User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?
April 24, 2009 at 9:40 AM@chanelle
I'm not sure how many people would pick up the significance of what you said about Dutch swear words - I must say I was amazed by my experience sharing a hostel room in HK with two young Dutch men. I have often referred back to that night, saying to people 'Hey, do you know how to swear in Dutch? It is so WEIRD!!' Weird to me anyway. Or should I say .. different. :-) I asked one of the Dutch men what happens if someone loses a loved one to something like ... cancer - does that make swearing difficult? He admitted that it does. What do you think?
Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?
April 23, 2009 at 10:08 PM@miantiao
thanks for the explanation - makes me aware of the limitations of dictionaries. A friend is always being disparaging about my dictionary and I can see why.
Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原
April 23, 2009 at 9:59 PM@xiaoan
学术抄袭 does really happen
We have our own Antipodean cases - it sells newspapers. The defence in one case was 'I'm so busy, there's not enough time to check everything that goes out under my signature'. And my vision of academia is of a sleepy ivory tower..Thanks for your offer but I am sufficiently challenged at the moment with CP scripts and micro-essays from my fellow poddies!
@barbs
ah.. I think i understand your references to Chauncy Gardiner now. And if you extend that argument to just one or two characters - eg. I have a number of beautiful one and two character 书法 - I can imagine all kinds of stories and interpretations stirred by just a few flourishes of the brush.
Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?
April 23, 2009 at 11:32 AM@miantiao
蓝； 懒or烂or褴 all work well with grass
Ok, I'll bite. 我不明白! 'all work well with grass' 是什么意思？ And while we are there .. do you know how to say 'bluegrass'?
I ask with trepidation - the last time I asked our daughter about a word I couldn't understand it was extremely 骂人话..
Posted on: Rise and Shine!
April 23, 2009 at 10:32 AM@Pete, Jevious
A few days ago I suggested a lesson on 国骂 and now I am thinking 'don't bother'. I have pages of material to mull over! :-) 谢谢哥们
Posted on: Boston
April 23, 2009 at 10:05 AM@jennyzhu
I am sure Charles Winchester III (from MASH TV series), the snob from Boston, would have aspired to a Mercedes. I wouldn't aspire to Mercedes even if they started making motorbikes ..
Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原
April 23, 2009 at 9:23 AM@anneolga
Thanks for the reference to Francois Cheng; unfortunately I am in kindergarten when it comes to French. Mais je pense que je comprend 'la melancolie'! Actually I cheated - 我老婆 told me to say that..
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 5: Super Babies and Ultrasounds
April 22, 2009 at 2:10 PM@barbs
Ha - I like your gender prediction chart. You are no doubt aware that there are plenty of theories for determining sex in the West. I believe the Roman Catholic Church has done its bit. If memory serves correct they had a way of doing it so you get a boy - we tried it and got a boy. Proves it. Or not. This is the only time in my life I consulted the Catholic Church on anything.
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 5: Super Babies and Ultrasounds
April 22, 2009 at 1:57 PM@a1p12, matt_c
The story of gender bias needs to be carefully evaluated. As I read the article (with one author of the original research from 浙大 it must have some authority) it overlooks a significant debate on interpretation of the data. There are further problems with the data itself. I'm not denying selective abortions as a factor but both the significance of the difference (the size expressed as a percentage) and the likely causes are not as B&W as the newspaper would have us believe - and I detect a cultural bias in the language. But it makes a good story and reinforces what we all 'know' about China. There are research studies that have come to different conclusions.
Matt - I was interested that you said you had read reseach in your uni days - I was reading the literature just a couple of years ago and the weight of opinion then was that the imbalance has been exaggerated.
Furthermore the 'one child' policy as I understand it does not give the incentives for selective abortion in the way some people apparently believe.
Chinese demography is such a cool subject :-)
Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?
April 24, 2009 at 12:10 PM@chanelle77
Thanks for shedding some more light on swearing in a foreign language - it is less of a mystery for me now. Not that I have anything against mystery. 'pestkop' - I'll have to try that on our son - he is a much more accomplished swearer than I am; I'm in awe of his skill. (Clearly he learnt these words outside the home.) You have given me some ammunition.