User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

RJ

'seems a little strained. Is that the rule rather than the exception'

I probably shouldn't buy in again after venting my spleen above, but you ask an interesting question. I wonder if your Western sensibilities assume some tension would exist? (I would think that in Australia if one adult told another adult doing their washing to check pockets for used tissues and other nasties there would be more than tension.) In ayi-land though I imagine that there is a matter-of-factness in these exchanges - that Westerners (outside China) may find strange. Let's just hope that the ayi is nicking the change. (At least.)

Having said all that, the language here is great. I have had workers in the house for the last couple of days and used this to review some of the language I needed - it is uncanny how often ChinesePod comes up with useful dialogues just when needed!

Posted on: Your First Mooncake

hi dunderklumpen

Night has fallen on 中秋节 for this year and I have already eaten too much. :) Admittedly not moon cakes, but your tip is a good one. I'll note your suggestion for next year.

Posted on: Getting a Tattoo

没关系， :)

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

Hey pretzellogic,

Agree wholeheartedly that there are benefits to be had for foreign learners, and certainly not commenting on individual cases. Just when I hear crowing about the 'cheap help' my faux-convict hackles rise.

Posted on: Your First Mooncake

Hi abelle

Yes, I never really miss out, particularly in China. Paradoxically, I think that if you have to avoid wheat it makes you a healthier eater. Okay, that is not a hard and fast rule (eg. you can end up eating a lot of fatty food). But it does make you more educated about the food industry and you have to constantly read ingredients.

If your husband ever wants to visit China I have a 'gluten' guide in Chinese which I modestly think is more useful than what the Celiac Society publishes, send an IM if you would like a copy.

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

Hi RJ

I admit mine is a minority view because even in the west I don't eat most cereal or pancakes. Also I guess it depends on what you like for breakfast. The good things that substitute for the usual Western breakfast from my point of view would be:

- lots of fresh fruit (usually with more taste than in the West)

- fresh yoghurt and milk, eggs, honey

- plenty of Yunnan coffee

- easy gluten free cereals (eg. popped rice and corn, sweet corn)

But there are also plenty of good standard Chinese options like rice porridge, noodles, sticky rice and pomello.

The popped rice/corn is gluten-free, unlike in the West where breakfast cereal manufacturers use wheat in just about everything including rice & corn.

I would agree with you that Chinese attempts at Western breakfasts are usually not done well at hotels.

You could be right about vacuum cleaners but you do get what you pay or.

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

'I have to vote for pancakes'??

RJ - elaborate please - 我不明白。

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

Hi Bill

Yeah, .. no, don't start me. It is not a happy life. It a life made possible by the existence of the poor and put upon, people who receive rudimentary schooling, and poor health care, people who then work for crappy wages and live in awful housing, people who have few options available in a society that accepts and reinforces class divisions. This social arrangement plays out in restaurants, markets, businesses, private homes and public places all over China. The class system brings out the worst in Chinese people (and, apparently, foreigners).

Posted on: Your First Mooncake

I miss out on this famous delicacy because I cannot eat wheat.  No one does gluten-free 月饼.  :)  

But I still get them as gifts, lots of them. Everyone gets a box or two of 月饼 from their employer at Mid-Autumn Festival - in fact you may receive several (large) boxes; far more than anyone could possibly eat.  

In Yunnan the favourite 月饼 contains ham and sugar (because ham is one of our famous food products).  

On egg-yolk 月饼: each year a supply of 月饼 is exported to Australia so the Chinese can celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival properly, but (at least as at a couple of years ago) the egg-yolk 月饼 ones are not allowed into the country.  

Posted on: Giving Instructions to the Ayi

The ayis need a labour union and the foreigners need to get a life. :)