User Comments - calkins
calkins
Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights
March 23, 2009 at 2:46 PMI think Mango is a fruit ;)
Posted on: When 比较 (bǐjiào) becomes 更 (gèng)
March 23, 2009 at 2:40 PMI recently stumbled across the many wonders of 比较。I'd love to see a QW dedicated to some of its comparative phrases, like:
比较好 comparatively better
比较少 comparatively few
比较多 comparatively many
比较喜欢 prefer
比较新 comparatively new
etc.
There's the topic. You could say it's from Gary in Guam ;-)
Posted on: Pets
March 23, 2009 at 11:25 AMAnthony73, that's right:
条 tiáo
It's the measure word for long thin things (ribbon, river, road, fish, pants, etc.)
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 9: Wang Plans Revenge
March 21, 2009 at 7:20 AM什麼東西？
Posted on: Tech Upgrades and Farming!
March 20, 2009 at 9:43 AMTapiot, I'm not sure if all the new Vocab. Mgr. features are fully functional yet.
I tried to convert all of my vocab. to be in traditional characters, but it didn't work.
Convert all Chinese characters to your chosen character set ( 
)
John, are the export and vocab. character converter functions still being worked on, or should they be working now? Thanks.
Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights
March 19, 2009 at 12:38 PMI forgot to mention above...in addition to loving bacon, there's nothing like a nice MLT:
A mutton, lettuce, and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe. They're so perky, I love that.
:)
Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights
March 18, 2009 at 9:23 AMI love to eat bacon (pork and turkey), and I don't mind seeing those photos. Pork chops taste good...bacon tastes good.
Posted on: Taxi Culture in China
March 16, 2009 at 3:20 PMI actually feel sorry for many of the Chinese cabbies who drive Westerners around. I've witnessed (drunk) Westerners get into a cab and shout a destination in very poor, slurred Chinese. When the cabbie takes them to the wrong destination, they shout English obscenities at him, like it's his fault they can't speak Chinese.
It's a few disrespectful morons like this that will make a Chinese cabbie not feel so bad about taking Westerners "for a ride." And of course they want to make as much money as possible...who doesn't? Western cabbies will do the same thing, if they think you're a tourist or don't know where you're going.
Posted on: About Face! A Multi-faceted Look at 面子
March 16, 2009 at 12:14 PMPaulinurus, I actually think that over-spending (or buying what you can't afford) is much worse in the U.S. than in China.
One big difference is that Americans use credit far more often than Chinese do. Chinese tend to pay for most things using cash. Credit is fake money, money that you don't have, lent out to you by banks at ridiculous interest rates.
The problem is that we see that guy in his ridiculously massive Hummer (gas guzzler), driving down the streets of Chicago (the flattest city in the world!) and we think "Wow, that guy must be rich." But what we don't know is that he's up to his neck in debt.
Take a look at the current world economic crisis. It can all be linked back to greed in America...people (banks) spending money that they don't have, and lending to people who can't afford to pay it back.
It may not be called 面子 in the U.S., but I believe it is due to national culture. It's in our advertising, it's in our movies and entertainment, our pop culture, etc....everywhere in the States there are messages telling us that "rich is better, buy buy buy, even if you can't afford it, you can pay for it next year when you have a better job, blah blah blah."
And at the end of the day, which country (China or the U.S.) owes the other country billions and billions of dollars?!
Just my 2 cents worth :)
Posted on: Train to Beijing
March 24, 2009 at 12:12 AMHey Adam!
The 的 in that sentence is used to show that 特快 (express) and 直达 (non-stop) both modify the direct object 火车 (train), which isn't needed in the sentence because it's undersood based on the context from the previous sentence.
有特快的和直达的(火车)。
There are express (trains) and non-stop (trains).
后面 just means "behind".