User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: Karaoke
January 19, 2009 at 6:26 AMHi calicartel
The "period of utter cultural desolation" was the Cultural Revolution. The mainland literary, art, and academic worlds still have not recovered. Hundreds of thousands of brilliant, creative people were destroyed. Even syrupy singing was a welcome respite from 样板戏, the exaggerated stage plays highlighting the Chairman's glories.
I give 王菲's name as Faye Wong because that's how she writes it on her album covers. If you write it Wang Fei, people will still understand.
There are plenty of seedy Karaokes everywhere in China. If you make it clear that you don't want to do anything more than sing and be silly, no one will bother you. Any night at my local 钱柜 Partyworld you can see dodgy businessmen and jolly families making merry, each in their own way.
Posted on: Guided Plan Gets Better! Plus: Poetry is Pending
January 19, 2009 at 6:16 AMHi leeht
Short answer: yes.
As a translator, it pains me to advise people to neglect any part of this rich, rewarding language. What could be more fun than learning that "chickens flying, dogs jumping 鸡飞狗跳" means "chaos"？
I believe that part of the beauty of any language resides in these little nooks and crannies. There is inherent value in learning about not just the trees and the rivers, but also the flowers and the bushes.
But in terms of Chinese progress per hour studied, I think you'd be far better off expanding your supply of ordinary adjectives, nouns and verbs. They are much more widely useful.
Posted on: Whatever...
January 19, 2009 at 6:10 AMHi stanimal
Thanks for a good question. Jiaojie helped to clarify: In this context, 随便 really means 随你的便，in other words, "as you wish." Whereas 无所谓 means "I don't care." So they can be used together, as in 随你的便，我无所谓。
随便 can also mean "casual" or "loose (in a dating sense.)" 无所谓 does not have these associations.
Posted on: Seeing Somebody to the Door
January 19, 2009 at 6:07 AMHi bababardwan
I'm not really clear on what you mean about shouting someone to dinner, but 送 is definitely the verb for giving someone a gift.
Posted on: Guided Plan Gets Better! Plus: Poetry is Pending
January 19, 2009 at 6:05 AMHi changye
Well, we're only a few weeks into the year, but still-- glad to make your day!
That's just my own position, and I expect some furious counter-arguments. It's like the death of the print newspaper and its replacement by everything from online papers to Facebook. When something ceases to be a source of "social currency," only die-hard hobbyists will put in the time required to master it.
For any Star Trek: The Next Generation fans out there, there was a great episode (sorry, can't find the specific name) where Picard is on a planet with an alien whose entire language is based on metaphor and allusion. His race is dying out, and he's seized on Picard as someone who can preserve this odd language. That's sort of the position of someone studying 成语 these days.
Posted on: Guided Plan Gets Better! Plus: Poetry is Pending
January 19, 2009 at 5:52 AMHi leeht
No plans currently for a show about 成语. My advice on learning them is to think of them as vocabulary words in their own right, not as complicated little stories that you have to remember.
For example, it's probably easier to remember 刻舟求剑 simply as "ideological rigidity" rather than "cutting a notch on the side of your boat so that you can locate the sword that fell overboard."
And, frankly, unless you want to read a lot of old, well-written books, I would save 成语 until you feel you have quite a comfortable command of the language. Decades of propaganda, waning interest in the classics, and the relentless incursions of American/Japanese/etc. slang have impoverished (or at least dramatically changed) the Chinese language. It's rare to meet people who use many 成语 in their daily conversation or writing.
I love them as a cultural artifact, or a cultural "glue." But since one's status in society depends more on how many LV bags you have than on how quickly you can compose a poem at dinner, I'm afraid the 成语's days are numbered.
Posted on: The Broken Chair
January 19, 2009 at 4:22 AMHi daruneer
Welcome! We're looking forward to helping you learn Chinese.
Posted on: What's Your Name?
January 19, 2009 at 4:05 AMHi kobukuro
你好吗 is not very 地道 (di4dao4) authentic but it does exist, and is often taught in Chinese courses outside China. This lesson is intended to introduce some very simple greetings.
Plus, this is not a bad way to introduce the interrogative particle 吗 ma.
And thanks so much for your warm remarks.
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 7: A Firing Afoot?
January 19, 2009 at 4:00 AMHi xuchen
不加薪是一件很烦人的事儿，但你说的也很对，没被“炒” 就已经很不错了。
Posted on: Chinese Celebrity: Bruce Lee
January 19, 2009 at 6:33 AMHi malacca
I just quickly googled the Chinese 李小龙传说 and only came across a lot of sites where you could download a 16MB game, but not a documentary.
Maybe some other poddies can help you out...