Lately a few of my friends have been working on bringing Chinese vocabulary study into the high-tech age. Those projects are not yet complete, but I found an impressive flashcard database site called Flashcard Exchange. It also has a Chinese study section.
The flashcard sets are focused on beginners, with Mandarin vocabulary – Kung Fu (I) apparently the best of them. It’s not actually focused on fung fu (which would be kind of cool), and it’s in simplified characters.…
Last week at work I had this conversation:
A: John, you have an activity on Saturday.
J: This Saturday? The 25th?
A: Right.
J: I can’t. It’s Christmas.
A: Why can’t you?
J: It’s Christmas. I have Christmas things to do.
A: It’s just for an hour.
J: No. It’s Christmas.
A: OK, I’ll tell them.
Later I was approached by my supervisor:
V: John, I realize it’s Christmas, but can you please work on Saturday?
J: No.
V: Come
…
桌子上有蛋糕，蛋饼，蛋块，蛋条。 你吃掉了蛋糕，蛋饼，蛋条。 桌子上还剩什么？
剩蛋块了！
* * * * *
金狗表~金狗表~金狗欧得喂~！ 叮叮当，叮叮当~！*
圣诞黑皮，黑皮牛液！
*给你们圣诞任务：这首歌是什么语言？是中国方言吗？…
I wrote before about discovering Calvin & Hobbes Chinese translations here in Shanghai, and about how the two characters’ names were translated into Chinese. I got some requests for scans.
I think the comics are translated mostly quite well. I’m still unsure of the legitimacy of the publication, though. The cover looks all nice, and I bought the books for 20 rmb each in a major Shanghai bookstore (思考乐), but the paper is rather low quality and the reproduction sometimes …
The name of the Christmas song “Jingle Bells” is 圣诞铃声 (something like “Christmas Bells”) in Chinese. But the famous English refrain “jingle bells, jingle bells” in Chinese is the onomatopoeic “叮叮当, 叮叮当,” which sounds like “ding ding dong, ding ding dong” to Western ears. It doesn’t sound at all like sleigh bells ringing to us, it just sounds really funny (or maybe like doorbells). In my experience, every Westerner who learns these Chinese lyrics busts out …
I got these “throat lozenges” (more like mints) for free on the street of some city I visited this year on business. I liked the package, so I kept it. I finally got a scanner as an early Christmas present this past weekend. (Thanks, mom and dad!) Now I can throw it away. (The package, not the scanner.)
P.S. Yes, having a scanner means Chinese Calvin & Hobbes scans, and many, many other things, coming soon……
Through “anonymous sources” I’ve been hearing for a while now about how unhappy the flight attendants at China Eastern are. They have little job security, their lives are not their own, and they get treated terribly by both passengers and management. What better way to vent those frustrations than a rap… in Shanghainese?
We all know that that McDonalds has marketing masters guiding the conquest of every last prime urban location on the globe. Sometimes seeing the results of their efforts is kind of scary though.
The two pictures above (click for the full images) were taken at separate kindergartens in Shanghai. And you can bet the phenomenon is more widespread here in China than just two kindergartens. I’ve seen a few other companies pull the same kind of advertising stunts in kindergartens, …
I just discovered a cool new blog called Liuzhou Laowai (via danwei.org). I especially related to his story about how he got his power switched back on through guanxi. It reminded me of how I got my Chinese credit card, and also of the time I also had my power shut off myself (sort of).
The problem is that a lot of the utility companies in Shanghai are way too nice. One time I forgot to pay …
John has lived in China for
11.5
years. He is a linguist focused on SLA and tech.
All Posts