User Comments - pgwilliams222
pgwilliams222
Posted on: Saying Good-bye at a Tavern in Nanjing -- 金陵酒肆留别
June 03, 2009, 02:13 PMSo what happened? One minute we were talking about expanding to PDF format and now it's over? Just seems so sudden.
Anyway- I'm glad to have had the experience. Thanks for your hard work in producing the show.
Posted on: Two Poems about Music -- 弹琴 and 听筝
April 09, 2009, 07:09 AMPete (and anyone else who might know),
It seems the poems we have been looking at are all from the old dynasties. I've enjoyed learning about them very much, more than I thought I would actually. But it has led me to wonder about contemporary Chinese poetry. Every Taiwanese third grader can recite by heart half the poems you've presented but none seem to know any contemporary poems.
My question is, are there any modern poets and how prevalant are their writings in society? Furthermore, are newer poems still written in 文言文 and what is the subject matter? Would you consider presenting some more modern material (certainly not in place of 唐詩 or other classics)
Posted on: Two Poems about Music -- 弹琴 and 听筝
April 07, 2009, 06:52 AMPete
If you have time can you post the traditional after the simplified characters for the poems. It's tough for me (and maybe a few others I'm thinking) to guess at some of these words by just their pronunciation and simplified characters.
- Thanks
Posted on: 日本动漫
March 05, 2009, 06:45 AM我喜歡的日本動漫是<灌籃高手>(Slam Dunk)雖然我不太喜歡籃球,我還是覺得這部很好笑. 有沒有人看過? 我一直好奇, 那裡有紅頭髮的日本人?主角怎麼看起來是西方來的?
Posted on: Dreams of the Departed 陇西行
March 01, 2009, 10:53 AMThanks for the sites. I'll check 'em out.
Posted on: Dreams of the Departed 陇西行
February 28, 2009, 08:52 AMChangye,
I'm in awe! Where did you find this out? Is there a websight full of Chinese trivia I should check out. Either way thanks for impressive historical explanation. I now know where to refer my questions in the future!
Interesting point about the origins of the word for pepper as well.(again where did you pick that up?)
I have to say you're right when you say it's complicated. The answer is much more multidimensional than a simple traditional vs simplified character explanation. The more I learn the more I realize just how much i don't know!
And to Pete,
I have to admit I like the poem section more and more. I never thought I'd be so intrested in the more minute details of Chinese until the poem podcasts apeared. Keep up the good work!
Posted on: Dreams of the Departed 陇西行
February 27, 2009, 03:20 PMchangye,
so that means that the 胡 in the poem does not really mean beard and and neither does the 胡 in 胡說八道. It is simply the name for a northern tribe at the time.
I thought it a little too convenient. I think this is a good argument for learning traditional characters, at least if your going to be looking at traditional poems. I'll bet lots of confusion can arise from the way characters were simplified. Suddenly a word like 胡can have extra meanings and the original meanings become confused.
Posted on: Dreams of the Departed 陇西行
February 27, 2009, 05:34 AMdoes the 胡 in the poem really mean beard. my (traditional character) dictionary says it comes from the word 胡人, barbarian. which is different from the 鬍meaning beard.
Also, 胡說八道, written in traditional characters, doesn't have the traditional character for beard
So does 胡(in traditional characters) also mean beard?
Posted on: Chinese New Year!
February 09, 2008, 02:06 PMI heard there was some terrible monster "nian" (year) who pranced around on the new year, eating people. the fireworks are to scare him away. He is also afraid of the color red so people hang red by their doors. Is this not true as well?
Posted on: The Final Show
September 19, 2009, 04:18 PMtvan
Don't worry. Soon we will all lose interest in the Amber saga and turn on Pete. The pleasant goodbyes to Pete look remarkably similar to Amber's goodbyes in the beginning don't you think? It's only a matter of time before the mob turns on him as well! "How could he take our Poems with Pete from us?!" Unless, perhaps, we've all learned a lesson?