User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
May 24, 2009 at 12:12 PM@pete
It may be that 不管白猫黑猫，抓住耗子就是好猫 but it is the 'Black Cat Police Chief' who can be rleied upon to get the job done (eg. eradication of rats.)
(this is the best photo I could find of him at short notice - unfortunately in this version he looks B&W! He is usually seen racing to the scene of the crime on a motorbike， not a dodgy-looking tree trunk.)
Posted on: Blow out Your Candles
May 24, 2009 at 11:16 AM@shenyajing, miantiao
thanks for your help with the cartoon - your explanation works for me. Chinese is a deliciously cryptic language - and the cartoon world (the world over) is itself cryptic. So Chinese cartoons are doubly cryptic!
BTW I have often wondered why there are no cryptic crosswords in Chinese (I understand there are no crosswords at all cryptic or otherwise). I started a FB group called 'People that love Chinese crosswords' (for a joke) and several people joined but of course it came to nothing. Yes I know there are too many different meanings of the one word, that a puzzle would maybe never be solved, but it seems to me still technically possible..
Posted on: Blow out Your Candles
May 22, 2009 at 7:04 AM@shenyajin
不好意思。。 不是中国通！ 很久我的老师告诉我。
BTW no-one has explained barbs cartoon above - what is it about? 比如说： 乱弹广场什么意思？ 我知道乱弹琴意思乱说， 对吧？ 乱弹广场是一个地方还是乱说的话？
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
May 22, 2009 at 6:43 AM@sophiechiang
I hope you don't mind my commenting on your translation of 'in the doghouse'. In the West it does not have connotations of suffering saomething like long-term unemployment. It means that you are 'out of favour' with, for example, your wife. Because of something you did, or didn't do. :-) Nor does it have any sense of being unable to escape. The 'doghouse' is temporary accommodation for humans. The term is also used lightly, with a smile, possibly because of the image of an adult trying to fit himself in a kennel. Sadly, Laowang's situation goes beyond being in the doghouse. From my perspective he would be better off in the doghouse than inside.
Posted on: Explosion
May 22, 2009 at 6:27 AM@shenyajin
Nice photo! He doesn't have any right to look so happy, doing such hard work...
Good shot of the pressure gauge (not visible in my photo) .. If I was him I would have a closer eye on the pressure gauge than on the camera!
Notice the thick gloves - they are more for handling the hot iron pot than the cold weather.
Posted on: Explosion
May 22, 2009 at 3:28 AMPopcorn making equipment:
Iron pot (centre) sitting on firebox, lid open
Mechanical bellows (foreground)
Man holding 'windsock' (background right)
Chair for worker (left)
Posted on: Explosion
May 22, 2009 at 12:36 AM@matt, barbs
the movies are spot on. (Barbs: I have some photos of my own but haven't mastered the art of uploading to CP. Could be just as well as I couldn't compete with you mate。）
matt: I ate it for breakfast for a week in Korea - goes well as cereal. That and Korean 'pizza'. Pizza one morning, popcorn the next.
Posted on: Explosion
May 21, 2009 at 10:00 AMJenny's popcorn making is a hard way to make a living. Find an empty space on an otherwise city footpath. Set up an iron pot that could have been foundered in the Middle Ages, a big long plastic bag shaped like a windsock (tied to the end of the pot), an open fire and, importantly, a pressure guage no more than 60 years old. The corn goes in the pot, a lid is closed and locked, the pot goes over the fire and turned like a pig on a spit. The guage is closely watched until it 'red-lines'. At the critical moment the lock is broken and there is a loud explosion as the popped corn flies into the windsock. From there it is scooped out into bags for the customers.
Posted on: Blow out Your Candles
May 21, 2009 at 9:20 AM@shenyajin
ah,, yes I'm interested, but I think I may have got myself in a little deep here on the language! My question is about the use of 了.. I understand that 我27周岁了 and 我27周岁 are both legitimate and they mean different things. In the first sentence I have already had my birthday this year; in the second sentence I have not yet had my birthhday. But I am 27 in both cases because i turned 27 at New Year (or seven dayss after new Year for the purists). This might be what some would call pedantic!
对不对?
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 11: Wang in the Doghouse
May 25, 2009 at 7:27 AMIt does seem to me (from my experience) that the 'CP method' or maybe the availability of the boards creates an over-reliance (obsession?) with English translation - in a typical Chinese lesson after say a year of Chinese language classes there would be very little discussion about English translation. At higher levels none at all (you look it up yourself if you want to after class.) I have been caught up myself, because it is INTERESTING. I have my doubts about its educational value if the sole goal is to learn Chinese. I think that it imay be because there is a dearth of other cues for understanding - by comparison to face to face classes.