User Comments - phalaneng
phalaneng
Posted on: Tai Chi
April 26, 2008 at 8:13 PMThe "preserving", anti-ageing qualities of Tai Chi are just amazing - my great grandmother was 89 (a rarity in Cambodia) and did her exercised everyday, a 5 a m in the park. It is a very popular practice, dozens of people, especially elderly, spend their mornings doing funny looking fluid movements in the misty parks and squares.
Posted on: How was Your Date?
April 23, 2008 at 9:35 PMI have just finished reading the book Dead Poets Society, so I wonder how one would express "Language was invented for one reason - to woo women." in Chinese. Thanks in advance.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part I
April 23, 2008 at 9:13 PMExtremely few people here in Cambodia actually speak Mandarin. Most ethnic Chinese speak Cantonese, Hakka or Min Nan. The latter, the members of the Hokkien people are in fact very wealthy and were very keen on assimilating into Khmer culture. The Chinese community used to be very strong and big, but due to highly deplorable historical developments it suffered. Nowadays, intermarriages are quite common and one often comes in contact with their culture and Zhongwen at festivals like New Year. Khmer people are a lot fonder of their Chinese neighbours than of Vietnamese, it seems... Oh, I love learning Mandarin, even if I can only converse with in written form with Chinese people here (or in Khmer, for that matter ;-) ), the only downside is that I have to learn yet another writing system...(at least it cannot be confused with either Thai, Khmer, Viet or the Latin alphabet) It would be great if you could do a lesson on actual dialects, featuring more than just Cantonese. I know that this is not your responsibilty, but again, I (and certainly many others) would be very grateful. Thanks to everyone at CP for doing such an excellent job!
Posted on: You Look Exhausted!
April 23, 2008 at 7:53 PMIs the following correct? If not, how would I say that correctly? 你是累吗？ - 是一点。 作天我熬夜了。我太忙了。 I do not mean to bother you with such a trivial question. Thank you for an answer.
Posted on: Going to the Pharmacy
April 22, 2008 at 8:00 PM"Ken says listen for the verb, and it works." If I tried to do that, I would have forgotten the rest of the sentence by the time I had figured out which word is the predicate... I have become rather wary about taking medicine that wasn't prescribed or whose note I cannot read. Once I opted for taking the advice of a friend, who is an expat living in my home country, and took some pretty strong ("effective" in his words) pills when I had a bad cold instead of using alcoholic beverages containing herbs or even Chinese medicine, which is the more traditional (but weird ;-), we're not backwards) way of curing an illness here in Kampuchea. The result: The cold went away within hours, but I passed out despite having taken a very low dose and spent three days in a state of delirium, sleeping, waking, sweating, feeling incredibly shaken. I prefer a runny nose, really. "China as wages rise, profit margins shrink, and capit. greed sets in." I do not know much about China and its economy, but judging from the evaluations from the Chinese people I know (well, I suppose they're not such good sources, almost all ethnic Chinese living here being at least second generation immigrants) and the news we get, there is no need for these aspects of cap. economy setting in, it is there already in some areas of life. Please excuse my English, it is not my native language. Phala
Posted on: Tai Chi
April 29, 2008 at 2:33 PMI wonder - first, did you notice I put preserving in quotation marks, to make sure no one thinks I'm bringing it up as anecdotal evidence, simply a little personal story. Second, it's at least popular belief that Tai Chi is healthy - quite contrary to smoking. I do not think you can compare these examples. And do you want to deny the benefits. 89 is a very honorable age, she even survived PP! (Though I am a afraid Tai Chi would not have helped her fending off red troops.) Please, do not try to ridicule me.