User Comments - lotsofwordsandnospaces

Posted on: Buying a Bouquet of Flowers

The word for rose in Japanese is one of the most complicated I ever bothered learning: 薔薇 bara (it seems to contain just about every radical on the go)

It is really similar to the Chinese 蔷薇 qiángwēi.. so I learnt that as the word.

Rose in this lesson is way more memorable; 玫瑰 is also a hell of a lot less writing!

But is there a distinction between the two?

If Eskimos have lots of words for snow - I think it is heartwarming that Chinese can have more than one for "rose"  :)

Posted on: Dog Meat and Animal Rights

@rjberki

I am much the same as you, but in reverse. I spent the first 25 years of my life as a vegetarian. The reason I decided to change was that I had been travelling a lot - and turning back food. I took to eating fish as I started my travels, but by the end I realised that thanks to the hospitality of others I was being offered food I had to turn away.

I was missing out in a massive part of the cultural experiance. Now I eat vegetarian where there is a choice, and meat where there is no choice.

As for the topic here, pretty much all meat is caged then killed in a way most people would not want to watch. You might find the thought of dog farming, slaughter and the product upsetting - but you are getting a glimpse at how morally guided vegetarians feel about Chickens, Cows and even fish. It is all about conditioning.

Cows are lovely animals. I was a vegetarian because my mother, who lived in the countryside, and saw how the meat industry worked (in the 1960s) decided she could not support it. I was never a 'moral' vegetarian - but I have every respect for those who decide to turn vegetarian.

My random 2 cents on this big topic.

Posted on: #44

We need more movie madness!! I miss this treat so much!

Posted on: Plants Need Watering

I always hear "Long time no see" and think it sounds like Pidgin English. It takes no stretch of the imagination to think the phrase pre-existed in Chinese, and then made a rapid leap over to English this way.

The only way it could be from anywhere else is in English would be if it came from another colony/trading partner coincidentally before it came from China.

I find things like this really interesting, like the obsensibly English "Smashing" and (hard to believe) "Trouser" being from Gaelic descent.

Posted on: St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day Ken!

I love it when a sentence has lots of capital letters in it.

Posted on: 日本动漫

太阳之子? That was so ahead of its time - Gentic Engineering, Reusable energy - any contemporary topic you can name!

That show did give me messed up dreams as a kid though...

Posted on: Baby Talk: Your baby looks like you!

我很像猴子 (hóuzi)

Posted on: Saved by the Gong: Cutting Open a Frog

@judy76 - I happen to think I learnt a fair bit of useful stuff in English as well as Chinese. All hat and no cattle? Paper Tiger? I had never heard of either!

Posted on: The Person Component

I feel like the video didn't work that brilliantly as a comedy show - but the content was fine.

I think with charcters - the video would have to bare repeating - and this would grate with me after an inital watch through.

On the plus side - it was excellent to 'get outside'. It wouldn't hurt to see characters in their natural habitat as deformed as they sometimes get.

The humour idea works in one way - it makes it easier to recall things, but clearly it has been hit and miss. So I would hope you could come up with something as stylish as the vocab tours - with as much insight as possible.

I am pretty sure ll decisions have been made  on how to progress - but I love my own opinions almot as much as I love voicing them. :P

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Inner Mongolia

I traveled around Mongolia for a few days, and yes, kids would occasionally run up to the Jeep and sell still-fermenting-in-the-repurposed-water-bottle Mare's Milk. It was bad to taste it, but worse to see it spray all over the driver every time he got and drank a bottle of the stuff - then smell it fermenting there for days to follow.

I also had some kind of Mare's Milk Cheese... but I am pretty sure the family I was with were just feeding me soap. That was my reward for singing Auld Lang Syne.

Tips for travelling in Outer Mongolia, the food was pretty boring... I would advise you pick up some Tobasco at the National shop in  UB before heading out into the heart of the Desert. Unless you like to savour your mutton?

One thing that disturbed me a bit while riding my horse around the country was - I saw a hell of a lot of horse hooves on various paths. I was constantly counting the legs on my horse...