User Comments - sclim

Posted on: I'm gonna be Late

Oh dear, now I have to try and express what I sorta know which makes sense in my head, but comes out disjointed on paper. English is a living and fluid language (as most languages are, but English is a particularly good example because of its versatility and fluidity), and the rules of today which are "correct" now, were not always so. Nevertheless, lexicographers and linguistic scholars try their best to determine what passes as acceptable in speech and language in any given era. They see their mandate not as to prescribe what proper speech should be, but rather to describe what appears, by common consensus among knowledgeable speakers and literary persons, what acceptable speech is. Having said this, it will be apparent that there exists room for opinion and perhaps regional variation, and in differing social strata, and this, no doubt, will be tabulated by the lexicographers.

With this preamble, I will leap into the fray and state that "gonna" is so frequently used in informal speech as to be instantly understandable, and thus imho, by virtue of frequency, intelligibility, and precision, reasonably qualifies as a "variant" and is not incorrect, in my book. ( I have not looked up any lexicographer's or linguistic scholar's notation on this particular usage, it's just my gut feel, and, of course, I would bow to any scholarly reference to the contrary). This verbalization is so frequently spelled "gonna" that "gonna" has to qualify as the standard spelling for this informal phrasing. However, I agree that it often sounds like "ganna", especially as you drift further and further south in the USA. Think how Florida John says it, and that's what I mean. But I would still spell it "gonna", because that is the hugely predominant spelling, and I daresay so would he.

If the Chinese learners of English start using "gonna" in speech, as well as in writing, it's only because they are imitating natural patterns of speech used by native English speakers. They should not necessarily be discouraged from doing so, although it would be best if they were informed that the usage of such is in the grey zone between formal, proper speech and informal speech, with the written form of "gonna" being particularly at the informal end of the spectrum.

Incidentally, "He's a'gonna" is actually a dialectical US variant of "He's gonna". (I believe it is related to a now archaic English usage as in "going a'hunting"). It isn't necessarily a misspelling of "He's a goner".

We have to be careful of labeling verbal contractions (if that's where you're going, I'm not sure -- hey I used 3 contractions right there!) as inferior or sub-standard speech. Remember that "It's", "don't", "can't" and similar contractions were probably sounded like that long before they were written down in the particular form that we are familiar with today. And not all contractions made the final cut. Why do we now say "It's" for "It is" and not "'Tis" as Shakespeare did? I haven't the faintest idea. But speech just evolves, and we find a comfort level with evolving usage, and it becomes "correct", all in good time.

Posted on: I'm gonna be Late

I would echo zhenlijiang's intent. I would point out to everyone involved, that the heated discussion whether or not "pissed" could be construed to be offensive was between the poddies; but the heat of the discussion might be taken by Dilu as indirectly at her, and I would reassure her that is definitely not the case.

However, now that the subject has been broached, in the spirit of open discussion, and of contributing what local and varied information any interested individual might have, from my perspective as an older person, I would say the acceptability of "pissed" varies greatly across the English speaking world. In relatively conservative Western Canada (and I believe this echoes speaking style in North Western USA), "pissed off" = "pissed" ="annoyed" is often used in casual speech by under 40's unless they are mildly or more than mildly religious. Use it in conversation with anyone more religious or older, especially a stranger, and there is at least some chance of causing mild offence. Use it in the presence of a lady (especially a stranger) older than 60 and I would say you are likely to cause at least mild offence. You would never hear "pissed" on public Canadian radio, at least, not by the official announcers.

In the other parts of the British Empire -UK, Australia, NZ, "pissed" means something else; it derives from "piss-drunk" and means "intoxicated with alcohol" (it does not generally mean this in N America unless you specify it, ie "pissed out of his mind etc.."). Or else you can "take the piss"out of someone (tease him, or rag him) as in "taking the Mickey" out of someone (used in N America.)

Regarding offensiveness (and I am somewhat out of my element here), I believe current usage of all forms of "piss" word combinations in the UK and Aus. is quite common and acceptable in conversation with under 50's at least. However my mother-in-law, who is now 89 but emigrated from England in 1954, and retains her middle class Englishness to a remarkable degree, would be quite offended if I or anyone else, especially a stranger used the word "piss" in her presence. So the use of "piss" in a lesson directed at the unselected general public "out there" strikes me as --zhenlijiang has the precise word here -- dissonant.

