User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing
November 5, 2008 at 2:11 PMHi martinku,
In my experience in the mainland, venerable old brands like Quan Ju De are indeed more likely to be written this way. I am now in Taiwan and noticing quite a few street signs written in this "old-school" way.
Posted on: Battling Internet Addiction
November 5, 2008 at 12:15 PMHi David
I was a big fan of PS2 in America. I stopped playing in China largely because of a few trips to rural places with no internet in the hostel. That drove me to internet cafes. My heart broke to see so many young pasty faced kids sprawled out in front of their screens. Most play games, but a few hang out on forums, where they pollute the Internet with nationalist shrieking and the notorious "human flesh search engines." They're lonely because they're bitter, and they're bitter because they're lonely.
There is a cottage industry of people who make a tidy living mindlessly playing through RPG levels that Western players are too bored to trudge through, and then selling the amped-up characters. Who said globalization was all bad?
Your wife and her friends seem ahead of the times. But I am sure that as technology reaches Huxleyan levels (digital prostitutes, anyone?) computer gaming will come to be seen as the scourge it is.
Who will be the brave Lin Zexu who burns a pile of game disks on the shores of Guangdong?
That's just my own opinion. Take it with a grain of MSG.
Posted on: 麻烦你 (Máfan Nǐ) to Say Please
November 5, 2008 at 11:56 AMHi bababardwan,
The CPod Alliance of Heroes is my own creation.
Sino-American-Canadian Squad of Unity, Goodwill, Scholarship and Rock'n'roll (SACSUGS and Rock'n'roll) seemed pretentious.
There are a few more marathons on the mainland that I am considering, such as Hangzhou and Xiamen. But the next big challenge looks like the Alcatraz Ironman. Hoo-ah.
And I am also a HUGE fan of visualizing characters. A big believer in muscle memory and focusing your imagination, I write unfamiliar characters on my palm. You have to see them as the patterns they are-- if they are just a sea of strokes and squiggles, your memory will max out around 200.
Posted on: 麻烦你 (Máfan Nǐ) to Say Please
November 5, 2008 at 11:50 AMI'm blushing, pinkjeans.
Posted on: Good, Bad and Otherwise
November 2, 2008 at 11:26 PMHi jesuissharon,
Interesting observation about Chinese or Taiwanese people's habit of sprinkling their speech with English. For better or worse, English has become the global language of the educated, modern and hip.
I think we could see a parallel example among Anglophones of the last century who would add bits of French to their conversation. Or go back a few more hundred years to see (admittedly a much smaller number of much more pompous people) adding bits of Latin and Greek.
Hi xiaohu and bababardwan
You are too kind. As a matter of fact, keep listening to future Qing Wens...
With that so-subtle hint, I retire to enjoy my last few days in fabulous Taipei.
Posted on: 麻烦你 (Máfan Nǐ) to Say Please
October 28, 2008 at 1:10 AMHi bababardwan,
Even though the Taiwan Strait now separates me from the CPod Alliance of Heroes, I have to say that is a great picture.
See you all in two weeks!
Posted on: Lao Wang's Office 4: Communication in the Office
October 24, 2008 at 7:47 AMHi xuchen
There may not be a perfect translation. Chinese seems to describe a bad temper, but not really the state of being "easy to annoy, but in a cute kind of way."
脾气坏的心情 is a common suggestion online but I don't think it captures the flavor.
An alternative would be to say 肝火很旺, i.e. to have a lot of internal heat in your liver, which makes you irascible. But again, that doesn't call up images of Snow White's surly dwarf or the grouchy Muppet in the trash can.
Posted on: A Month as a Monk and Chinese Business Meetings
October 22, 2008 at 8:03 AMHi infusiastic
You are too kind. Stay tuned. This is not my last appearance on that wonderful show!
Posted on: Last and Next
October 22, 2008 at 4:20 AMHi bayless
LEGO is 乐高 le4gao1.
I used to have a huge pirate ship made of LEGOs.
Posted on: Battling Internet Addiction
November 6, 2008 at 12:25 AMHi David
I agree with you about the difference in opinions about TV and games. My guess is that TV is considered normal because it is so widespread-- anyone of any age can plop down in front of the screen. But it takes a certain kind of meat-stuffed-dumpling to sit in the internet bar and play online RPGs all night.
Maybe the phrase we need is "everything in moderation, including moderation."