User Comments - bodawei
bodawei
Posted on: Old China Hand
March 2, 2011 at 4:32 AMHi baba. Well, I think you may be right - a cynical view of your description might be 'condescending' (given that it is one adult to another)? But that is a typical foreigner's viewpoint; I believe that it is quite innocent. No malice or scorn intended. No irony.
But here's something to consider. I also believe that when someone IS very proficient with the language & culture they may be less likely to hear the comment. (It may be something a taxi driver says to fill a space.) It's an expression most suited to elementary learners (using the classification posted on another thread.) But I am talking a little out of turn - I can't say I ever hear it out here. I can't remember ever hearing it spoken by a native Chinese - maybe I have and forgotten.
Posted on: Old China Hand
March 1, 2011 at 11:41 PM'easily BUT genuinely impressed‘
I have a hypothesis about this - I think that it is a term used by Chinese who have lots of contact with foreigners. Eg. the taxi driver in Shanghai. I do think false flattery is usually involved, AND they are genuinely pleased. No contradiction from my viewpoint. I'm trying to say that flattery is less offensive or devious in Chinese culture than in Aust.
In my experience the expression is used more by foreigners about other foreigners, quite often in a friendly joking tone. It is actually commonly sighted in advertisements for conference speakers, admittedly in the English form 'old China hand'.
Posted on: Celebrating a Baby's First Month
March 1, 2011 at 10:47 AMSeems like an offer I shouldn't resist. :)
Posted on: Celebrating a Baby's First Month
March 1, 2011 at 7:49 AMHmm timely, got an invite just a few hours ago to see the new baby boy on the weekend; he's now just one month old. 我当然应该学习这个课文，还有复习复习，哈哈。
Posted on: The Many Sounds of Chinese
February 27, 2011 at 5:28 AMNice to hear a continuation of these interviews with native speakers, particularly ChinesePod staff.
It's kinda cool that in the program interviewing our 音效师 yīnxiàoshī (sound editor) there is a little blooper. At the end of the Chinese sounds section we have a sentence from the beginning. Seems Yanna was too busy doing the recording to get round to editing! So she certainly proved her usefulness. Just yesterday I was speaking to a person from 武汉市 wǔhànshì (Wuhan) who also learned Japanese - do the universities there have a strong reputation in Japanese I wonder?
Posted on: Two Tough Ladies
February 18, 2011 at 11:11 AMI think (I agree with you) that it is the (literal) English that sounds jokey, because I don't associate 掉 with shedding hair, more about things dropping. But to a native speaker this is just one of the multiple meanings of 掉. So, it seems to me that it is not jokey necessarily to a native speaker.
Posted on: Getting a License Plate
February 18, 2011 at 10:34 AM哈哈， 这是黑猫警长 。。
他喜欢把老鼠追逐，，heeheehee
他骑摩托车..
他很有名的!
Posted on: Getting a License Plate
February 18, 2011 at 10:23 AM'there's not enough room on the roads for 1.3 billion cars'
Rather a dramatic intro to the lesson?? Or someone's arithmetic is a bit off. There's an implication that every person in the country wants to, or could, own a car (at least on average)!
The United States leads the world in all sorts of ways, most famously in car-ownership and energy use. UN data says that in the US there is a staggering rate of three quarters of the population owning a car on average.
The US has 7 or 8 times the car ownership of China - I would rather like a lesson with Chinese people discussing the amazing consumption of energy in the US, used for ferrying people around in their own little cars. :)
The UN data suggests about 130 million cars in China (maybe ChinesePod got the decimal point in the wrong place?) but I suspect that if you looked at the fine print that they are counting motorcycles and scooters.
Posted on: Eating Idioms, Part 1
February 14, 2011 at 11:51 PM吃 chī has a special meaning in the game of 麻将 mājiàng (alluded to above by SouthernChineseComfort and also discussed in the Elementary lesson on 麻将.)
吃 chī (set of three tiles in a series in the game of 麻将.)
吃 must be said as you pick up the third tile in a series of three; it also describes the set of three tiles which are then laid down for all players to see. You can only pick up from the player before you, not from any other players (for a 吃). If you have a series of three either from the tiles received at the start of a game or from a tile you picked up yourself, you do not call 吃, nor do you show it to the other players,
Posted on: License Plate Characters
March 2, 2011 at 8:42 AM在云南那个字是‘云’，很容易， 可是发音很难。