wasn't much good with nothing else to go on. A friend called the police and they actually came to see me, but again there was nothing for them to go on. They were sympathetic but ...没办法. I just learnt what to do in future, apart from not being a jackass and dropping my wallet.

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Aaah, a petrol-fueled engine. Well, I agree with your definition, that's a start. :)

In the cities I have lived in and visited I would put these at insignificant numbers; they have been more or less superseded by the electric motor versions (some of which incidentally are replicas of the petrol-fueled ones.) A poddie above refers to the 'Vespa knock-off" - they do look like they used the same moulds. So those scooters you've seen could be 'grandfathers', or illegal riders. Or registered outside the geographic limit for legal registrations.

To understand all this it also helps to understand the Chinese 'campaign' - every now and then the law will be enforced and then we move on to something else. And things return to more or less normality. (See my comment elsewhere about limited resources.)

Posted on: Help Calling a Cab

Do you mind revealing your source? :) Like did you just ask a friend, or do you mean you got it off a website? It doesn't gel with my own cursory research (asking resident Shanghai natives) which admittedly dates to 2006/07. I don't think you can legally ride motorbikes under or over 250cc in inner Shanghai - can't say I ever saw one in several visits. Actually seeing them is also no proof of what the rules are - people do break the law and hope not to be caught. (The police are not as let's say conscientious on this kind of thing as they are in the West - and the main reason, apart from a cultural aversion to 麻烦, is limited police numbers, but I digress.)

The regulations refer to both where you can register a vehicle, and where you can ride it. Some cities also have 'grandfathering'; it can be complicated. And they target 'petrol engined' vehicles. If by scooters you mean 电动车 - yes, they are permitted, everywhere. :)

Interesting comment about the 250cc - I imagine a 250cc limit in China would have very little impact because demand would be almost exclusively for 250 and below. For good reason - much more practical in a large Chinese (or Western for that matter) city. We Westerners tend to have a hang-up about size.

Disclaimer: I do personally have a preference for a 600cc, but that's because .. I'm actually stuck for words.