User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Renting a Car
May 15, 2013 at 9:51 AMYikes! According to Urban Dictionary 'calling shotgun' means claiming the front seat next to the driver - the seat that is most likely to render you injured or killed in case of an accident. I am struggling to see the connection - there are some similarities, although claiming shāfā sounds much more fun to me, and there is minimal risk of injury.
Posted on: English Letters Make Chinese Words
May 13, 2013 at 4:06 PMHi tingyun
Yes, it's always good to see your posts. This time your reference to a five year degree took my attention, so I looked it up. According to an Aust Govt. website the usual period of study in Aust is three years, but in the US it ranges from five to seven years. What is going on there? (The website says that the Aust phd is 'more intense'.) I'm guessing it may have something to do with funding? In Aust the usual situation is to find a scholarship - can I take it that in the US some people pay for their own phd? In which case, you may need to spend time working rather than researching. Also the website says that you attend classes whereas in Aust you don't. In face that may be a little dated - in Aust phd candidates may be required to take a few classes to get them up to speed in some areas, but the emphasis is on original research, under supervision. In Aust you would normally be admitted to a phd program if you have completed a research Masters in your area, or earned a first class honours degree (you have already learned something about research), you have financial support, and you have found a supervisor.
I don't know anyone doing a phd in Chinese, I thinks it is very cool - keep us updated in all that free time you have over the next four years (keeping in mind that your Aussie colleagues have to finish the whole thing in three years.) :)
Posted on: Interesting Architecture
May 9, 2013 at 12:37 AMThat's a good question. It would come to mind usually when you see a humble dwelling in the country I think, in which case you could say 砖房 zhuānfáng ((brick house). There are brick buildings in the city of course but they are usually rendered so you don't see the bricks. Many buildings (even high rise) are tiled - I'm not sure how we refer to that; in English we'd say the building has a tiled facade. 瓦外墙？
Posted on: Making a Mojito
May 9, 2013 at 12:20 AMHey Baba, 我不明白。“给魏”是什么意思？你喝醉的时候，打字错了，所以给尾换给魏？
反正你意思是有人喝醉的时候geiwei听起来ganbei的?
Posted on: Chinese Street Food (Part I)
April 2, 2013 at 1:59 AM'I believe it's much more safer in big cities.'
'This view is prevalent in big cities. in small cities and towns we think that it is safer in small cities and towns.
... whatever, I have never been able to come up with reasons why it would or should be safer in large cities. havent the worst food abuses (eg. milk scandal) occurred in Shanghai?
Posted on: Chinese Gets Cooking
March 18, 2013 at 2:12 PM煎花生米,我很喜欢煎花生米!
Posted on: Sina's Microblogs
February 8, 2013 at 10:36 PMBaba, how do we find you on Weibo?
Posted on: Sina's Microblogs
February 8, 2013 at 6:34 AMhi Zhen and Baba, I think maybe the site works differently inside China, although I take the point that rules change from time to time. In December your ID was a required field and it would not accept an Australian passport. you couldn't use an email address or a phone number. there was a campaign about people using their real names (had a parallel campaign on train tickets). I was trying to get a new account.
Posted on: Renting a Car
May 15, 2013 at 9:56 AM'shafa shifu, shafa!'
Ha ha - I wonder if anyone has ever tried saying this to a taxi driver in China? It's safe to assume that it would be difficult to explain the joke, not least because the back seat looks more like a sofa than the front seat.