User Comments - podster

Posted on: Taxi to the Airport

Exactly, although not all taxi drivers are kung fu masters. But you can imagine your cabbie as Kato from the Green Hornet TV series, as portrayed by Bruce Lee. Your 师傅 is, if nothing else, a master of driving, which takes no small amount of "gongfu" in China.

Posted on: Adventures in Eating

hee hee, yes I would dread hearing someone say "do you know what you just ate?" btw, the lesson intro says "Those of us not used to eating the organs of animals should be weary." But I think they meant "wary".

I am one of those who does not "revel in offal". (hats off to CPod for this turn of phrase)

Posted on: Lili and Zhang Liang 1: A Fated Meeting

Vocabulary Manager is under "Tools"

Posted on: Oil in the Middle East

一天到晚 is used here as an adverb to describe the way in which one could 生气. So you add the particle 地 to get " . . . 一天到晚地生气 . . ." -- "get mad all day long" Sort of like adding "~ly" to words in English to make them adverbs, like "slowly." Maybe not so obvious in this case because in English we would not say "all day longishly" ;-).

A shorter example: 我一天到晚地学中文。 I study Chinese all day long.

Posted on: B.O. in the Library

I thought ornery was a rather common, if colloquial, word. I'm surprised at the number of people who have either never heard of it or think it is very rare.

Posted on: Exchange Rates

Martin,

I am sure we can all come up with favorite convoluted sentences to compete with yours. But it may be just that the grammar pattern does not lend itself for smooth translation, and it may not sound "obfuscated" at all to the ears of any Chinese middle school student. Here is my personal "favorite" which also contains " 之中""

太极拳始终处于运动之中，动作连接紧密，流畅.

(From beginning to end, Tai Chi is all about motion. Its movements are closely connected and flowing. ) Actually the translation was changed at least once. At one time it was given as : "Tai Chi is perpetual motion, its movements are closely connected and flowing. "

(From the Intermediate Lesson "Tai Chi")

Posted on: Heat Stroke

I think in this context toilet means a vanity or the act of making oneself up. You know, like "eau de toilette" is not really water from the crapper. Maybe we can dig up the original Chinese for the poem. Too bad Pete's not still around.

Posted on: Heat Stroke

呵呵，“. . .the squeamishness around many words . . . which is part of the Chinese mindset." I am shocked at this very embarrassing discussion of ladies' unmentionables. I feel the whole conversation is getting, as Bertie Wooster would say, "very French." It's as vulgar as Ezra Pounds translation of Mei Sheng's poem as"The Beautiful Toilet." He surely should have called it the "the beautiful bathroom" , "the beautiful lavatory" , "the beautiful washroom" , "the beautiful ladies' room". Again, I blame the French. Is it not they who say "faire toilette" ?

Posted on: Powerpoint Presentation Problems

I don't know if it's a stock phrase or not, so can't answer that part of your question, but I guess the reference to 谈恋爱 is that in China's modern digital era young sweethearts might think it is fun to send each other cute "emoticons" via smartphone apps. In this case the employee has chosen to embellish a business related PowerPoint presentation with superfluous cutesy animals just because they are cute. The dog and cat do not contribute anything to the message, they are just their for cuteness' sake, hence the objection by the boss. I don't think it matters that they were dogs and cats. Could have been pigs and monkeys, as long as they were cute pigs and adorable monkeys.

Posted on: Water

Here is another possibility for still water (still mineral water)

天然矿泉水

and another option for the opposite, (sparkling (mineral) water)

充气矿泉水

Now 天然 literally means "natural" and I supposed you might quibble that some mineral waters are naturally carbonated, but the assumption here is (I guess) that any fizzy water is man made.