2013年9月26日星期四
In Chinese culture how common is it to regularly say "I love you"?
http://www.quora.com/Chinese-Culture/In-Chinese-culture-how-common-is-it-to-regularly-say-I-love-youAnswers again.
It is obvious that we don't use "I love you" often.
I asked several friends if their parents had ever said "I love you" to them. You may can imagine the answers.Most of them said no and some said through text messages.
It may be the easiest way to say "I love you" when singing songs. Most of the songs are about love.
After the ten years' tumultuous Cultural Revolution, people were deeply shocked and touched by the beautiful songs.So Teresa Teng's songs spread nationwide.
People began to sing "love songs" and more open to say "I love you" after that.
To your sweetheart.
Well, this one really depends.
There's two types of complains girls have about their boyfriends.1) My boyfriend is sooo cold and unromantic! He never says "I love you" to me!! 2) My boyfriend has a glib tongue. He always says "I love you" to me! I'm not sure if I should believe him!So you can see that it is quite difficult to be a boyfriend in China.
Just remembered a scene in a movie randomly and it was a good example for boys.
Man: I said it when we get married. If I changed, I would let you know.
So in Chinese culture it can never be common to regularly say "I love you."
But when in Chinese, it should be super serious, at least for me!
2013年9月20日星期五
Why do so many Chinese people insistently respond in English when a foreigner speaks to them in Chinese?
http://www.quora.com/Why-do-so-many-Chinese-people-insistently-respond-in-English-when-a-foreigner-speaks-to-them-in-Chinese
An interesting question again!
It reminds me the experience I had in 2008 Shanghai Expo.
My hometown, Wenzhou, is a city in Southeastern China. It is kind of rich but you can seldom see foreigners.
Even now, I am surprised when I see some people looks totally different from me (I mean people not from Asia).
Though I traveled in other cities before 2008, it still was the first time I saw so many foreigners.
I spent a long day there, visiting many pavilions. The conversations I had with the staffs became really weird.
Staff:你好。（Hello）
Me： Hello！
Staff：需要帮助吗？（Need any help？）
Me: Where is the bathroom?
Staff: 直走左拐就是。（Go straight and turn right.）
Me: Thank you!
The weird thing was the staffs in many pavilions were from their country! (example: Staffs in German Pavilion were from German.)
So you may see a blonde speaking Chinese while a native Chinese speaking broken English.
Every time, I felt awkward after we talked. "I should speak Chinese to her!" But next time I spoke English again.
The reasons.. Hmmm, can be simple.
1 I used to see foreigners speak English.
To most Chinese, if they find a foreigner could speak Chinese, their first reaction would be "WOW, amazing!"
This is one of the important reasons why Da Shan is so popular in China.(Dashan is the Chinese stage name adopted by Canadian Mark Henry Rowswell, CM who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China. --From Wikipedia)
So when we see a foreigner, we take it for granted that we should speak English.
If you can speak some dialects in China, people will look at you as an alien!
Here is a link about a man from England. He can speak Shanghai dialect. It's interesting!
You may cannot understand,but it's interesting enough to see a British man speak good Shanghai dialect!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLr-Nps3aVQ
2 We are thoughtful.
I cannot know how is a foreigner's Chinese.I was afraid if I speak Chinese and he/she cannot understand!
So we choose to use a language we can both understand.
I have a friend who lives in Beijing. So it is common to have an American friend there.
My friend's English is really poor and his American friend can speak quite good Chinese.
At first, they both spoke English, which made both of them crazy.So after some time, they finally began to talk in Chinese. The American's Chinese is way better than my friend's English.
So it also depends whether your Chinese is good or not.
3 English works.
When I travelled in other countries (Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam...), the only language I can use was English.
Though in Thailand, I seldom spoke in complete sentences. Words are enough!
In China, English class is mandatory since elementary school.(Now many kids start to learn English as soon as they are able to speak!)
So most Chinese can speak more or less English. You can always find someone to help you if you travel in China speaking only English.
I went to a church with my host family. The whole three hours, they all spoke Chinese. And most of them are Americans!!
To be honest, I was sooo shocked.
I miss Chinese! People even speak English in my dream!
