I remember when a big new Carrefour supermarket opened down the street from my Shanghai apartment I was quite happy about it at first. The convenience! Everything I needed, including a few imports, and for reasonable prices, right down the street.
Photo by Ek Chin Tan
As it turns out, that Carrefour was too popular. It was absolutely packed, all the time. I never wanted to go into that madhouse. Eventually I learned that there were certain times when …
It took way longer than I planned, but the pinyin plugin is finally done. It works, and I’m already using the beta release on Sinosplice.com now for the tooltips. Here are some samples of what you’ll be able to do when it’s done:
I went with the yellow style for Sinosplice, but there are 5 styles to choose from (the same five I asked for feedback on before).
The official release is coming …
Magnus of MandMX.com has been busy lately. You may be familiar with his Shanghainese podcast or his bilingual comics (he even did one about Sinosplice once). Anyway, now he’s come out with a book of his English/Chinese comics. It’s called Electric Voices and Stinky Tofu (a reference to the Chinese words 电话 and 臭豆腐).
Magnus was kind enough to give me an advance copy of this book to share my thoughts. I like that the book is bilingual, and …
Commenter Mark feels I was a bit unfair to Android phones as a Chinese study tool in my recent post, Back to the iPhone (it’s all about Chinese!).
Mark says:
Have you tried Hanping Pro? It has far more features than the free version. Also, Hanping in super-fast on Android 2.2. [Note: that link doesn't work in the PRC]
Mark goes on:
I think the biggest problem here for John is that he’s comparing
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Although the site is currently moving so you can’t see it, Shanghai Street Stories is an amazing blog featuring photographs of everyday life in Shanghai, each accompanied by a short story. [Update: you can see the blog here.]
Until the new site is up, you can’t easily see the photos online, but if you’re in Shanghai, you can see them in person at the author’s exhibit tomorrow. Details:
Demolish, Construct, Repeat: Building the Shanghai Dream
Southern Barbarian in Pudong
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I’ve already admitted before that I watch the Chinese dating show 非诚勿扰. Well, I’m still watching it, and the cultural and linguistic observations are starting to pile up. Today, though, I just wanted to mention one of the ones that strikes me as particularly odd.
Photo by Matthew Mittelstadt
In the program, as each male contestant is introduced, several video clips are shown. These videos reveal more about the man’s career and outlook on life, about his attitudes toward …
If I were still doing Junk Food Reviews, this would definitely go in one. (But I’m not, so fortunately I don’t have to actually eat this scary-looking thing.)
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John has lived in China for
11.8
years. He is a linguist focused on SLA and tech.
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