User Comments - jennyzhu
jennyzhu
Posted on: War Zone
August 1, 2008 at 6:25 AMYes, the 1st of August is 八一建军节/ba1 yi1 jian4 jun1 jie2, the day that the People's Liberation Army/中国人民解放军/zhong1 guo2 ren2 min2 jie3 fang4 jun1 was founded.
In China, soldiers have a very endearing image rather than austere. You feel they are one of your friends or family. One of the reasons is that in time of peace, one of the military's primary duties is domestic disaster relief. The Sichuan earthquake is a great example. It's quaint that soldiers are commonly referred to as 'the most lovely people'/最可爱的人/zui4 ke3 ai4 de ren2. Sounds like what you'd normally say of a baby.
Posted on: Tool Delivery
July 31, 2008 at 7:49 AMYou can find more about hammer from the ChinesePod series- A Canadian's hammer sourcing adventure in China.
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/arriving-in-china-on-business
Posted on: Tool Delivery
July 31, 2008 at 2:24 AMPart of the screaming was done by Esti from Spanishpod. What a performance!
Posted on: Getting a Phone Number
July 30, 2008 at 8:03 AMIt's slightly ironic that the character for 0 is so complicated: 零.13 strokes.
Posted on: 汉语大赛
July 29, 2008 at 2:46 AM我们今天介绍的比赛针对的是在中国的留学生。其实还有一个汉语桥比赛：
http://jennyzhu.com/2008/07/09/looking-for-the-new-dashan/
组织者一样，是汉办（汉语国际推广办公室），但面向在海外的汉语学生。通过选拔的选手可以来中国一个多月继续参加比赛。学习、 旅游两不误。
Posted on: Microsoft
July 28, 2008 at 4:20 PMBill Gates's retirement and shift to charitable work were extensively covered in China too. Afterall, Microsoft changed lives across the world. But I noticed that with the exception of tech and finance news, many other reportings don't even mention Steve Ballmer's name. He is simply referred to as the 'new CEO' of Microsoft.
Posted on: Microsoft
July 28, 2008 at 2:36 AMAh, new feature! I digg it! The real estate rumor was pretty outrageous. It was said that Gates was going to spend 100 million RMB renting a 四合院/ si4 he2 yuan4, the traditional Beijing housing during the Olympics. I remember a few years ago when April Fools was still quite new to China, top news channels ran the headline that Gates was shot dead on the 1st of April.
Posted on: Taxi Small Talk
July 27, 2008 at 4:52 PMA lot of taxis in Shanghai have an interactive screen that keeps shoving advertisements down your throat. But the content is quite well designed, mostly in the form of interactive games. When you are stuck in traffic, odds are you will touch the screen to play those games and end up learning about the newest mascara or automobile.
Posted on: Getting Internet at your Apartment
August 4, 2008 at 5:12 AMsongyian,
World of Warcraft is 魔兽世界/mo2 shou4 shi4 jie4, which actually means 'World of Monsters'.
Online games in China is absolutely viral even in quite remote places. You find avid players in small villages who spend sleepless nights in an internet cafe, which is often a run down hall with second-hand computers. Not the kind of places you'd imagine to be wired. It reminds me of a book called 'The Last Days of Old Beijing'. The author lived in a crowded 胡同/hutong, the traditioanl Beijing style housing. Infrastructure was terrible. People had to use public bathrooms. But most families had broadband connection. Leapfrog at its best.