User Comments - pearltowerpete

Posted on: 麻将风波

Hi changye

Thanks for the background. The pronunciation of 麻雀 as "mahjong" comes from the Ningbo dialect --at least according to the signs I saw during a visit there. Can any Ningbonese-speaking poddies confirm or deny?

In any case, the Ningbo people were quite proud of their town's role in inventing the game.

Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲

Hi zhenlijiang

i don't know any native speakers of Mandarin who can't carry a tune  ...

You've never been to karaoke with some of my friends. Lovely people one and all but...egads!  ;-)

Hi dunderklumpen

Thanks for the links. This is worth discussing here, especially given the close connections between poetry and music.

Posted on: Making Dumplings

Hi kimiik

These are just two different ways of writing the same idea. I guess you could liken 蛮 to the (annoying) modern Americanism of "crazy + adjective" e.g.

ChinesePod is crazy useful

(eggchh, I　cringe to type that.) Whereas, 满 just means "full of," which is a pretty clear. But in any case, both just emphasize the meaning, "very."

Posted on: 麻将风波

Hi realqueen

新年快乐！

“想” 意思就是“would like to", 而"要”就是“want to."当然，想也有“to think about, to miss, etc" 而 ‘要” 也有“must, will" 的意思。

Posted on: Describing Travels

Hi miantiao

说实话，我不太记得那个袋鼠肉的味道，同一天也吃了鳄鱼肉，好像那两种肉都有点腥味, "gamey" 吧。

上海人也不怎么喜欢讲国语，就算你已经要求 “请讲普通话”了，他们还是偏偏要讲方言。很难改变心理的一些习惯。 最多是出租车司机和便利店里面的一些老阿姨。

Posted on: Terrorized at the Airport

Hi keithk

Thanks for asking a tricky question. You are right, the "是“ has been left out here. The full sentence might go "这是我自己要吃的." These kinds of changes are pretty common in spoken Chinese.

Posted on: Describing Travels

Hi miantiao

I don't think it is completely impossible to import kangaroo into China-- I remember back in my carnivorous days eating a kangaroo skewer in Shanghai. At least they said it was kangaroo! But maybe you can't get the volumes you need.

Hi rjberki

You can sometimes extend a visa in Shanghai or other cities if you have a company providing paperwork. But to change from F or L to an employment visa, you must leave China, and HK is generally the most convenient way. The silliest are the visas that are good for, say, six months, but require you to leave every 90 days. As far as I can tell, that policy exists just to subsidize the Chinese transportation system.

Posted on: Chinese Medicine: Acupuncture, Cupping and Scraping

Hi mikeinewshot,

Thank you for taking the time to do this. It all looks good, except I (Yank that I am ;-) would translate 硕士学位 as Master's Degree.

Posted on: Seeing off an Old Friend 渭城曲

Hi zhenlijiang

Here are two interesting articles from the NYTimes about perfect pitch among native speakers of tonal languages.

And they even mention the Suzuki training method widespread in Japan-- I guess I started that too late to do any good ;-)

Posted on: Describing Travels

Hi miantiao,

In my experience, people from Northern China are more likely to use 得 for "must，“ but I will verify this with the native speakers when we meet again.

I don't think it's a stretch to mention needing to go to Hong Kong for visas, as that is definitely the prefered choice among the large body of bohemian-free-spirit-freelancers in China who must renew their F visas periodically.