Dear friends, speak Chinese to me!
An interesting question again!
It reminds me the experience I had in 2008 Shanghai Expo.
My hometown, Wenzhou, is a city in Southeastern China. It is kind of rich but you can seldom see foreigners.
Even now, I am surprised when I see some people looks totally different from me (I mean people not from Asia).
Though I traveled in other cities before 2008, it still was the first time I saw so many foreigners.
I spent a long day there, visiting many pavilions. The conversations I had with the staffs became really weird.
Staff:你好。（Hello）
Me： Hello！
Staff：需要帮助吗？（Need any help？）
Me: Where is the bathroom?
Staff: 直走左拐就是。（Go straight and turn right.）
Me: Thank you!
The weird thing was the staffs in many pavilions were from their country! (example: Staffs in German Pavilion were from German.)
So you may see a blonde speaking Chinese while a native Chinese speaking broken English.
Every time, I felt awkward after we talked. "I should speak Chinese to her!" But next time I spoke English again.
The reasons.. Hmmm, can be simple.
1 I used to see foreigners speak English.
To most Chinese, if they find a foreigner could speak Chinese, their first reaction would be "WOW, amazing!"
This is one of the important reasons why Da Shan is so popular in China.(Dashan is the Chinese stage name adopted by Canadian Mark Henry Rowswell, CM who works as a freelance performer in People's Republic of China. --From Wikipedia)
So when we see a foreigner, we take it for granted that we should speak English.
If you can speak some dialects in China, people will look at you as an alien!
Here is a link about a man from England. He can speak Shanghai dialect. It's interesting!
You may cannot understand,but it's interesting enough to see a British man speak good Shanghai dialect!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLr-Nps3aVQ
2 We are thoughtful.
I cannot know how is a foreigner's Chinese.I was afraid if I speak Chinese and he/she cannot understand!
So we choose to use a language we can both understand.
I have a friend who lives in Beijing. So it is common to have an American friend there.
My friend's English is really poor and his American friend can speak quite good Chinese.
At first, they both spoke English, which made both of them crazy.So after some time, they finally began to talk in Chinese. The American's Chinese is way better than my friend's English.
So it also depends whether your Chinese is good or not.
3 English works.
When I travelled in other countries (Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam...), the only language I can use was English.
Though in Thailand, I seldom spoke in complete sentences. Words are enough!
In China, English class is mandatory since elementary school.(Now many kids start to learn English as soon as they are able to speak!)
So most Chinese can speak more or less English. You can always find someone to help you if you travel in China speaking only English.
I went to a church with my host family. The whole three hours, they all spoke Chinese. And most of them are Americans!!
To be honest, I was sooo shocked.
I miss Chinese! People even speak English in my dream!
Dear friends, speak Chinese to me!
2013年9月17日星期二
What are some good ways of annoying Chinese people?
It is a question on Quora ..http://www.quora.com/Chinese-Culture/What-are-some-good-ways-of-annoying-Chinese-people
I read through the answers without feeling angry.
Actually, I laughed much..
Especially this one.. (Thanks to Tolga Yilmaz)
I read through the answers without feeling angry.
Actually, I laughed much..
Especially this one.. (Thanks to Tolga Yilmaz)
Since I came here, I can feel that some people do have some negative feelings with China.
To be honest, I was annoyed once.
At a party, I was trying to play a Chinese song but a guy refused firmly. I had tears in my eyes! (I know I'm toooo sensitive.)
Back in China, we are always making fun of ourselves.
As soon as the golden iPhone 5S came out, we started to joke that Apple do understand the Chinese market. The golden ones are for the China's nouveau-riche!
As I wrote before, we joked about the VISA-free countries. To travel the VISA-free countries of China are more like an expedition than a trip!
Every time when people ask me about the press freedom in China, I just admit it. And I shared the story happened in my visa interview.
The interviewing officer asked me if I wanna be a journalist in China. I thought for one second.
I was told it was better not to show any intent of immigrant, so I nodded and answered firmly "YES!"
He tried to hide his surprise but failed...
Actually, on SINA Weibo, Chinese version of Twitter, you can find a lot of interesting posts making fun of ourselves.
But it still depends.
