User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Visiting a Friend at the Hospital

@Changye

I have a couple of questions too - 

1. If 祝贺,祝福/祝愿 even 祝 is used in conversation at the start of a sentence, would you say that this is a really formal situation?  Eg. Spring Festival, someone's birthday?  

2. In informal situations is the 祝 simply dropped, so you say 生日快乐! and they like, or is there another less formal word to use instead of 祝 to introduce the greeting?  

I remember saying 祝你生日快乐 to a Shanghai native and she said 'We never say that, '祝你', it is something that is written down but not said.'  Does this suggest that 祝 is used only on formal occasions?  

Posted on: Visiting a Friend at the Hospital

在澳大利亚身体健壮意思 ‘built like a brick ..er.. toilet block'. Unfortunately that lost something in the translation.  

Posted on: Applying for a Loan

@podster

'She's in 'import/export''.. is perhaps a euphemistic expression rather like 'colourful racing identities' - which we use in Australia to describe those in organised crime!  It is delightfully obscure.  

The economy is typically specialized to the extent that importers are rarely exporters and vice versa - although of course many exporters import the means to produce the exports (eg. machinery, special expertise.)  But an 'importer' is normally defined as an importer of finished products.  A nice exception to this is the travel agent who organises both incoming and outgoing tours.  The incoming tourist business works like an export and the outgoing tourist business like an import (so when the RMB appreciates we get a boost to outgoing tourist business.)      

Posted on: Applying for a Loan

@podster

It is interesting to learn some technical vocab (I'm sorry I can't help much) but you should note that ChinesePod staff are better linguists than bankers!  The dialogue has a line that the 'RMB has appreciated' making it 'less attractive for both imports and exports'.  Ask any half-reflective Chinese hedonistic over-consumer (I hope I haven't classified my information source out of existence) and they will tell you that when the RMB goes up that imports become relatively cheaper to buy (everything else equal as the economists like to say.)   But it is all in good fun, and we do learn some useful Chinese ..:-) 

Posted on: Which Time Zone?

Lily & Lilac

认识你们很高兴！

rènshi nǐmen hěn gāoxìng!

Pleased to meet you!

Posted on: Where are you from?

@rb1956,go_manly

Both 澳大利亚 (Àodàlìyà) and 澳洲 (Àozhōu) are 'correct' - you could say that 澳洲 is the 'continent' as opposed to the 'country', but as we know from our geography lessons Australia is a continent. In practice  澳洲 can be used as shorthand, but I have only heard/seen it used this way in Australia.  In China one usually hears it referred to as 澳大利亚.  This passes the taxi driver test.  I recommend the longer form; when spoken, the short form is in danger of being confused with 欧洲 Oūzhōu (Europe).  澳大利亚 can potentially be confused with 奥地利 (Austria) and perhaps 意大利 (Italy), but not if you take pleasure in enunciating each character.  :-)  

Barbs: I have not heard a short form of 澳大利亚人 where I live. And I quite like the lilt of the word; not sure I'd promote a short form.  

Incidentally, I have never heard anyone ever say 'Where's that?'  Australia is well known by the people of China, hopefully for mainly good reasons. Let's say there is lots of good will.          

Posted on: Which Time Zone?

一般悉尼比北京早两个小时，现在悉尼有夏令时， 所以悉尼比北京早三个小时。可是布里斯班没有夏令时，所以布里斯班比悉尼晚一个小时。 西方的澳大利亚时间和北京时间一样。   

yībān xīnī bǐ běijīng zǎo liáng gè xiǎoshí, xiànzài xīnī yǒu xià lìngshí, suǒyǐ xīnī bǐ béijīng zǎo sān gè xiǎoshí. kěshí būlīsībān mèiyǒu xià lìngshí, suǒyǐ būlīsībān bǐ xīnī wǎn yī gè xiǎoshí. xīfàng de àodàlīyà shíjiān hé béijīng shíjiān yīyàng.  

(Normally Sydney is two hours ahead of Beijing, but at the moment Sydney is on Daylight Saving so it is three hours ahead. But Brisbane is not on Daylight Saving, so Brisbane is one hour behind Sydney.  Western Australia and China are on the same time.)   

Posted on: How have you been?

@Changye,Orangina

We could add 不错 búcuò (very good), 等等 děngděng (and so on.)  

Actually, the deflating comment was followed by an offer to come and teach me how to cook some Hangzhou dishes.  One such experience is recorded somewhere on these ChinesePod boards - I wish I could search for keyword 'cooking' or 'recipes'.  

Posted on: Applying for a Loan

@Changye I followed you (more or less) up to the punchline - your piece of advice at the end on what to do with your money. What does 推磨 tui1mo4 mean in this context? Is this last sentence some kind of chengyu? Interestingly, when discussing bribery culture with my students, they see China sitting somewhere half-way between countries like Australia on the one hand, and Indonesia and Vietnam on the other. You can go to independent agencies that measure the level of corruption as objectively as possible - they do 'annual reports' on countries! These independent observers confirm the views expressed by my students.

Posted on: How have you been?

@Miantiao,Orangina

I used to be proud of my Chinese cooking. I invited a Chinese friend to dinner at home and made the mistake of asking '做饭怎么样？' (how is my cooking?) I was told flatly: '还好' (just okay). In Hangzhou I had the impression that this means just below 60% (a fail.)  For the record, my cooking is pretty good.