User Comments - weibwo

Posted on: Cold Weather Is Coming

John Jenny:

You missed an opportunity to explain a major cultural difference between Europe/America and China.  You translated negative 3 to 1 degrees.  Westerners are eschatological in that all time sequrences are forward not backward.  Because of our Judeo/Christian tradition all time and number are ascending nerver descending.  Early in the christian tradition Saint Augustine' book the "City of God" said that we descend from heaven when we are born then ascend to heaven throughout our life returning from the "City of Man" to the City of God again.  It is engrained in our culture.  So what a westerner would say it is 1 to 3 degrees below zero.  When I heard "3 to 1 degrees" it sounded very strange.  Also "xia xing qi" sounds very strange as well.  From a western perspective it should bb "shang zing qi".  This is a major difference that reflects itself in the Western Languages and Chinese.  The Chinese confuse it when they speak a western language and westerners confuse it when they speak Chinese.  I shows up in Chinese all the time.  Also you can translate "Tian a" as "Heavens!" we say it all the time.

Posted on: End of the Year Bonus Surprise

Another question.  I understand the 薪水 is used more often for salary.  Is that true?

Posted on: End of the Year Bonus Surprise

jennyzhu

I frequently get a bonus at the end of the year as well as each quarter depending on the performance of our company.  Bonuses in the US are usually based on the profits of a company except in the financial industry.  It seems the more money lost the higher the bonuses.  These very high bonuses in the financial industry are meant to retain and recruit talent.  If by talent they mean greedy, self serving thieves, I question the practice.

Posted on: The Left-handed Child

I am a little ashamed to admit this but when I first went to China in 1979, at a restaurant I asked for some chopsticks.  We were always given forks at that time because many of the waiters didn't realize that Americans often eat with chopsticks.  I even knew how to ask for them in Chinese.  Anyway the waiter came back with a pair.  I looked at them then said:  "no these are for right handed people, I need chopsticks for left handers".  The waiter took them back and then went to the manager and they discussed the issue for a long time.  Finally I felt guilty and went over and told them I was just joking and took the chopsticks.  It didn't seem very amusing to them I can assure you.  First experience with American humor for all of them.

Posted on: Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Liliana you can change your job and change your girlfriend.  We say that all the time in English.

Posted on: Christmas Dinner

Mhy wife is Chinese and complains that turkey is too dry.  You can avoid the turkey from being too dry by cooking it New Orleans style.  This means deep fat frying the turkey in hot oil.  First you put seasoning into the meat with a meat syringe.  Then cook it in hot oil.  It takes less time.  The skin is very crispy and the meat zhen nen.  I think it is the best way to cook turkey.  Also add beer to the marinade that you inject into the turkey.  MMMMMM

Posted on: A Thanksgiving Phone Call

ellen_counselor

Because of so much diversity in the US, the traditional Thanksgiving dinner varies a lot.  Vegens serve vegetarian dishes which is very popular now.  Asians have their own twist to the traditional dinner serving hot pot, lumpia, pho.  Hispanics serve their traditional dishes like papusa, mole dishes, Spanish rice.  Eastern Europeans serve their dishes.  Turkey is served along with ethnic dishes from every country.  It makes the traditional Thanksgiving feast very very very interesting and quite tasty I must say.  I look forward to Thanksgiving because we have lots of Asian and Hispanic friends and most of us serve pot luck with dishes from all over the world.  Like the US, traditions change all the time.  Also Canada has Thanksgiving on another day.

Posted on: Dinner with Friends

I was in Yunnan last year more specifically Da Li and had several wonderful home cooked meals.  In my travels in China I find people will invite you to eat in their homes (if you make an effort to meet them) which I have done several times.  Just need to get out and meet people.  Their skills have not diminished in the least.  Best Szechuan meal I ever had was in a home.

Posted on: How to Say "and" in Chinese

PDF copies of Qing Wen lesson, great!!!!

Posted on: It's My Birthday!

Jenny

I have taught ESL to Chinese students for some 30 years.  The pronunciation problem between day and date is what I call the lazy final consonant.  Since Chinese does not have any final consonants that I know of.  The Chinese ESL speaker tends to drop the pronunciation of the final consonant.  It takes a real effort for Native Chinese speakers to concentrate on pronouncing the final consonant.  I spend a lot of time practicing final consonants with my Chinese ESL students and have several drills where the student prounounces words like:

day/date

pay/paid

may/mate

may/made

However Jenny your pronunciation is superb and you make very few mistakes except for a little detectable Australian accent but that could be the Ken influence.  I'd lose that.