“Rainbow,” one of my former students and fellow bloggers, has recently finished a poll (survey?) of Chinese students. With the help of an American friend, she was able to provide cultural contrast, with the results nicely graphically displayed. Although the sample size was not large, the questions were well-chosen and the results are interesting. Some of my favorite questions were Can you cook, Do you have an idea now about what kind of job to do after …
16
Jul
2004
2004
What Does an Alien Sound Like When it Speaks Chinese?
My company is still busy preparing a bunch of short educational cartoons. They’re supposed to air on CCTV at the end of August, I think. (I’ll let you all know.)
Anyway, I seem to have been typecast. Last time I played the voice of a slow-witted pig named “Dudu” (the Chinese think this name is cute, and even after they found out what “doo-doo” means in English, refused to change his name!). For this recent run of cartoons, …
14
Jul
2004
2004
Get Paid for Reading Chinese News!
I seem to remember some hype a while back about a company that wanted to pay people for surfing the internet. It seems to have faded into obscurity since then. What I never expected is that now a Chinese company seems to be trying something similar!
14
Jul
2004
2004
Being a Good Citizen Online
Recently I signed up with a Chinese Flash-centered site called Flash8.net. Just like with American websites, when you go through the free registration process you have to choose a username and a password, supply an e-mail address, etc. And then there are the terms of use. I was almost too lazy to read them before clicking on ÎÒͬÒâ, but something made me go ahead and read it through.
There was nothing in it that I wouldn’t agree with, …
09
Jul
2004
2004
Being a Foreigner in a Small Chinese Town
Being a foreigner in a smallish Chinese town is quite an experience. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you’re a spectacle. Everything is difficult for you. Nothing goes as expected. If you can speak any Chinese, your (near-constant) audience will be amazed and enthralled. Frequently being the center of attention of a group of non-English-speaking people can really spur one to improve one’s Chinese. A foreigner in a smallish Chinese town who can speak Chinese fairly well can quite quickly …
03
Jul
2004
2004
Network Update
There have been a lot of changes recently in the Sinosplice Network.
You might have noticed that long-time member Derrick of Derrick in Dalian, AKA The Chinese Bazaar is no longer in the network. Well, it’s for a happy reason. Derrick decided that he was ready for his own domain and his own hosting, to move onto bigger things. I, for one, am happy that he’s come so far. I think his site’s recent redesign at the new …
30
Jun
2004
2004
You, Too, Could Have My Shanghai Job!
My company has decided that there’s too much work here for me to handle on my own, so they’ve asked me to find a second. Another person that can do my job. Only problem is, since I am quite busy, I don’t have a lot of time to look for someone. I just got back from Dezhou. Tomorrow I go to Fuzhou for 3 days. When I get back the next day I’ll go to Wuxi for 5 days. Then …
28
Jun
2004
2004
德州电话
前不久我出差到山东德州去了。因为我是此行同事中唯一的男士，所以我一个人住了一个房间。星期五晚上11点多的时候有电话：
[我:] 喂？ [她:] 您好，打扰一下。您需要小姐为您服务吗？ [我:] 不需要。 [她:] 打扰了。
我听说过中国宾馆有这样的服务，但这是我第一次亲自接这样的电话。
星期六晚上10点多又来了这个电话。对话也是一模一样的。令我惊讶的是星期六晚上11点多她又打电话给我了！难道她以为过了一个小时我会寂寞起来而改变主意吗？…
28
Jun
2004
2004
Impressions of Dezhou
This past weekend I went on a business trip to Dezhou, a city in northern Shandong province. It’s funny — before heading off to Dezhou, any person I told I was heading to Dezhou had one of three reactions:
- Had never heard of it. (Not surprising, really.)
- “Texas??” (The American state of Texas is Dekesasi-zhou in Chinese, and often abbreviated to De-zhou.)
- “Paji!” (That’s the name of Dezhou’s one claim to (relative) fame: a chicken dish called paji …
23
Jun
2004
2004
To Stay
This last time that I went home for a visit was a special one. Not because of who I saw or what I did, but because of the message I bore with me that time. It was a message that was a long time in the making, slowly gaining substance and taking on a concrete form. It was a message that had to be shared with my family, and I wanted it to be done in person.
In the very …
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