Aug 3rd, 2008 at 1:00PM: Let's assume for a minute that you own a restaurant in China. Then we'll assume you don't speak a word of English, but you don't care because you have Internet access, and have found a great online translation site. The Olympics are coming, along with millions of hungry tourists who'll want to try your food, so you do the right thing and pop your restaurant name into the translation site, and have ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
chinese posts
Using an online translator to come up with an English name for your restuarant is a bad idea
Aug 3rd, 2008 at 1:00PM: Let's assume for a minute that you own a restaurant in China. Then we'll assume you don't speak a word of English, but you don't care because you have Internet access, and have found a great online translation site. The Olympics are coming, along with millions of hungry tourists who'll want to try your food, so you do the right thing and pop your restaurant name into the translation site, and have ...Mickey Sets a Course for Shanghai
Aug 2nd, 2008 at 12:00PM: Mickey Mouse has been planning to bring Disneyland to Shanghai for some time now. Details have been sketchy and the project has been put on the shelf several times. But people in one village are banking on the billionaire rodent to eventually get things off the ground. According to Shanghaiist, business people and home owners in Jinjia have been building on to current structures and establishing ...Expedia survey rates the world's worst tourists
Jun 25th, 2008 at 8:30AM: The French, Indians, and the Chinese have been voted as the world's worst tourists by a group of 4000 hoteliers, in a survey conducted by online travel search engine Expedia. On the other hand, the best tourists are 1) Japanese 2) British and Germans. Yup, looks like the annoying and continuous photo taking of everything in sight by the Japanese, and the drunken stag parties of the British and the ...How fluent are you? Find out here.
Apr 10th, 2008 at 8:20AM: Though people spend quite a bit of time learning foreign languages in high school and college, their language skills have a way of withering from inattention, like a dried-out potted plant sitting on a window sill.
But just how far have your language skills fallen? Here are some handy categories to help you find out:
Completely Fluent
You can converse with native speakers with ease, with ...The many languages of Suriname
Mar 23rd, 2008 at 6:30PM: If you've been following any of the recent language controversy in Philadelphia, you begin to see that a country's language is a constantly evolving mix of the cultures, customs and the people who use it. Here at home, this interplay is at often work between our country's de facto official language, English, and an increasingly populous minority of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Now imagine this ...A bathroom problem of "Olympic" proportions
Mar 20th, 2008 at 8:00AM: When I first saw the venue designs for this summer's Olympic games in Beijing, I was quite impressed. The Chinese have pulled out all the stops to create several cutting-edge stadiums for the games, including the Beijing National Stadium designed by award-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron and the Beijing National Aquatics Center, which looks like a huge floating cube of water. However, as ...Celebrate 2008 Year of the Rat with red rat-themed panties!
Feb 5th, 2008 at 11:40AM: Thanks to the Internet that allows us to travel and educate ourselves without getting out of our pajamas, today we can be privy into lifestyles and traditions of radically different cultures. And, when culture and superstitions blend, it's almost impossible not to have an an interestingly strange (if not explosively bizarre) outcome: believing that wearing red panties with rats on them will bring ...Resolution to learn a language?
Dec 29th, 2007 at 2:30PM: My husband comments every so often that he's going to learn Chinese. "That's nice, honey," I say. I think he might some day once he puts his mind to it. I used to have a resolution that I will learn American Sign Language. I have a deaf brother-in-law and sister-in-law. I can finger spell, kind of. I also know how to sign spaghetti, please, thank-you, and I have to go to the bathroom. The one ...How to tell the Chinese and Japanese apart
Nov 30th, 2007 at 1:00PM: Sometime all you need is a picture (or two in this case). James Fallows, a correspondent for The Atlantic based out of China right now, has posted a great observation about the difference between the Chinese and Japanese. He looked at a simple case of how workers refuel a jet. When it comes to the Japanese, they're fastidious, orthodox, and dressed to match. With the Chinese, well ... anything ...Band on the Run: Chinese History in Lahaina, Maui
Aug 23rd, 2007 at 10:51PM: Ember Swift, Canadian musician and touring performer, will be keeping us up-to-date on what it's like to tour a band throughout North America. Having just arrived back from Beijing where she spent three months (check out her "Canadian in Beijing" series), she offers a musician's perspective on road life. Enjoy!
