User Comments - zhenlijiang
zhenlijiang
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 12, 2011 at 8:58 AMHaha I think babyeggplant is a fellow girl--ah I was right (no worries babyeggplant. the name thing happens sometimes too. it's cool).
But I'm late thanking you for your input about the smoking Bodawei. If you look at the personal info users give on that Mtime site I mentioned the other day for example, most of the users seem to be between ages 19-25. Many of them say they "don't smoke". I've only seen a few male users say they smoke "on occasion", even fewer "regularly smoke". I think I've only seen one, maybe two, female users say they smoke. This info is entirely optional, if you don't want to answer you can just skip that item. Just from this, I inferred that young Chinese generally think it's perfectly cool not to smoke. Not enough really to infer that they think it's uncool to be a smoker.
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 12, 2011 at 8:01 AMaiya you're making me blush. I'm a bit old to go around calling myself a girl but well yes as far as gender goes that's which one I am. I don't know why either. You aren't the first at all, several people here have said the same thing. Hopefully that doesn't alter your perception of my manners tooooo much either ...
Posted on: Ballet
June 12, 2011 at 7:29 AMOh how cool persimone, I'm jealous. I guess the instructions were given in Chinese with the terminology in French? Is that right?
Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures
June 12, 2011 at 7:14 AMHi Bodawei, it is off-topic to this podcast but I'm quite interested in that part of the research that says 70% of Chinese students would prefer to learn English from a Chinese national, and the reasoning why learning English from a Chinese national would in most cases serve the Chinese students' purpose much better. What are the purpose and goals you mean? Maybe not necessarily here, but could you elaborate?
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 11, 2011 at 11:10 AMOh dear, hugwee are you reading this?
So was this elevator incident in Shanghai Xiaophil? Sometimes I think about the fights I regularly manage to avoid only because I'm not a guy. Couldn't access Nciku so went to my Japanese dictionary and got 成金 nari-kin for 暴发户 bàofāhù. I'd say the Chinese term is more colorful and interesting.
Speaking of easier said than done, a friend in China told me about the time he had to be in hospital with pneumonia. He said the people who came to visit his roommates would sit--because there aren't really such things as visiting hours--and eat and drink and smoke day and night at their bedside. He asked the nurses to enforce non-smoking in the room but they seemed pretty powerless to make it stop. What a nightmare.
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 10, 2011 at 6:09 AMWhen the subject is smoking of course we expect significant cultural differences, especially between China and the US. Some cultural points and questions that came up:
03:35 - 03:44
Dilu: I think this girl is kind of manly.
John: Yeah do all Chinese women go around offering guys smokes?
Dilu: Uh ... not me.
John: Not too many.
Since John follows up by answering his own question, this exchange seems to tell me that this dialogue isn't a portrayal of the most typical Chinese woman you might encounter in the most typical situation. But that it's certainly plausible; she's just this kind of woman. Don't know if "manly" is the word, but I think I get Dilu's drift.
10:27 - 10:47
John: OK can I say "I mind"?
Dilu: Wo jieyi. Yes of course you can say that, but it sounds pretty rude.
John: OK. If you want to be rude you can say it that way huh.
Dilu: Do you say that in English? "Yes I do mind"--?
John: Some people would say that.
Dilu: Mmm.
John: In the United States we're kind of anti-smoking right, now any smoker will tell you that.
Right, it may be very blunt but it's not unheard of, for someone in the US to say "Yes I do mind". Maybe more likely, "I do actually" or something like that, and perhaps even giving a reason (I'm asthmatic).
What's important here to be clear on is that it's rude to say "wo jieyi" in Chinese. I guess the question John implied that never got answered is then what do you say, if you do mind, you really really don't want the other person to light up beside you?
The cultural comment John brings up at 11:16
John: In this dialogue we have a woman inviting a guy to smoke with her right?
Dilu: Mm hmm.
John: So is that weird or what?
.....
11:48
Dilu: Well, I don't think this is very common but it does happen sometimes.
John: Right, so let me ask you, do women ever invite you to smoke with them? In China.
Dilu: Well actually sometimes, at my work.
John: Really.
Dilu: Mm but some of them are not Chinese.
John: ... OK. So men will invite women to smoke with them, women will invite women to smoke with them?
Dilu: Mm hmm ... Well but after they know that you don't smoke they'll never do that again.
So how likely or unlikely is this dialogue? John seems to think it's not at all frequent, he doesn't even see many women in China smoking. A woman at the bar offering a man a cigarette. I assumed they were strangers. I'm sure it's possible, but to repeat John's question, is this weird? Or not so?
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 10, 2011 at 4:17 AMRuined is harsh. Having said that, I also find it irritating when legitimate cultural questions raised either in the podcasts or in the discussion section don't get answered well. Like this one. Whoever wrote the dialogue could answer John's question. Perhaps it doesn't mean anything at all, perhaps there's some cultural insight we could all gain. I'm interested to know the answer too. I don't think they should have redone the recording, but wish the question would get addressed here. I think that's what the comments section is for.
Posted on: I don't smoke
June 10, 2011 at 4:13 AMHi hephoto I agree that "whatever" is generally a rude response, however we know this isn't a native speaker of English. Dilu's English is very good; I think we might be taking Jenny's exceptionally high standard for granted here. It's terrifying, to think how often I could be putting people off or making them angry when I try to communicate in my substandard Chinese. I really need them to be patient with me as long as I'm not trying to be rude. So like Bodawei says let's not make too much of it.
Posted on: Ballet
June 9, 2011 at 8:52 AMThank you for the insights Dilu, it’s interesting to learn this background.
I wouldn't worry about offending us waiguoren by describing our dancing as crazy. That’s kind of the whole purpose of recreational dancing--it’s not a recital or performance but just going crazy and having fun once every while. I call it freestyle 自由式 zìyóushì.
Yeah I was going to say (just saw Bodawei’s comment) it’s got to be all about the kind of music that is popular.
Posted on: Chinese Mythological Creatures
June 12, 2011 at 9:25 AMSorry to hear about your disappearing reply, I know how that is ...
I'm interested in knowing what the students' needs are, what purposes they want served. Then also, how such needs differ from (or relate to, I guess) the needs of the many people who in addition to school still "want to learn English" and go looking for language exchange partners on the Internet and elsewhere. But again, we're super off-topic here.