User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: 重走丝绸之路
January 16, 2009 at 7:54 AMHi henning
Yes! I considered translating it that way, as Schadenfreude is also used in English. But because I wasn't sure if non-English (and German) speakers would understand, I chose a more literal translation.
What a wonderful word, by the way. It is my favorite German word, next to the majestic Weltenschauung 世界观 ；-）
Posted on: 敬老院之争
January 16, 2009 at 5:12 AMHi alexyu_yxj
非常感谢你在此留言，我们都学到了一位中国人对抚养问题的道德观念。
近年来我看过一些报告说目前很多父母都上班，而且有些家长因为工作太忙不能照顾小孩儿，或父母分散在不同城市，于是这个责任归长辈来处理。小孩儿从小被爷爷奶奶或祖父母拉扯大。上人过世了以后，这些小孩儿对自己的父母会有哪些什么印象？再说，父母退休了以后，会觉得自己对父母到底有什么责任呢？
由此可见，目前经济状况使得很多父母都必要上班，会给传统道德带来一定的压力。
Posted on: The Final Show
January 16, 2009 at 3:58 AMHi bababardwan and rich
Don't worry, Dear Amber is here to stay.
Posted on: The Broken Chair
January 16, 2009 at 3:50 AMHi lena840702
Good question. As this is a Newbie lesson, I will answer in English for the benefit of the other poddies.
跌倒 die1dao3 and 摔倒 shuai1dao3 can indeed be used interchangeably, although 摔倒 is more common.
Posted on: The Broken Chair
January 16, 2009 at 3:47 AMHi pretzellogic,
Thanks for asking about an interesting detail. 坐吧 can be translated as "Please sit." 吧 ba is not a harsh command, and is regularly used to soften the tone. So while there was no 请， it is acceptable to add a "please" when rendering this phrase in English.
Posted on: 敬老院之争
January 15, 2009 at 3:17 AMHi miantiao
Your description is hilarious and vivid. It's interesting to me that the English speaking countries all seem to have their own vocabulary for describing marginal young men. We Americans have greasers, the British have yobs, chavs and so on... Chinese don't seem to have this yet, maybe because their welfare state is not developed enough yet. But give it a few more years.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming: Nursing Homes!
Posted on: 敬老院之争
January 15, 2009 at 2:58 AMHi miantiao
Don't be so hard on Australian English, which I think is delightful! Matt recently educated me on the word "bogan," which I now work into the conversation as much as possible.
And Banjo Paterson stands proudly near Whitman and Frost, at least on my bookshelf.
Posted on: Terrorized at the Airport
January 15, 2009 at 2:42 AMHi patmetheny and biewangji
So glad you enjoyed it. Real life is messy, and we hope we can do our small part to help you boldly meet the challenges!
Posted on: 敬老院之争
January 15, 2009 at 2:39 AMHi miantiao,
As George Bernard Shaw said, we truly are two peoples separated by a common language.
To my ear (and I'd say to most Americans) "carer" does not sound like a real word-- no offense! Of course you are right, google returns plenty of uses of carer as you described. But they are from the UK and commonwealth areas, not in the US of A.
Posted on: The Broken Chair
January 16, 2009 at 8:03 AMHi songyian
Many newbies have that problem. One way to keep them straight is to associate the falling tone in 坐 with the action of "sitting down."