User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Meeting ChinesePod's Teachers

I did not appreciate the collocation of 'men', 'mid-life crisis' and 'motorbikes', but hey, it's Women's day. Have your fun. :-)  

Posted on: Finding One's seat

Trivia fans should bookmark this - in February 2008 RJ is heard asking for 'the' grammar guide, implying that it is long-awaited.  That comment has had two birthdays, three in China.  

Posted on: Man-to-Man Advice on Women

The 'reduplication' in Chinese names occurs as either a real name (I know two people with given names Yuanyuan, same character repeated but I won't write it for privacy reasons, even in China) or, more usually, a nickname formed by taking one of the characters in the given name and repeating it.

Another interesting one is where there are a number of children in the family with the same character appearing first in their given names. This reminds me of occasions in the West where you hear of whole families with given names starting with the same letter.

Posted on: Man-to-Man Advice on Women

Makes me think of the Leunig cartoon of sunrise on TV while the real thing can be seen through the window.

Posted on: Keeping 收 and 受 Straight

Nice lesson, thanks very much.  

Is 'help' abstract or concrete?  

How would you say 'He doesn't like to accept any help'?  

Posted on: New year, new lessons, and a reminder of new prices!

Haha. Other poddies may not recognise it but you seem to be intimating that Queensland is more advanced than other parts of Australia! :-)

Actually in NSW a similar thing happened, with the ACT remaining less regulated than NSW, so people would go down and buy all sorts of fireworks year round that we couldn't get in NSW. Maybe they would avail themselves of the other liberal-minded products that the ACT is famous for at the same time?

(PS I don't know about systematic data for fireworks in China - every year there are newspaper stories about the damage to life and property.)

Posted on: New year, new lessons, and a reminder of new prices!

Fireworks may be the thing that is most difficult to appreciate without visiting China and experiencing it first-hand. Particularly as in the West fireworks have become so controlled and commercialized. Formalized. In China it is as close to mayhem as one could imagine. Despite efforts to educate the public on dangers. Despite protocols that have been put in place in some areas. Fireworks alone make the ticket price worthwhile. They are not pretty but they refresh the spirit.

Posted on: Visiting the Hospital with a Fever

Looking at the items measured in this standard 'bloods' (for foreigners working/studying in China), I wonder what 'they' are looking for? To a layman it seems that they are concerned with identifying cancers, maybe HIV? Are there any medical poddies who can enlighten us further as to what they are looking for?

Supplementary question: I wonder if Chinese workers are given the same blood routine exam?

Posted on: Chinese Zodiac Birth Year

You could be out by twelve years.

Posted on: Waiting for Food

shhhhhhhhh.