If you talk to ole people in their 60s or older that Mao is a bad person, they would definitely be mad at you.
Communist party's propaganda is successful. They feel without Mao they cannot have a good life now.
If you talk about the Senkaku Islands, you'll easily annoy some people. There's a couple divorced because of the different opinions about the belonging of Senkaku Islands. I mean it.
For everyone, motherland is a country that you can say anything bad about it but don't want other people say any bad words.
I always talk about the dark sides in China. But it is the kind of Sorrow Blame.
For me, it's totally fine to talk about negative things about China since they do happen.
Every exchange student is an ambassador to some extent. So I'll try my best to be a better Chinese!
But, please, don't tell me I'm fatter. I would be annoyed as much as I can.:)
2013年9月12日星期四
(I know it's so Asian..) What did you do in HIGH SCHOOL?
I went to a birthday party last night. It was a lovely party.
There were three South Koreans, two French, three Americans, one Japanese and one Chinese. So it was more interesting.
We talked about a lot of differences among the countries.
And two Americans said the same things. "I've never studied a single day when I was in high school."
OMG!! What?!!! How can it be!!!
Then I realized what my roommate once told me was true. She thought some American students really knew nothing! (Don't be mad.. She also said Americans were more creative!)
In China, the most important year as a student is the senior year in high school.
Talking about that year, almost everyone has numerous things can say. It's a year of pain and happiness, tears and smiles.
When you were in that year, it could me excruciating. But when you look back, it could be so sweet and lovely.
1) How important is the college entrance examination?
Quick answer: AS MUCH IMPORTANT AS YOU CAN IMAGINE!
In my hometown, most parents are businessmen are business women. Businessmen in China have no holidays means they work for the whole year.
But, many parents stop their career during the whole year and rent a house near their kid's school. Their jobs are taking care of their kids, making every meal and making sure their kids can focus on the studying.
Lunch and dinner time, the whole canteen is conquered by the parents. They believe the foods are important.
To be honest, my mother brought me lunch once. It was sweet and I still remembered she brought a big fish. But she was busy and I didn't want to bother her more.
A sad truth is there are many students commit suicide before the college entrance examination.
Most of them were under great pressure from their families and themselves. I can not give a certain number, but believe me, it is a large number.
2)Time Schedule
I wanna show the time schedule here.
Since physics and biology are nightmares to me, I'll just talk about what I learn in arts.
History, geography and politics are all about the whole world, especially America.
We have to remember almost everything on at least 10 textbooks.
I had a world map in my brain at that time, even the coordinates.
How Korea became two parts, how America started, all the wars...
The political system of almost every country.
Every high school student in China likes a memory bank.
Luckily or not, we lost the memories after we take the big exams.
4) Do we have fun?
It is really depends.
Some high schools are insane. They forbid everything. Even the sports meeting!
I'm lucky since my principal thought senior year should be more fun.
He arranged big events once a month. So we really had fun.
It's weird to say that even just do all the homework was fun.
I lived at school. Every night, I walked back to the dorm with my friends. There were many stars. We talked about the future, tests and forgot we would separate one day.
The controversy over the college entrance exam is far from over. It is so cruel that we only have one chance every year. There are a lot of students choose to take the exam again and again, especially in some poor areas.
But for now, no one can figure out a better way to take the place of the exam system.
So more families send their kids to study abroad to skip the fierce competition.
Whatever, I'm now a senior in university!
I miss the days in high school but definitely don't want go back and take the exam again!
There were three South Koreans, two French, three Americans, one Japanese and one Chinese. So it was more interesting.
We talked about a lot of differences among the countries.
And two Americans said the same things. "I've never studied a single day when I was in high school."
OMG!! What?!!! How can it be!!!
Then I realized what my roommate once told me was true. She thought some American students really knew nothing! (Don't be mad.. She also said Americans were more creative!)
In China, the most important year as a student is the senior year in high school.
Talking about that year, almost everyone has numerous things can say. It's a year of pain and happiness, tears and smiles.
When you were in that year, it could me excruciating. But when you look back, it could be so sweet and lovely.
1) How important is the college entrance examination?
Quick answer: AS MUCH IMPORTANT AS YOU CAN IMAGINE!