So, it is not our place, as Poddies to declare what should or should not be spoken. But if CP's intent is to avoid even mildly offensive expressions, then my perspective is that the "pissed" expression, learned, no doubt in an informal and friendly atmosphere of young people, has a variable level of acceptability in some circles, in my humble and likely biased opinion, and perhaps not all our hosts knew this. Of course, this usage did not personally bother me in the least, nor has any other usage, for that matter. I think ALL the CP hosts are pretty awesome, and it is so inspiring to see how much care and thought they put in the presentations.

I sincerely hope my comments are not seen as criticisms, as that is not my intent.

Posted on: Cold Noodles

I asked a Cantonese friend, and it's a little bizarre. Ketchup is 茄汁 as I thought, but tomato juice, (you know, cold, in a glass with maybe a sprig of celery, and possibly a dash of Vodka), is 番茄汁, just like in Mandarin, but you gotta say the 番 part, otherwise it means "ketchup"!! Haha!, I didn't expect that.

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

I 'm not sure what you mean by durian moon cake. We used to have a product that was dark brown, slightly translucent , very stiff like tar, slightly sticky , and rolled into a cylinder about 1.5 inches in diameter and ?6 to 7 inches long and wrapped in wax paper or cellophane, that we called durian "kueh" ("cake" in Hokkien). It was sweet and pretty pungent, and used to cause some olfactory reaction in foreigners similar to that of the fruit, though possibly 1 notch down. This stuff would be cut in slices and chewed upon, and would be too solid to put directly into mooncakes, but I guess there would be no reason durian couldn't be prepared as a moon cake filling; after all, my experience was that of 40-50 years ago!

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

I must say, your post puzzled me in exactly the same way as bodawai & babardwan, and I think they phrased their replies to you and bbdw subsequently fleshed out his puzzlement (and mine, as it turns out) to Jenny in as clear and succinct a manner as I might ever achieve so I need not repeat what they said; so I'm curious, in the same way it appears that he is, how you think CP could and should improve upon it's lesson content = better selection, or should select "everything" or at least "much more" to include in its lesson plans.

Posted on: Car Decorations and Bumper Stickers

Oh, thanks, mate. (Learning 'Strine, too :))

Posted on: Car Decorations and Bumper Stickers

Without insisting on the veracity of the concept, I can explain: the "fish" reference in Christianity is because the early Christians were exhorted to be "fishers of men" i.e. to "harvest" people to convert to Christianity. I believe St Andrew was the Patron Saint of Fishermen. His Blue on White Diagonal Cross in the flag of Scotland was supposed to be the outline of a fishing boat mast and crossbar against a blue sky (Superimposed on St George's and St Patrick's Crosses to form the Union Jack). Hence the "Fish" Christian bumper sticker, often in the form of the Stylized shaped Greek Characters for Ichthys = Fish.

There has been an amusing (at least for some) backlash against the very hard core Fundamentalist Christian belief of Creationism (the concept that God created all the creatures of the world de novo, i.e. in one stroke, as they are today without the benefit of Evolution, which by implication, is then an erroneous belief system that indicates a lack of faith in (this brand of) Christianity. This parody is manifested in bumper stickers the with the word "Darwin" shaped in the contour of a fish, Christianity style, but with long legs (i.e. evolving) .

Posted on: Car Decorations and Bumper Stickers

I am listening to this BST lesson my usual way clicking on the "play" button audio strip to get the sound. The discussion refers to pictures or perhaps a slide show. Is this actually part of the lesson, and if so, how do I access it?

Posted on: Cold Noodles

Now that I'm thinking about it; I'm sure ketchup, tomato SAUCE is still 茄汁 in Cantonese. So how do they describe tomato JUICE, since 茄汁 in Cantonese, at least, reserved for "ketchup".茄水? Keh-soei?

Posted on: Ice Cream Run

I'll bet in SH they toned it down for the civilians!! Ha ha. Usually, at least for the actual fruit itself, it's a bench-clearing, restaurant- emptying rush for onlookers and sniffers to get out of there. Can't imagine why.