I had to get away from resort land today. I packed my shoulder bag and computer, ...A Canadian in Beijing: Vegan Mandarin Language Survival Guide
Jun 27th, 2007 at 12:40AM:
When I first arrived in China, I wrote a post entitled: "Vegan in China, Part 1." It was pretty negative all around. Why? Because I was hungry! About half-way through my trip, I followed that post up with a piece about the presence of an active vegetarian and vegan society here in Beijing. I would consider that my "Vegan in China, Part 2" post, although it wasn't titled as such. This, then, ...A Canadian In Beijing: A Shu-in for Language Training
Apr 21st, 2007 at 12:36AM:
School is... school. It's hard, but it's helpful. It's work, but it's bringing pleasure. It's a commitment, but it's enabling a freedom that I couldn't have predicted. I am a part-time student at the "Beijing Yuyan Daxue," or Beijing Language and Culture University in Wudaokou, a suburb of Beijing. Above is a picture of the southern campus gates. Every day, I wake up at about 7:15 in the ...A Canadian In Beijing: Piddly-Squat
Apr 13th, 2007 at 2:11AM: I know squats are good for me. They're assigned in most aerobic workouts and they're apparently my ticket to a more shapely behind. Still, I had forgotten that I'd be practicing this movement several times a day in China.
In 2001, Lyndell and I spent five days in Hong Kong on a stopover from Sydney to Toronto. That was my first introduction to the "squat-and-pee" style latrines in Asian ...Word for the Travel Wise (12/20/06)
Dec 20th, 2006 at 8:00PM: Looks as though this word could come in handy when passing through customs or when filling out paperwork at any important office where saying "huh" or "I don't understand" might get you a nasty glance. Please people, make some effort to learn a little of the language before taking off. Today's word is a Cantonese word used in China: chìm ji - sign here Cantonese is mainly spoken in ...On Chinese Street Food
Oct 22nd, 2006 at 11:07PM: Go World Travel features a fine culinary travel piece by Larry Jer who after spending months in China decides to risk everything to sample - Chinese street food. We've all been tempted on one journey or another to give into the aromas drifting off the grill or pan from some street chef looking to tantalize your taste buds, fuel your stomach as well as make an honest living. Sometimes trying those ...Chinese Travelers Bad-Mannered?
Oct 16th, 2006 at 11:57PM: Before you go bashing the messenger, please read what I'm referring to over at Canada.com. According to their short news piece, China's tourism authority claims Chinese travelers are uncouth. Of the semi-gross or uncouth habits demonstrated by Chinese travelers, littering would be the one that bothers me more than anything, if true. (Litter bugs are not cool at all!) Spitting, smoking in ...Word for the Travel Wise (08/24/06)
Aug 24th, 2006 at 8:00PM: Since I've gone through the first half of the year pointing out Mandarin words I'm switching it up to go through the rest of the year with Cantonese. I started with Mandarin as I was told it is the more widely spoken of the two, but there are still hundreds of thousands of Cantonese speakers out there. I feel I need to recognize some of their words to the best of my ability. Today we start with an ...Word for the Travel Wise (06/30/06)
Jun 30th, 2006 at 8:00PM: Another day, week and month has come to an end and I'm as tired as ever. No pointless chatter tonight. Today's word is a Mandarin word used in China: zai jian - bye Mandarin is the most widely spoken of the Chinese language and can be a bit difficult to learn, but there are many sites online that can help get you started. The best will probably cost a small amount of money and the links are many ...