In my hometown, most parents are businessmen are business women. Businessmen in China have no holidays means they work for the whole year.
But, many parents stop their career during the whole year and rent a house near their kid's school. Their jobs are taking care of their kids, making every meal and making sure their kids can focus on the studying.
Lunch and dinner time, the whole canteen is conquered by the parents. They believe the foods are important.
To be honest, my mother brought me lunch once. It was sweet and I still remembered she brought a big fish. But she was busy and I didn't want to bother her more.
A sad truth is there are many students commit suicide before the college entrance examination.
Most of them were under great pressure from their families and themselves. I can not give a certain number, but believe me, it is a large number.
Parents waited outside the test site.
2)Time Schedule
I wanna show the time schedule here.
Get up
|
6:30
|
Morning reading class
|
7:30
|
4 classes in the morning
|
8:30-12:00
|
Lunch &Noon break
|
12:00-2:00
|
4 classes
|
2:00-5:30
|
Dinner& break
|
5:30-7:00
|
Night self-study classes
|
7:00-9:50
|
Lights out(Most of us live in school)
|
11:00
|
And it's a normal student, such as me.
There are a lot of crazy students who stay up late until 2 or 3 every day.
It is not only a competition for studying but also for body.
3)What we learn?
Actually, what we learn depends on what the test included. We have to choose to learn arts or science in junior high.
No matter how hard I study physics, I still could understand it. So I chose arts.
For arts students, we have to learn Chinese, English, Math(Easier than Science students), history, politics and geography.
For science students, they have to learn Chinese, English, Math, physics, biology and chemistry.
Since physics and biology are nightmares to me, I'll just talk about what I learn in arts.
History, geography and politics are all about the whole world, especially America.
We have to remember almost everything on at least 10 textbooks.
I had a world map in my brain at that time, even the coordinates.
How Korea became two parts, how America started, all the wars...
The political system of almost every country.
Every high school student in China likes a memory bank.
Luckily or not, we lost the memories after we take the big exams.
A girl took a photo with test papers she did during high school before the college entrance exam.
4) Do we have fun?
It is really depends.
Some high schools are insane. They forbid everything. Even the sports meeting!
I'm lucky since my principal thought senior year should be more fun.
He arranged big events once a month. So we really had fun.
It's weird to say that even just do all the homework was fun.
I lived at school. Every night, I walked back to the dorm with my friends. There were many stars. We talked about the future, tests and forgot we would separate one day.
One of the games. We all had fun.
The controversy over the college entrance exam is far from over. It is so cruel that we only have one chance every year. There are a lot of students choose to take the exam again and again, especially in some poor areas.
But for now, no one can figure out a better way to take the place of the exam system.
So more families send their kids to study abroad to skip the fierce competition.
Whatever, I'm now a senior in university!
I miss the days in high school but definitely don't want go back and take the exam again!
2013年9月8日星期日
Is Taiwan part of or separate from China?
Hmm...I just wanna say "Don't be afraid, my dear friend, it's not a political class!!!"
Since I came here, I've been asked a lot of times "Is Taiwan a part of China?"
To be honest, my answer would be "WHATEVER".
When I was 10 years old, my history teacher once said in a class.
"Maybe it would be better if Chiang Kai-shek won the native war."
After that, I often imagine it! But history is the history.
Some elderly are so admiring Mao Zedong.
A friend told me her grandpa was a huge fan of Mao. Once when they had dinner with the whole family, her grandpa and uncle talked about Mao and Deng Xiaoping. Her uncle insisted Deng was better than Mao.
At last, his grandpa pushed the table away in anger!
In China, lots of people believe Taiwan is a part of China.(Because our textbooks say so..)
The first time, a girl from Beru asked the question.
A Chinese girl answered firmly "There's no such a country called Taiwan. It's a part of China."
The truth is at least we have different passports.
Comparing the visa-free countries China and Taiwan passports have, you'll find Taiwanese are travelling while the Chinese are doing expedition!!
China's visa-free countries
Taiwan's visa-free countries
Last night, I played card games with friends. One round we were asked to say countries one by one. A girl from South Korea said "Taiwan". I stopped for seconds but said nothing.
