User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: Buying a House
May 30, 2009 at 12:53 PMchangye,
That makes a lot of sense--except, why then doesn't it apply to daughters as well? I'll ask my teacher with the long skirts and 20s flapper haircut if that's how she understands it. It's John's fault anyway that the class (well, henning and me at least) is snickering--"shiny stick"!
(Why do I sometimes feel like you're admonishing me??)
Posted on: Buying a House
May 30, 2009 at 8:54 AMhehe, henning no, probably not (just listened to the lesson and edited myself). The word came up recently in a class taught by my favorite teacher, a lady I think in her late sixties who taught high school in China 30-40 years ago--the epitome of schoolteacherliness with her long, slightly flared skirts, mesmerizingly beautiful handwriting and all. She didn't hint at any possible "direct imagery". What she did warn us of was that it is not OK to refer to anyone else as one, that it's only OK for the 光棍儿 to call himself that.
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 30, 2009 at 6:40 AMMm? In case anyone is still in question--of course no milk ever in green tea! (I'm Japanese! The very notion is abhorrent) Even those matcha latte things, though matcha is Japanese powdered green tea and very different, 不正常 imo.
Another personal favorite black tea is an assam or uva w/dried ginger slices (as always, taken w/milk).
Ginger goes great with tea anyway. A classmate just brought back some 姜糖, ginger brittle with sesame seeds, from a trip to Hunan province. You get the sweet first, then the sesame flavor and finally the spicy ginger--很好吃! All the wonderful sweets and non-sweets served to enjoy with Chinese tea I guess is a whole other world too large to explore here.
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 29, 2009 at 4:53 AM* pot calling the kettle black *
五十步笑百步 isn't totally off--I think maybe it's slightly different though.
I do like the expression we have. Not very elegant, but the tone is quite appropriate for the meaning:
目くそ鼻くそを笑う me-kuso hana-kuso wo warau
目くそ - eye mucus, or those lovely attractive deposits in the corner of the eyes when you wake after a night of too much drinking. 鼻くそ - snot. (くそ / 糞 = merde in French)
And for this my J-C dictionary gives me the following:
乌鸦落在猪身上 / 看见别人黑，看不见自己黑 / 秃子笑和尚
Any others?
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 28, 2009 at 6:19 PMsebire, RJ
Once I was out of black tea and in desperation (have a black tea dependency problem, one of two remaining habits I still hope to kick or at least reduce--however I never take black tea w/out milk as it is too harsh on the palate and stomach) substituted with some old smoky oolong. Wasn't as bad as you might think. Sugar I will only add to black tea w/milk once in a while when there's nothing else and I'm desperate to get a sugar fix (the other remaining habit). But I think if you're serious you don't ever add cold milk to your tea anyway. It should be room temperature, right?
老板杯 looks now like it may actually be a name some manufacturer has for their product, or even the way importers in Japan call those things--as opposed to the general term. Sorry, I guess we still don't know what they're called. I have two myself like the ones RJ describes, the cheap kind I now see. Those I can easily get in Japan. The one you posted sebire--that is fancy. I've also seen quite a few cab drivers using instant coffee jars as their tea carriers.
Haven't had the experience myself, but have heard that people everywhere will offer you hot water refills if they see you're running low, so universal a necessity tea is for the Chinese. Which I think is very nice. Anyone have this experience traveling in China?
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 27, 2009 at 1:29 PMsebire,
Do you mean those 老板杯's (maybe they're called other things too though)? I can get those at the local Chinatown--for about five times the price they go for in China.
We have many women so obsessed in Japan. My friend got in such a way after a fateful encounter in Hangzhou w/龙井茶 and started on a 中国茶 course in Tokyo (also popular are "wine courses", which attract more men than the tea I think). Many students are hopeful of careers like 茶艺师, or at least becoming knowledgeable salespeople at posh tea stores in Aoyama or something. It's quite a business.
Posted on: City: Mumbai
May 27, 2009 at 10:38 AMraygo,
Though I haven't yet pored over them exactly I think your transcripts are nice-looking and good quality. （掌声掌声）
Posted on: Funny Rice
May 27, 2009 at 10:22 AMbababardwan,
Thanks for finding those references to laughter yoga which I did know about! I would like to die laughing (not die of laughter though, which sounds torturous). So to increase the chances of that, have decided to laugh as often as I possibly can. heeheehee
Posted on: Tea Tasting
May 27, 2009 at 9:58 AMmatt, xuchen
Actually also always good is that old refillable pot of nice 茉莉花茶 at our local 中华街 restaurants. Japanese tourists in China for the first time are often disappointed at how not so good (has kind of a smell, I thought) refillable pots at restaurants are; we're clueless to the custom that to get 好喝的 you have to order and pay for it． We so take the complimentary pot of nice stuff for granted.
Posted on: Buying a House
May 30, 2009 at 1:45 PMP.S. sorry, I should not have written in a way that requires additional explanation--KWX about your admonishing me. It's just a little over-reacting to words like unfilial ... after all the same values do also exist, maybe to a lesser degree, in Japan.