User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Talking about Talking in Chinese

Thanks (to you and Jiaojie) for your explanation - sorry I did not see your reply until today. I think I use these terms indiscriminately - it takes a lot of practice to remember different levels of formality. This lesson was very useful.

Posted on: Talking about Talking in Chinese

Helen很可能写错了。。 :-)

我跟自己说。。。

不可能说我跟自已说...

Posted on: Giving up a Seat on the Bus

I very much doubt that this is a 小皇帝 matter. There are a number of behaviours favouring the child in China that go way back before One Child Policy. Children are cosseted in China, no doubt about that, but these behaviours are too old to be a product of current Government policies. They are reinforced by a number of old sayings.

I actually like the standard practice of giving up seats for children in the bus, because children are vulnerable to injury if the bus lurches or brakes suddenly - adults are more likely to anticipate and they also have superior strength to hang on. Unfortunately in the West our obsession with the individual means that every adult sees it as a right, having paid their money, to get a seat.

Teenagers in China are also more likely to leap to their feet to allow an older person to sit - at least where I live - this practice has long disappeared in Australia. So the respect between generations goes both ways in China.

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

Hi Mac! Would you care to elaborate on your comments?

You say that the system can be used to 'demerit people' - how does that work exactly?

You also imply that the system here is inferior to our systems of personal records in the West. I would find it most interesting to hear how you have compared issues of privacy and the impact of personal records on peoples lives etc., between China and the West. It sounds like you know a lot about China.

Posted on: The Mysterious Student Record

In Australia there is a legal as well as linguistic difference - all universities are funded by the Federal Government. Only some colleges receive taxpayer funds. A college is .. well it can be almost anything .. it is certainly not just a community college (also 'community college' is not the same in Australia as the US.) One of the main uses, like the British I think, is for residential accommodation at university - I think that these are always called colleges. More broadly it means an educational institution. But it is also a fancy name for a doctor's trade union (eg. College of Surgeons.) Some colleges have the final two years of high school - the Australian Capital Territory has this system. And private high schools (Grade 7 - 12) are often called colleges. The only thing it is not is a university! Not even colloquially.

Posted on: Back to Basics: Making People Plural with 们 (men)

Bill, sorry I missed this - nice point. I must admit that 'thee' is more pleasant sounding than 'youse' - but it is amazing how the ear adjusts. I can remember, about 15 years ago, when our children first started saying 'so fun' instead of 'so much fun' - I felt like screaming. Now I think I say it myself occasionally.

I certainly didn't see Friendly Persuasion in 1956 (I was media-deprived in my early years) but I think I saw it just a few years ago on telly. (Unless there is more than one film about a Quaker family in the American civil War.) I'm sure I missed the theme song - I will listen for it next time. BTW 'Friendly' Persuasion is no doubt a play on the alternative word for Quakers - Friends.

Chinese still uses its familiar/formal distinction with 你/您. There is also a much more elaborate system for addressing people than we have in Australia at least, the function of which seems to be to draw a familiar/formal distinction.

Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Day

I am told that the ideal fengshui is on the side of a hill/mountain - not at the top,, not at the bottom. But these sites can only be afforded by the wealthy now, particularly in Hangzhou. Wherever I went in the hills in Hangzhou I saw graves, usually very old. And in the countryside the same - once you know what to look for you see them everywhere on the sides of hills. There are often vendors around selling plots where I live.

Posted on: 《清明》杜牧

This poem is also discussed in the Elementary lesson thread Tomb Sweeping Day.  I wish that the Related Lessons were more relevant.   

Posted on: Beards Are for Old Men

RJ - Did you see the 1993 film 'Wrestling Ernest Hemingway' with Richard Harris and Robert Duvall? Set in a retirement village. It's one of those stories where opposites rub-off on one another. My recollection is that the exuberant Richard Harris shaves the shy, lonely, retired barber Robert Duvall - a moving scene because Duvall is so uptight. Harris is teaching Duvall to let himself experience pleasure in the act of being shaved. I often think about this scene when I'm shaving - make it a pleasurable time I say to myself. Make sure the water is hot, take your time. (Ah yes, I still use a razor - was never won over by the electric appliance for shaving. Wouldn't be the same.)

Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Day

Even though for most people in China I am sure it is just a holiday, I wonder if that is bad form, like saying 'Happy Good Friday'?