I found that friends from Taiwan they always say they came from Taiwan. They are not Chinese.
Whatever, I do not really care if Taiwan is a country or a part of China.
I like the friends from Taiwan and it's awesome that we can speak the same language.
I'm always curious about what other countries talk about China.
I know it would be worse than what we can read in China but I would love to know it.
There's an old Chinese saying,"History is like a little girl, for people to dress up as they fancy。"
But I prefer that history is a mysterious old witch. We can dispel the magic if we read and learn more.
2013年9月6日星期五
Everyone's FOOTBALL Game.
Before I came here, I already knew that in Oklahoma, everyone was crazy about Football.
BUT
I didn't imagine it was this crazy!!
Last Thursday afternoon, my roommate told me I could buy a ticket for Saturday.
To be honest, I knew nothing.
All I knew was this football was played by hands. And all the players were huge.(I'm sorry about the "huge")
But since it was the first game so at least the opening would be great.
I bought the ticket and it was not that expensive.
When I bought the ticket, a man was getting his ticket, OU vs Texas I believed.
He took out many tickets from the pocket, and kept saying I went to the game 2005,2006,2007 and ....(I didn't remember them all..)
He talked at least 2 minutes about his tickets.
I was thinking, "Oh man, he is soo crazy fan!!"
After talking about the game several days, Saturday was coming!
Saturday morning, I went to the gym at 10. I was so curious why there were so many families. They brought some tents and some food and had a picnic!
I mean at 10 in the morning!
I took a shower and met my friends at 2:30 p.m.. Taking a shower before this can never be a good idea.
We walked through the Asp Avenue and found a lot of families were having picnics.
Everyone wore a red shirt. Many girls wore red or white dresses with brown boots.(I'm not sure about the boots. It's a tradition I thought)
BUT
I didn't imagine it was this crazy!!
Last Thursday afternoon, my roommate told me I could buy a ticket for Saturday.
To be honest, I knew nothing.
All I knew was this football was played by hands. And all the players were huge.(I'm sorry about the "huge")
But since it was the first game so at least the opening would be great.
I bought the ticket and it was not that expensive.
When I bought the ticket, a man was getting his ticket, OU vs Texas I believed.
He took out many tickets from the pocket, and kept saying I went to the game 2005,2006,2007 and ....(I didn't remember them all..)
He talked at least 2 minutes about his tickets.
I was thinking, "Oh man, he is soo crazy fan!!"
After talking about the game several days, Saturday was coming!
Saturday morning, I went to the gym at 10. I was so curious why there were so many families. They brought some tents and some food and had a picnic!
I mean at 10 in the morning!
I took a shower and met my friends at 2:30 p.m.. Taking a shower before this can never be a good idea.
We walked through the Asp Avenue and found a lot of families were having picnics.
Everyone wore a red shirt. Many girls wore red or white dresses with brown boots.(I'm not sure about the boots. It's a tradition I thought)
When we walked near to the Memorial Stadium, we were influenced by the atmosphere!
First, we were caught by a white tent. Free food!! I had to say the cookies were soo amazing!
We talked and looked around.
Suddenly the horses and some guys showed up. I'm sorry I didn't catch their faces but only backs.
After we finished the food, we walked to another side.
All of the tents were full of people. Some people were BBQ, some were playing games.
At 5 p.m.,people began to walk into the stadium.
Somehow, a friend told us we had to find the specific places for student tickets. So we walked a lot.
First time I walked upstairs and saw the whole stadium.
Even I am a Chinese, I was shocked.
A sentence almost every foreigner would say when they first come to China,"So many PEOPLE".
I mean it.
We were not that lucky that we finally went to the south side. I was totally sweat maybe 2 minutes after I stood there.
The opening was so awesome. Several girls standing behind me screming the whole time!
"Boomer!Sooner!"
At that moment, I felt I was a part of the OU and Oklahoma.
After the opening, the game started. Actually, I didn't even notice the game started.
Many players ran before on the field before that and suddenly it started.
But luckily, there's a lot of huge fans. Every time they yelled and shouted, I was like "OMG, what happened? Whatever, I should yell too."
