User Comments - pearltowerpete
pearltowerpete
Posted on: Guilin Mifen
April 22, 2009 at 1:49 AMHi juzi
In my experience, the smaller the restaurant, the less time there is for something to go wrong between the food leaving the wok and arriving on your table. Chinese are generally more likely to sit on a newspaper or crouch than many foreigners, who will sit on all kinds of grubby surfaces without a second thought.
In Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell writes convincingly about his own experiences in small restaurants and grand hotels. A big, fancy banquet hall is not necessarily more hygenic than a cheap mom-and-pop restaurant.
Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原
April 22, 2009 at 1:42 AMHi anneolga,
Thanks for your kind remarks. No discussion of Tang poetry is complete without Du Fu. So stay tuned!
Hi bodawei
Many of these poems require a ton of context and footnotes. The authors use classical allusions and historical references that would've been obvious and moving to their contemporaries. A mere literal translation would omit an awful lot.
When the PDF system is up (and it is coming, just never fast enough!) I will tidy up the references I consulted for each poem. Mostly, I have relied on dictionaries and my copy of the Tang Shi San Bai Shou (唐詩三百首） which has some useful annotations. When I've used other references (mostly the Baidu encyclopedia and excerpts from Google Books) I've linked to them in the lesson intros. But as a sign of respect to those whose sources I've learned from, and to help poddies in their own research, I agree that we need a clearer citation system. I take this seriously.
Hi hugyfghybjn
Thanks for the kind remarks. I am looking forward to the PDF functionality as much as you are.
Hi obitoddkenobi,
Is that a Li Shangyin-ish moment of reflection on your own coming mortality ;-)
Posted on: Two Poems about Music -- 弹琴 and 听筝
April 22, 2009 at 1:35 AMHi wuyuqinyue,
謝謝你推薦這首詩。我挺佩服蘇軾，這個偉大的詩人。
Hi tudigong,
So glad you enjoy the poems. Chinese is definitely denser than English-- I always find that the 70 character limit in text messages is more than enough for most Chinese messages, but barely a start for an English message!
Posted on: Rise and Shine!
April 22, 2009 at 1:29 AMHi joncui,
Sorry for not providing a translation or pinyin. Tvan is right, of course-- "discussions" like the one above should take place on different posts. This is an area in which CPod's message board design could stand improvement. Ideally, there would be one board for discussion of lesson vocab and grammar, and one for discussion of topics related to or inspired by the lesson. All are worthy of discussion, but they could be presented in a tidier way.
There wasn't much worth translating there, to be blunt. A Chinese commenter made full use of the anonymity of the Internet to display his ignorance. He (and we can be 99% sure that it is a "he," as this kind of frustrated young man is sadly common these days) used a lot of hot-button language, which miantiao, tvan and mickeytoon have explained.
The commenter claims, without any evidence, that it is impossible to view drug addiction during the Opium Wars through a sociological lens. This is nonsense. But it is illuminating-- the mainland education system fosters an "us vs. them" mentality. Colonialism and evil foreigners are and have always been the source of China's suffering. If you believe that, there's a Pearl Tower in Pudong I'd like to sell you.
In the heat of the moment Jevious did use a clever insult-- 真想咬你一口，可惜我是回民. "I'd really like to bite you-- it's a shame I'm of the Hui nationality." This way of calling me a pig makes good use of cultural knowledge from a recent lesson. Touché, Jevious. Touché.
Posted on: Rise and Shine!
April 21, 2009 at 10:02 AMHi jevious
我祖先跟鴉片沒有任何關系。你沒必要在這邊講那么多廢話，把自己的臉丟盡了。
每個國家的歷史都有自己的一些負面之處。 美國吸毒者多的不得了，很嚇人。 而且，目前中國的吸毒者也不少。這干脆是一個社會上的問題，跟道德沒啥關系。
你們憤青干嘛那么敏感？
Posted on: Will you Marry Me?
April 21, 2009 at 8:50 AMHi ledzppln99
Yes, these words are synonyms. But 好/壞處 is more 口語 oral, whereas 優點 / 缺點 are more bookish, or 書面語.
Posted on: Tomb Sweeping Festival -- 清明
April 21, 2009 at 6:05 AMHi kybod4
That is an incredible coincidence. Millions of students have copied that poem through the years, but the odds are very slim that it would 1) be lost in Lund and 2) found by a non-Chinese who could read it.
Cosmic, man.
Posted on: Watching the Sun Go Down -- 登乐游原
April 21, 2009 at 4:49 AMHi mikeinewshot
OK, I hear you about speaking more slowly.
Here is the proverb from the poem.
天有不测风云，人有旦夕祸福
tiān yǒu bùcè fēngyún, rén yǒu dànxī huòfú
Posted on: What do Foreigners Like?
April 21, 2009 at 3:11 AMHi a1pi2
The nectar of the gods must surely be Laphroaig. But the nectar of the nymphs is Baileys Irish Cream. I enjoy them both.
Posted on: Rise and Shine!
April 22, 2009 at 2:15 AMHi joncui,
Connie, Jiaojie and I go through the previous night's comments every morning. We provide pinyin, example sentences, and translations in our answers to poddies' questions.
We generally reply in Chinese to questions asked in Chinese．This gives people a chance to practice. And if we haven't translated or explained a post (as I didn't yesterday) it is because the post was not educational.
I'm sorry for not translating 人口 rénkǒu as population in the above comments. But other than that, I provided English and pinyin for my Chinese.
We welcome your questions, and look forward to helping you learn.