User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: A Phone Call to the Moving Company

Jenny, I had no idea what a 'pack rat' is. Thanks for the Chinese - but would anyone actually say that!?

Anyway, great lesson.  It just came a couple of months too late for me.  We had to move a lounge suite right after coming to China, and I can tell you the process. First, the guy selling the sofa says, after first telling me I can get a 三轮车 (three-wheeled bike) for 60 RMB, that I will have to get a 搬家公司 for maybe 200 - 250 RMB.  There are laws against 三轮车 crossing the city.  I see a 搬家公司 truck (about dinner time), run across and ask for a business card - they are not interested and drive off because it is the end of a hard day. (This has now happened to me so many times in China - note for those who think that in China 'it is all about the money'.)  A couple of days later I see this guy in the street who seems to be organising a  三轮车 job; there follows a discussion much like the dialogue but with very bad grammar on my side.  No point talking distance - you say that you are going from one street to another (they have to take traffic and local conditions into account.)  Very important how many floors at origin and destination.  No lift, no problem.  Negotiate a price (agree to pay 50 RMB fine if the 三轮车 is caught doing the illegal job.)  Meet 三轮车 at origin - ask him if I can ride on the bike (with my sofa and two arm chairs.)  He tells me to get the bus.  I get a 20 minute taxi ride and the bicycle arrives 10 minutes later!  The bloke insists on carrying the whole lounge suite up to the fifth floor without any help.  Maybe he thought I was too old?  [PS. I have no idea how the 'agent' gets paid in this situation - I gave my money to the 三轮车 at the destination.]      

Posted on: Thanksgiving

Pretzl,

On Valentines Day, the Chinese seem to have a number of options during which matchmakers are busy.  Just a couple of days ago was Single's Day - 光棍节 guānggùnjié (光棍 means a bachelor); it is commonly called singles day because the date is 11/11 each year.*  This is a modern 'tradition' according to Wikipaedia.  Anyway, my wife was invited to a Singles Day party at a university and it was kind of fascinating, giving new meaning to 'good clean fun'.  The kind of event that has simply been unthinkable in the West since, since,.. forever?  About 100 kids in their early 20s entertained each other with singing, dancing and magic.  No alcohol.  

Then there is the real 七夕节 qīxījié (which translates into English as Valentine's Day) and falls on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month.  It is not as commercial as the Western Valentine's Day but it is the same idea of matchmaking and it is an old tradition.  

The Chinese also celebrate the Western day as Jennie said - this is just a commercial thing.

Which reminds me re. Thanksgiving - 中秋节 zhōngqiūjié (the Mid-Autumn Festival) is traditionally a harvest festival, falling at the end of the Summer harvesting season.   

* I just recalled a discussion here on ChinesePod about 光棍 ('bare' & 'stick') with 何先生 （our Pete）- anybody else remember that?  I think it was after a Poems with Pete episode.  

Posted on: Thanksgiving

I'm intrigued Pretzl - the only people in this city who celebrated Halloween were Westerners (and not many of them.)  I didn't see any Chinese people getting into it.

If you did see something of it in Beijing let's hope that it is a superficial thing.  This bland imitation of the straight-to-video version of foreign symbols of culture is kind of sad. Consumerism gone mad?

My feeling after spending a couple of Christmases in China is that it's 非常肤浅的 fēicháng fūqiǎnde (extremely superficial, shallow.)   I suspect that Thanksgiving would be the same - they do have their own festivals that are of a similar character.  Let's hope that despite globalisation the Chinese don't succumb to the trappings of North American Thanksgiving.   

Posted on: Thank You Note

@JasonSch

Thanks for the run down on 帮 - it is one of those words that I have used a lot without really understanding it fully (and mostly getting away with it.)  I guess that in face to face conversation context would usually avoid ambiguity.  

帮我开灯 could still be ambiguous if you were standing next to a pressure lamp!.. :-) 

Posted on: Good Night

@granville

I think that 累 lèi is what happens after you have exerted yourself from doing something, such as after a long day at work.  Or at the gym.  Or a long night at KTV.  

困 kùn is something that happens before you go to bed.  Like I am doing now.  晚安 wǎnān (goodnight!) 

Posted on: Stinky Feet

miantiao

没关系，谢谢你的帮忙。 还不一定，你的意见帮助很大。  

(no worries, thanks, your view helps a lot. I wasn't sure.) 

Posted on: Stinky Feet

@helen

谢谢你。 可以说：谢谢你帮我一点忙？ 

脱脂奶粉的词语很有意思。 脱脂的脂去哪里？ He, he.. 

Posted on: Thank You Note

@Simon

节 jié (teaching hour - which in China is 45 minutes.) It is a measure word for 课 kè (class).  

So, for example,

上午有两节课 shàngwǔ yǒu liáng jié kè (There are two classes in the morning.)  The classes could be connected to each other in which case the class lasts 90 minutes.  Generally they are separated by twenty minutes.  

节 jié is an interesting measure word because it refers to lots of things that occur in jointed or jointed sections, like train carriages, sausages, classes, etc. 

Posted on: Stinky Feet

@helen

I used to say 脱卡非因的 tuōkāfēiyīnde (decaffeinated) but I notice now that Microsoft Word has it as 除去咖啡因的 - do you know which is now more correct?  

Posted on: Thank You Note

@Changye

One of the intriguing things about 汉字 is how they change form, before you get to talk about cursive styles!  

The other night a friend asked me whether I eat 栗子 and I wasn't sure if she meant 梨, 李, or 栗  (I forget which is which) so she wrote it down and I noticed for the first time that the top is not as I had remembered.  The 西 has metamorphosed as it becomes part of a larger character.  

Furthermore, she wrote the 西 part with the 横 héng (horizontal) quite separate from the 竖 shù (verticals).  I said ‘I can't read it properly' (my polite way of suggesting she had written it wrongly) and she wrote it again, exactly the same.  And looked at me as if to say 'What's wrong?'  Kind of pretty, but not like I was taught. I guess I won't forget this one again.   

@barbs

nice observation about abbreviations - I certainly hear people abbreviate the year; I am pretty sure they shorten the year to 09 in writing, at least in advertisements.  

@xiaophil

A lot of people here have a string of numbers for an email address, left of the @ - where we usually have a name or initial.  Maybe they think that they are clearer than Roman letters?  There are only ten numerics but 26 alphas to go wrong with?