Then you'll see I was excited and shouted, though every time I was 2 seconds later than others.
The burning sun baked the stadium and I was totally melted.
I left the stadium before the game ended.
I didn't buy the ticket of tomorrow's game. But I will go to the stadium earlier with my friends.
The pre-game parties are awesome!
BTW, I love racquetball!
2013年9月2日星期一
-Freshman 15&Having lunch with my host family!
I went to the gym the other day and the worst thing happened.
I gained weight!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!
I hate Freshman 15.
----------------------------------
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The main food I ate in the past 20 days were pizza. I have to say they were delicious but only pizza cannot be good.
In the first class of Feature Writing, we were asked to interview each other and write a classmate bio.
When my partner sincerely told me her favorite food were pizza and hamburger, I was shocked.
How can it work?! Only pizza and hamburger?
Noon yesterday, I finally met my host family. They also invited a Chinese couple. We, 7 people, went to a Chinese restaurant.
It's my first time to have a meal with the American people in a Chinese restaurant!
Everyone got a menu.
My host family, they have been learning Chinese for 1 year. So we discussed about the dishes "Ants on the tree" and "Couple's lung slice".
Don't be afraid, you know Chinese won't eat ants and human beings!
When we ordered, everyone asked one. I was the last one.
It is a Sichuan restaurant. One of the most famous Sichuan Cuisine is boiled fish.
So I ordered one. And I know it would be huge.
We talked and had some egg drop soup.
10 minutes later, we began to eat.
And I didn't realize I was having lunch with Americans until my host father Shane asked me "Simeng, will you eat all the fish?"
"What?" I thought about 3 seconds. And I decided to tell the truth.
"I thought we would share the food. Everyone can taste different food!"
In China, if we go out for a dinner, someone will order all the dishes. (My father is the some one usually)
The safest quantity of dishes is the number of people plus one. For example, 5 people will order 6 dishes.
Luckily, at last, everyone shared!
I don't need to eat all the fishes, though I love them!
I found I was bad at using chopsticks! Though in China, I was not good at using it compared to my friends.
I need practice but I still didn't find chopsticks in Walmart.:(
My friends were more interested in who paid the bill than the food.
To be honest, I had no idea. So I decided to wait when we finished the meal.
There was only one bill. The Chinese couple asked for Dutch payment, but my host daddy said "Let's do it in Chinese way".:)
Thank you for the food!!!
Lucky me!!
In the first class of Feature Writing, we were asked to interview each other and write a classmate bio.
When my partner sincerely told me her favorite food were pizza and hamburger, I was shocked.
How can it work?! Only pizza and hamburger?
Noon yesterday, I finally met my host family. They also invited a Chinese couple. We, 7 people, went to a Chinese restaurant.
It's my first time to have a meal with the American people in a Chinese restaurant!
Everyone got a menu.
My host family, they have been learning Chinese for 1 year. So we discussed about the dishes "Ants on the tree" and "Couple's lung slice".
Don't be afraid, you know Chinese won't eat ants and human beings!
When we ordered, everyone asked one. I was the last one.
It is a Sichuan restaurant. One of the most famous Sichuan Cuisine is boiled fish.
So I ordered one. And I know it would be huge.
We talked and had some egg drop soup.
10 minutes later, we began to eat.
And I didn't realize I was having lunch with Americans until my host father Shane asked me "Simeng, will you eat all the fish?"
"What?" I thought about 3 seconds. And I decided to tell the truth.
"I thought we would share the food. Everyone can taste different food!"
In China, if we go out for a dinner, someone will order all the dishes. (My father is the some one usually)
The safest quantity of dishes is the number of people plus one. For example, 5 people will order 6 dishes.
Luckily, at last, everyone shared!
I don't need to eat all the fishes, though I love them!
I found I was bad at using chopsticks! Though in China, I was not good at using it compared to my friends.
I need practice but I still didn't find chopsticks in Walmart.:(
My friends were more interested in who paid the bill than the food.
To be honest, I had no idea. So I decided to wait when we finished the meal.
There was only one bill. The Chinese couple asked for Dutch payment, but my host daddy said "Let's do it in Chinese way".:)
Thank you for the food!!!
Lucky me!!
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