User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Skiing, Not Ice Skating

Nice lesson. 

I have a problem with 差不多 - it's to do with that vagueness in Chinese.  (Thanks for explaining how to refute with 差很多). 

I believe that it can mean either (a) so close there is no need to dispute the difference, as well as (b) there is actually a small difference.  The meanings are conveyed by way of both context and body language. 差不多 (b) is said with a note of concern, or as an admission. 差不多 (a) is said with a smile, like 'we both know the difference is not worth worrying about'. Does anyone else worry about this vagueness in meaning?     

好像两个意思像一样差不多。 (It seems that the two meanings are close.)  But - am I worried about how close they are, or am I suggesting 'don't worry about it'?  God knows, but it is one of the funnest expressions in Chinese.  

Posted on: The Dragonfly Experience

@Jenny

Thanks for the link .. I had a quick look at the comments and I can see that it is hard to please everyone with a show like this.  I will just reiterate my preference for more focus on the Chinese community and Chinese language, because I am here to learn the language.  

Ha ha, you are so right about massage. A couple of months ago I was 'steamrolled' into a massage that left me bleeding initially and then bruised for a few days.    

Posted on: Warm Winter Clothes

Re 板球比赛 

bottlo = place to buy alcohol

Posted on: 次，遍，趟: Measuring Times

@go_manly

Interesting question - I hope someone with authority comes along to help.  

I think in this case the meaning is that the play has two Acts or parts; each day both parts (ie the whole play) are broadcast.  A special feature of Chinese broadcasting is that you can get a whole series played one episode after another.  And then sometimes they will split a film in two and show one half one day and one half the next.  And of course there is the common practice of abruptly stopping the film, just before the end, perhaps to fit programming schedules.  (Don't get  me started.) 

Also interesting use of 放 fang4 (to show or play) - a character with many meanings.  

Posted on: A Charming Café in Shanghai

Thanks RJ (and others); I can rely on poddies to keep me on the straight and narrow.  Still strikes me as funny (I'm Australian remember) - we love a laugh about pretentious sounding pronunciations.  

@zhuimia

My experience with 'cigarettes' is as follows - early 2000s handing round a ciggie was still common.  In 2004 I came to China for a few weeks and noted that it was perfectly fine to refuse a cigarette saying 'it's not good for my health.' Discussions about health followed - people I met were apparently quite health conscious.  I was here for a year from mid-2006 and I came to the conclusion that smoking a cigarette was no longer an essential part of doing business. Switch to the present - I've been here about four months and I have been offered a cigarette once.  (And this is the wild West.)  There are of course still plenty of smokers but pressing cigarettes on someone is a dying tradition ('scuse the pun.)     

Posted on: The North Has Central Heating

@rb1956

I hope the 'sterling' is not your own currency because I will be accused of telling my grandmother how to suck eggs.  The correct name of the currency is pound sterling and it is more commonly abbreviated to 'pound' than to 'sterling'.  So, in the UK, the name of the currency and the unit of currency are effectively the same, the pound.  It is possibly just as confusing in the UK as in China.  Actually, we are not really confused here.  

人民币 RMB - name of currency 

元 yuán - unit of currency (but RMB is okay) 

快 kuài (colloquial term for 元) 

By the way, 镑 bàng (pound sterling).

As in 可不可以借我五英镑钱？  ke3 bu ke3 yi3 jie2 wo3 wu3 ying1 bang4 qian2?  (Can you lend me five quid?)  

Ooops, sorry mate. Just remembered from another thread that you're an Aussie.  Well, the pound used to be our currency; I remember the changeover well.  That will confuse poddies.  

Posted on: A Charming Café in Shanghai

@zhuimia

Is F&B "French Bistro" ?

I assume your question is serious and it raises a good point - way too much jargon.  People who do not use these words feel alienated.  It's 'food and beverage' by the way. I counted about seven or eight words and expressions in his chat that would not be understood by many native English speakers. I don't know what commanding/demanding means.   

BTW I heard a word I have never heard before in my life: CREPP.  :-)  RJ will be on my case suggesting that I am joking, but no, I have never in all my years heard it pronounced that way.  If it is the French then I will have to bow to authentic pronunciation.   

Your question about whether he can speak Standard Chinese is not crazy.  I used to go and talk to a Chinese shop owner near me in Sydney and her twenty year old daughter, born in Sydney, claims to 'not understand a word' of Standard Chinese.  She was never sent to Chinese school.  But she understands Shanghaihua because that is what she hears all the time at home.    

Posted on: The North Has Central Heating

@Roderick 

Bay window, that's it. Thanks. Yes, they are common in China too.  

The comparison in this lesson between 暖气 nuǎnqì (central heating) in the north and the 空调 kōngtiáo (air conditioning) in the south is a little over-simplified.  No surprise there.  Particularly the comparison on electricity costs.  All costs need to be considered.  For example, central heating also consumes resources, and the infrastructure for central heating is breaking down (for example Dalian's frequent and widespread geyser-like breaks in the pipes is a tourist attraction.) Maintaining this system is hugely expensive.  

Maintenance of the air-conditioning in the south is largely a private responsibility, and therefore frequently neglected. That is an important reason why people are cold in the south - the units don't work as they were designed because they are not maintained properly.  

There is an unfortunate arbitrary line drawn between north and south (attributed to Mao) which doesn't help - some cities south of the Yangtze are bitterly cold in Winter.  They would benefit from central heating, but the costs or that plus cooling for summer would be very high.  The 空调 is a sensible solution and it would work better if maintained.  

Speaking from experience.  :-)

Posted on: The North Has Central Heating

Ha ha Changye

(Why am I not surprised by your comment? )  

Actually I agree - our place is also '120 sm' and I wonder what they count..  :-)  is it 一百二十平方米左右？ 

The service ducts (water, waste water, electricity, gas etc.) would be included,and you can't use that space for anything else.  Our place has a generous balcony - that would be included (this is standard practice in Australia.)  Also we have two 'window seats' that are probably added even though your use of the space is limited.  (I am not sure how else to describe them - we don't usually have this construction in Australia.  The windows jut out of the face of the building; there is a very broad 'window sill'.  Four people could hop up and sit on the window sill for an intimate conversation.  We put pot plants and photos, etc. in these spaces).   But actually I love the design of our place (unlike Chanelle's comment) - it is luxury for us; we live in a very small place by comparison when in Sydney.  In particular I love Chinese kitchens; they are so business-like.  I would like one of these massive gas cookers for our place in Sydney.)

Posted on: The Dragonfly Experience

@Jenny

You make a very good fist of this job.  :-) 

I am interested in business in China, and how industry is organized, but I am not so interested in business serving foreigners.  

Any plans to talk to Chinese business people/ leaders?  Organisations serving the general population?  

For instance, I once ran into the people in a Wildlife Protection Society - there are no foreigners involved.  This revealed another side of China to me.  Also, I am learning how many Chinese-run charities exist.  We in the West, I think, are conditioned (brain-washed?) into thinking that only foreigners do charity work in China.  Or foreigners are the main instigators of charity work - this is a mis-perception of Chinese society.  

Just an idea.  And if I have missed such a podcast, my apologies.