Posted by Andrew
Hello readers!
Apologies for the brief posting gap- I’ve been running around the Pearl River Delta and closing out my apartment up north (more to follow on that). As a result of the national holiday, there were large celebrations throughout the 大陆 (mainland) including a large-scale 游行 (parade) in Beijing, a 假期 (vacation period) of 8 days, and when everybody 放假 (went on vacation) they went to 团圆 (reunite) with family to celebrate 中秋 (Mid-Autumn Festival) and eat 月饼 (moon cakes). As for me, I decided to go see how the National Day would be observed in China’s 特别行政区 (special administrative regions). The first part of the day, I was in Hong Kong, where I saw numerous 国旗 (national flags) and a banner saying 祝贺中华人民共和国 (congratulations/well wishing to the People’s Republic of China). When I got to Macau, I saw the world’s tallest 蹦极 (bungee) platform, and came to the conclusion that you wouldn’t be aware of the National Holiday in Macau unless somebody told you beforehand. However, there were a couple of those banners at the MGM Grand.
Words
大陆 da4lu4 - Mainland
游行 you2xing2 - parade
假期 jia4qi1 - vacation period
放假 fang4jia4- go on vacation
团圆 tuan2yuan2 - reunite (used with families)
中秋 zhong1qiu1 - mid-autumn festival (full name is 中秋节 zhong1qiu1jie2 with jie2 meaning holiday)
月饼 yue4bing3 - mooncakes
特别行政区 te4bie2xing2zheng4qu1 - Special Administrative Region(s)
国旗 guo2qi2 - national flag
蹦极 beng4ji2 - Bungee jumping
祝贺 zhu4he4 - wish
中华人民共和国 - zhong1hua2ren2min2gong4he2guo2 - People’s Republic of China
Posted by Andrew
I am the only foreigner in my district in Beijing. I say this for no reason but to emphasize that I can’t exactly blend in, and that making a good first impression is of high importance. Below is a story of something that happened not long after I moved in, and I even heard people talking about it at the neighborhood barbershop the very next day.
When I moved into my neighborhood, it became clear that I would stick out, or be a little 显眼(eye-catching) so to speak. One late night in China, I put in my 耳塞(earplugs) for the very first time and went to sleep. It was not long before I heard a faint knocking somewhere off in the distance as well as some yelling. I shifted in my bed and tried to get back to sleep. The knocking continued, and I finally got up to investigate. There was yelling, and an audibly livid 邻居(neighbor) was 敲门(knocking [at the door]) with a vengeance. I opened the door and was slammed with a barrage of Chinese coming at me a mile a minute. I pick up a few things, such as “我这次原谅你“(I forgive you this time) “下次不成“(it’s not gonna be all right next time!), 漏水(leaking water), and that was about all I could parse in my half-awake, terrified state. Looking at the trail of water going down the stairs, I pieced together that my 洗衣机(washing machine) which was 提供(provide[d]) by my landlord had indeed 漏水. Needless to say, the next day I had a 修理人员(repairperson) come by to fix it, but not before I wrote a profoundly apologetic note to the neighbor and attached it to a bottle of 白酒 to demonstrate my contrition. Perhaps also needless to say is I never wear earplugs to sleep anymore either.
显眼 xian2yan3 - eye-catching
耳塞 er2sai4 - earplugs
邻居 lin2ju1 - neighbor
敲门 qiao1men2 - knock (at the door)
原谅 yuan2liang4 - forgive
不成 bu4cheng2 (bu4xing2) - not all right
漏水 lou4shui3 - leak water
白酒 bai2jiu3 “spirits” - sorghum-based alcohol which can be as high as 65% alcohol by volume. Proceed with caution.
洗衣机 xi3yi1ji1- washing machine
提供 ti2gong4 - provide
修理人员xiu1li3ren2yuan2 - repairperson
Posted by Andrew
Hello! Sorry for the delayed update, there are now a bunch of posts in the hopper. One big event since my last post was the US Presidential Election! 奥巴马 (Obama) won over 麦凯恩 (McCain) to become America’s 总统 (president), and the 民主党 (Democratic party) now outnumbers the members of the 共和党 (Republican party) in America’s 议会 (Congress). In other words, 在美国议会上, 占多数的是民主党. It was likely Obama’s message of 变革 (change) which moved a lot of voters. The race was full of excitement, and Obama ran his 竞选队 (campaign team) well. We will continue to hear a lot from the new 副总统 (vice-president) 拜凳 (Biden) as well as McCain’s running mate 佩林 (Palin)
奥巴马 ao4ba1ma3- Obama
麦凯恩 mai4kai3en4 - McCain
总统 zong3tong3 - president
民主党 min2zhu3dang3 - Democratic Party
共和党 gong4he2dang3 - Republican Party
议会 yi4hui4 - Congress
占多数 zhan4duo1shu4 - make up the majority (of sth)
变革 bian4ge2 - Change
竞选队 jing4xuan3dui4 - campaign (team)
副总统 fu4zong3tong3 - vice-president
佩林 pei4lin2 - Palin
拜凳 bai4deng1 - Biden
Posted by Andrew
Greetings readers!
I have just come back from 香港(Hong Kong) because of an issue with my 签证(visa). A multi-entry visa will let you 多次入境, but only for 60 days at a time. I went to the 出入境管理局(border entry-exit administration) at Andingmen, where I found that they could not effectively 延(extend) my visa because I didn’t have a 住宿证 (or 暂住证, which means temporary residence certificate) nor did I have proof of assets in China. It’s a simple matter to set up a bank account, but time was running out on my stay and I couldn’t be bothered to do it until I got back. If you’ve never had to go to a visa office, consider the experience to be something like going to the DMV/RMV. How long you must wait on line is determined by how urgently you must get your task completed. Moreover, you need to provide multiple photos which you take on the second floor but pay for and retrieve on the first floor. Since my only option was to leave the country and come back, I had to quickly decide between 蒙古(Mongolia- US citizens need a visa), 韩国(Korea - the boat ride from Tianjin takes 20 hours), or 香港 (acceptable price for the plane ticket- plus I could always make the money back at 澳门/Macau, see next entry!) 香港 it was! Ordered my plane tickets on Friday night and I was out on Saturday morning, free to explore HK/Macau until Tuesday. It was a remarkable experience being in HK. Being able to speak Mandarin was not the advantage that speaking Cantonese could have been, although I’ll write a little more about that in the Macau entry.
Readers, does it work better for you to have me put the pinyin in the text so that the words become contextualized and you can guess at the meaning or does it work better for me to have the explanations there too?
香港xiang1gang3 - Hong Kong
签证qian1zheng4- visa
多次duo1ci4 - multiple times
入境ru4jing4 - enter the borders
出入chu1ru4 - exit-entry
管理局guan3li3ju2 (note that the tone in guan3 becomes 2 here) - administrative office
延yan2- extend
住宿证zhu4su4zheng4 - residential certificate
暂住证zan4zhu4zheng4 - temporary residence certificate
蒙古Meng2gu3- Mongolia
韩国Han2guo2 - South Korea
Posted by admin
At first glance, it’s the picture of a certain ideal: a teacher standing at the head of a classroom with a piece of chalk in one hand, the students listening attentively and hanging on the teacher’s every word. The students are quiet and reasonably well behaved, repeat like a chorus what the teacher asks them to repeat, and are otherwise silent while the teacher lectures. They ask no questions, and the teacher infrequently asks them to answer questions individually. More frequently, the class answers en mass. This is the picture of a typical Chinese classroom. It is has been this way for generations and the role of the teacher in China is at the heart of it.
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