User Comments - simonpettersson

Posted on: Smelly Cheese

法兰西多式: French toast

菠萝班戟: Pineapple pancake

The transliterations probably sound better in Cantonese. They usually do.

That, by the way, is the answer to the question of so many Chinese students: "Why do the transliterations sound nothing like the original words?" It's usually because they were made in Cantonese, not Mandarin.

Posted on: Smelly Cheese

But then again, there's a lot more sound transcription going on here than in the North, I suspect. Which is weird, because people here don't speak English. I think it's because English words are widely used in the middle of speech in HK Cantonese, both directly and in sound-transcribed forms.

There's a local semi-western restaurant with particularly weird names for the dishes. Often they make up their own transcriptions. Luckily there are pictures as well as English translations. Otherwise I'd have trouble with menu items like "法兰西多式" and "菠萝班戟".

Posted on: Smelly Cheese

Down here I've never heard (or, more often, seen, as I've encountered it on menus) it referred to as anything but 芝士*. When I first arrived, I called it 干酪 and people understood me, but nobody else used it.

*Actually, not true. I've heard it referred to as "cheese", as well. As in "你们在瑞典喜不喜欢吃cheese?"

Posted on: Please Speak Chinese

It's also used in Hong Kong. And since Hong Kong is the great bastion of Cantonese, mainland Cantonese is heavily influenced by HK Cantonese, and southern Mandarin is influenced by mainland Cantonese. So basically: HK people say "gwok3yu4" --> Guangdong people say "gwok3yu4" --> Guangdong people say "guo2yu3".

You will also hear 钟头 instead of 小时 and 巴士 instead of 公交车, and others.

Posted on: Please Speak Chinese

I can't resist chiming in with another data point. I'm Swedish and I currently live in Foshan, in southern China. There are a number of things that makes this situation different:

1: English is not my native tongue.

2: Mandarin is not the first language of most people I encounter. They primarily speak Cantonese, which I more or less don't speak at all. I do speak Mandarin, however, and they do, too.

3: Very few people I meet can speak any English beyond "Hello!"

With these points in mind, here are some situations I've encountered:

1: People yell "Hello!" at me in the street. This happens maybe once every twenty minutes I spend in the street. While I was amused in the beginning, I now completely ignore them, as it grows really tiresome. I've also started to feel a bit annoyed that they assume I speak English. This annoyance is largely unwarranted, as no doubt the vast majority of white people in China do, but I feel like there's a tacit assumption that I'm English or American, which grates on me a bit. Then again, I have more than once had to explain to people that Sweden has its own language, and English is not our official language.

2: People accept me as an authority on English before even having heard me speak. Related to the above point, of course, in that they assume that because I'm a white guy, my English must be impeccable. This is, however, more unwarranted of them, since while just about every Swede can speak English, a large number of them are pretty bad at it.

3: People assume I cannot speak neither Mandarin nor Cantonese, and if I go to KFC they will invariably pull out the plaque with all the pictures on it, so I can point at what I want to order. This, again, is a natural assumption as, I assume, most foreigners in China cannot speak a Chinese language, and everyone with white skin is a foreigner. Sweden would be the same as has been mentioned about England and the US: no matter what the person looks like, you assume they speak Swedish.

4: Then again, the people at the supermarket will usually tell me how much my purchase costs and ask me whether or not I have five mao in Cantonese. This makes me happy, even though my Cantonese sucks.

5: When I'm with one Chinese person, we speak Mandarin. When I'm with two or more, they speak Cantonese and I'm quiet. This is the one that really gets me. I have twice said, in Mandarin, "Look, we all speak Mandarin, but I don't speak Cantonese. Can we talk Mandarin?" In both cases they agreed that the conversation should be held in Mandarin, and then continue to speak Cantonese. Literally the first word after the sentence "From now on, let's all speak Mandarin" is in Cantonese! One of these experiences was especially ludicrous. Four of us were having dinner together. Three of us could speak English, three of us could speak Cantonese and all could speak Mandarin. The result was that the conversation was mostly held in Cantonese, with occasional switches to English. No Mandarin was spoken.

In most of the above situations, the assumptions behind the speakers are completely warranted and natural. This does not change the fact that they annoy me. I certainly don't hold it against the persons, but I'm still saddened every time someone assumes I don't speak any Chinese. I'm really happy those few times people address me in Cantonese, even moreso than when they address me in Mandarin. Every time that happens I excuse myself in Mandarin and ask if they can speak Guóyǔ. It also makes me want to get my Cantonese study going.

Posted on: Sex Education Class

Google check:

"得到高潮": 155,000 hits

"达到高潮": 723,000 hits

"达到性高潮": 212,000 hits

"得到性高潮": 4,300,000 hits

If you can trust Google on this (which is a big "if"), it seems to suggest that 达到 is used with the shorter 高潮, whereas 得到 is used with the longer 性高潮. Which is strange, unless 达到 is collocated with reaching non-sexual climaxes; but a look at the first page of results tells me that's hardly the case. It also tells me that Chinese men are as troubled as Westerners by the problems associated with the female orgasm.

The only conclusion I can draw from this is "don't trust Google". It's a well-known fact that those estimated number of hits are all bull, anyway. Oh, and 性高潮 is a lot more common than I thought.

Posted on: Sex Education Class

That'd be 高潮 (gāocháo). Literally means "high tide" or, metaphorically, "climax". My dictionary says the full word for "orgasm" would be 性高潮 (xìnggāocháo), literally "sex climax", but I haven't heard it myself.

I'll go out on a limb and say that the measure word is 次 (cì), though that's from "language feel" and not memorization. "to reach orgasm" woul be "得到高潮".

Posted on: Haggling Like a Local

I just wanted to quickly chime in with a shout of encouragement for teaching the dialects. I'm not in Shanghai, but the moment you take up Cantonese I'll be as happy as a dog with two dicks.

Posted on: The Killing Game

If she's like the sheriff in the regular Mafia game, she can point to one person each round and find out whether or not they're mafia. Of course, going out with this information makes her a suitable target for assassination.

In werewolf-themed games, she's called a "seer", I think. There are also variants with "false seers" who get the wrong information. Once they realize they're false, they can of course just invert their results and get the truth, but by then it might be too late …

Posted on: Visiting the Hospital with a Fever

I posted a thread about it not too long ago:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/6860