User Comments - light487

Posted on: Are You Happy, Content, or Delighted?

oh yeh.. hehe..

"高兴 (gāoxìng)，开心 (kuàilè)，快乐 (kāixīn) and 幸福 (xìngfú)"

You got kuaile and kaixin characters mixed up.. :) I hardly ever read those things properly :)

Posted on: Are You Happy, Content, or Delighted?

Ahh.. so this is why when we meet someone we use gaoxing to say we are pleased to meet them.. not that people actually use this so much but:

认识你很高兴 rènshí nǐ hěn gāoxìng

If I want to say that's it's been great to know someone and make it more of a blessing and "longer lasting" so to speak.. would I just replace gaoxing with xìngfú?

This was a good QingWen because you didn't just explain the language but the culture surrounding the language which is perhaps more important than the grammar itself.. though the grammar is helpful for recycling the language into other usages.

I love 小包子! :) I think the cheapest I paid was 25毛.. yummy :)

Posted on: Do You Want a Map?

Here are some actual related lessons that learners might find helpful:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/directions-with-a-map-1/discussion

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/directions-with-a-map-2/discussion

In my travels the most helpful words to know in regards to directions and finding my way were:

(thing)在哪里 zài nǎlì - where is (thing) located?

左 zuǒ - left
右 yòu - right
左边/右边 zuǒbiān/yòubiān - left side/right side

米 mǐ - meter (as in 100 meters)

It's always good to double check the directions with the person giving them to you because often they will get the left and right wrong or something like that.

Posted on: Do You Want a Map?

Haha.. I remember the map sellers in Xi'an.. problem was that Xi'an is actually one of the easiest cities to navigate that I went to. Shanghai is rather difficult in some areas but not all.. like getting to the ChinesePOD offices is a piece of cake once you make it to 中山公园地铁站 (zhōngshān gōngyuán dì tiě zhàn, ZhongShan Park Subway Station).. and you will quickly learn the local area around where you are staying.

Beijing is a little harder because it has a much larger area and it has all these little alleys (hutongs) but even then all you need to do is orient yourself to the nearest main road. Chengdu was about halfway between Shanghai and Beijing in terms of difficulty in navigating but with the ring roads, it made life a lot simpler.

I used to say to the map hawkers: 不用了 bù yòng le (pronounced: bú yòng le) because not only did I not want the map but I didn't have any need or use for it.. so it was more correct and useful (to get them to go away) was to tell them that instead of just bu yao le.

I did have a map in Beijing but I got it for free from a friend there and only used it a couple of times because once you have your bearings set with one of the main roads, it was really hard to get lost.. :)

Posted on: Renting a Bike

Something to do with taxes maybe? I'm just guessing.. but that would make a little bit of sense if taxes were done using grains of rice as a unit of currency when the character was formed?

Posted on: Kungpao Chicken

Maybe we could just list the street foods that require menus to read.. obviously those little 串儿 vendors with just a simple setup wouldn't be much use because they don't have menus and always have similar meats (except for the weird ones but you can see what it is).. and it's almost always 一块.. Places I came across that required the menu to be read were: Dumplings, Steamed Buns, Noodles, Chinese Doner Kebab, Chinese Hamburgers, MilkTea etc

I remember the first time I came into the ChinesePOD office, I bought a Chinese Doner Kebab thing from a place just outside the 中山公园地铁站.. Just to the west of the subway line on 崇宁路.. Can't quite remember the proper name for the thing I ate but it was basically some meat and green cabbage wrapped in something similar to pita bread. There was the option of adding 辣 or not.. :) Was very tasty for, I think, 六块..

There's always that little snack shop I walked into on my first day in China too! :) It's about 50 metres east of Exit 1 of the 东安路地铁站, on the south side of the street. :)

Posted on: Kungpao Chicken

On the topic of asking how much.. something I noticed from observation is that lots of people say "duo'ao qian?".. I mean they are saying "duoshao qian?" for all intents and purposes.. but they leave off the "sh" sound. Someone explained the reason for this to me but I forget now.

Posted on: Kungpao Chicken

@Threecats33: have you been to the "Red Chilli Sichuan Restaurant" in Chinatown? If not, maybe we could hook up and head over there this week or whenever. I've been there twice now and it was good on both occasions. They have one floor for standard menu and another for hot pot.. I always go alone, so I never have been to the hot pot floor but I like their normal menu anyway. It's the hotest Sichuan food I've had in Sydney.. really good and authentic stuff.

Posted on: Luke is Back! And So Are the Zombies!

I was thinking today what I most miss about China and the answer is not as simple as it seems but I think I can say without a doubt that the constant, moment to moment, challenges that China threw my way are at the very top of the list. Mainly it was the language that had me thinking on my feet but it was also the cultural differences, even in terms of the traffic chaos that seems to have a certain magical quality about it that allows it to flow without incident. I remember trying to capture this on video but I failed because it's something that needs to be experienced to be fully understood. So much of my short experience in China was like that, where things needed to be experienced to be understood but now that I am back it is like waking from a dream, with the harsh reality that everyone around you speaks the same language but doesn't understand quite what you are getting at..

Posted on: Kungpao Chicken

I don't know about the best place to get genuine and good tasting gongbao jiding but there's a place in Beijing that makes a superb gongbao jiding pizza! :) If you're interested, it's about halfway along (although closer to the south end) Nanluogu Xiang in the DongCheng district. The place is called "Pass By Bar".. and while it has typical western food prices, the food is great but they definitely specialise in pizza. :)

On the topic of huiguorou.. it is a very filling dish but there's just too much oily fat to it for my liking. I ate it when I was in Chengdu, so the spices were piled on.. :)

Hope you do a 面 and 包子 menu stealer because I'd really like to try the plethora of other types of 包子 and 面 dishes I could see on the menus around the country but couldn't understand to order..