User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Blog Posts, API's, Announcements and Gloria!

Congratulations on the next step in your career John.  I guess most people here are as interested in *how* to learn as in what to learn.  It sounds like a very interesting project.  Calling the business a 'consultancy' reminds me of the Nury Vittachi series in which the indomitable Mr Wong, the fengshui detective, operates a 'consultancy' from a dusty little second story room in a building destined for demolition.  I'm sure that your new venture would have Mr Wong aching with envy. :-)  

Posted on: Talking about Talking in Chinese

Meta means information about information. Here they are being funny by stretching the English language to the limit.

Does anyone have any thoughts on my questions?

Posted on: Talking about Talking in Chinese

'..a very meta show for you' - ouch!  

Seriously, very useful.  I love these lessons.  

关于谈论, how does 谈论的轮 change the formality of the verb; does it become more like the free-wheeling discussion implied by 讨论?  Or is it more like the more formal 谈?

In a similar vein, is 谈话 less formal than 谈 by itself?    

Posted on: Have you bought your Shanghai Expo ticket?

Once again I am in deep water and Barbs you come along in your friendly way to throw me a lifebuoy and instead of landing conveniently beside me it hits me on the head! (Just joking.)

Shanghai is SO different (John Pasden referred to it recently as 'unique') to the rest of China that it feels like another country. You mentioned 'HK, Shanghai'; in some ways they are more alike than Shanghai with any other mainland city, and yes one reason is the level of foreign influence on culture.

My personal perspective though is not just about all of the foreigners. When I am in Shanghai I feel that I am living right inside a Jetsons catoon - I have friends who live surrounded by tall futuristic buildings and twisting freeways. I expect to see people fly by in personal jet powered scooters (can't be too far off.) I have visions of the Chinese takeaway in The Fifth Element that comes to you window of your 100th floor apartment. It gives new meaning to the word surreal. I get excited and entertained all at once.

As an ex Hangzhou-ite also I have a kind of prejudice. I have witnessed two grown people reduced to tears arguing about which of their hometowns, Shanghai or Hangzhou, is the best! No doubt similar arguments are had about Beijing and Shanghai (China's Melbourne and Sydney respectively.) In fact, perhaps Shanghai is China's 'Sydney' - brash, loud and fast - the City of Sin.

Posted on: Skincare: Sunscreen

She looks dangerously thin to me; 'X-rays' Tom Wolfe called them.

Posted on: New Year's Resolutions

Cheques. 'Check' is what you do to confirm that you have 一包纸 before leaving the house. ;-)

Posted on: Have you bought your Shanghai Expo ticket?

Yeah, the Brisbane Expo was fun. We went up from Sydney for a big family outing. And its legacy Southbank helps make Brisbane a great city. To be honest, Barbs and RJ, I did contemplate going to the Shanghai Expo because I think it could be fun (now I can't go); I was making some lame jokes above. I have no ambition at all to live in Shanghai but I have had had some good/exciting times there, in China's parallel universe.

Posted on: Have you bought your Shanghai Expo ticket?

One of those handsome war machines would have made a more interesting mascot for Expo?

RJ - I am surprised by the indifference to Expo voiced here. Makes me feel right at home. :-) Unfortunately I won't be going, I have another appointment. Actually, Shanghai looks like an Expo site without having an Expo.

Posted on: 世界末日？

'哭得稀里哗啦的'意思‘bawling your eyes out'，不是意思'balling your eyes out'.  

Posted on: Have you bought your Shanghai Expo ticket?

Are tickets really a problem?  Last time in Shanghai, at a loose end, we signed ourselves into an engineering conference that was being staged in a wonderful old building we wanted a closer look at. We got the ID 卡，'show bags' etc. and just pretended we were engineers.  :-)  Actually I think half of the crowd were locals looking for free food and sweets and anything interesting in the show bags.