Tsing Tao should change to Qing Dao

[Lu]

As a Dutch speaker, and putting logic aside, ts- is better. But 1) Dutch speakers are not uniquely qualified when deciding how to spell Mandarin and 2) it's generally better not to put logic aside.

[xinoxanu]

Oh, I strongly disagree with the last part... but I guess that's because I've spent too much time in China then, where logic tends to be tragically stomped on by 没办法s and whatnot ?

 

Lately I've been having the China blues, might as well pour one of those ludicrously-expensive imported Qingdaos that I was saving for New Year's. 干杯！

 

PS: Petition to make this thread the official banter thread in the forum, it has way too much potential to let it die out! 

[杰.克]

2 hours ago, xinoxanu said:

way too much potential to let it die out! 

 

and we already learnt the hard way with the Beijing helicopter chase thread that even the best can burn out unless ppl commit to the bants!

[xinoxanu]

哈哈, indeed. That was the highlight of a delightful Pandemic summer.

 

I wonder how Brian's doing. @Brian Logan, care to chime in? We are saving you a spot!

[889]

Sure beats wasting your time watching cute puppy videos on YouTube.

 

Unless they're in Chinese of course.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=71FmRfN69d8

 

Besides, some interesting language issues in the 672 comments.

[杰.克]

 

13 hours ago, xinoxanu said:

I wonder how Brian's doing. @Brian Logan, care to chime in?

 

Occasionally I think of that thread, and it gets me through the day.  

 

#ComeBackBrianLogan

#Petitiontomakebrianloganamoderatoronchineseforums

[Jim]

In what ways would the coastal location and smaller urban area make a helicopter chase in Qingdao play out differently than our earlier capital scenario? Indeed, would the distance from the centre of power affect the PLAAF response?

[xinoxanu]

Not sure about Peking or Tsingtao, but I myself have never actually seen a helicopter flying over Chengtu to start with. Helicopters don't seem to be a thing in China and my best guess would be due to the PLA being restrictive on that regard, but certainly there's need for them in this day & age... so do they fly at night? 

 

And since we are onto that... has anyone ever seen the police in China acting like their western counterparts? Violent arrests sure, but I've been told numerous times that the Chinese police will never do car chases in case someone gets hurt/killed or something gets damaged... yet I've seen many policemen throwing bags of rice onto the wheels of illegal motorcycles, so what's up with that?

[Jim]

We get helicopters coming over regularly here off to do fire-watch patrols over the forest park behind the village. Yet to see a child hanging off one, substandard drills really.

[Lu]

23 hours ago, xinoxanu said:

PS: Petition to make this thread the official banter thread in the forum, it has way too much potential to let it die out!

This is still my favourite banter thread. It has great music.

[xinoxanu]

I'll have to reread that thread multiple times because I am sooo confused!

 

Either way, it's nice to see you all three on lovey-dovey mode over Genghis Khan ?

[roddy]

12 hours ago, Lu said:

This is still my favourite banter thread.

Nah.

[Guest realmayo]

Ah yes. Your "I did some impressive blockages in my time" remains a great way to begin a sentence.

 

(My ears currently blocked with "tsing, tsing, tsinggis khan".)

 

[mungouk]

Sorry to interject with a bit of culture ? but...

 

 

 

While not specifically touching on Wade-Giles vs Pinyin, episode 3 of the recent BBC documentary series "The Secret History of Writing" does look at historical issues around changing scripts in a country/culture, and has a few other very interesting nuggets along the way too. (Latinxua Sin Wenz anyone?)

 

More information over here in this other post.

 

 

 

[roddy]

I had this really weird dream last night where everyone who posted their mad bantz in this topic decided to start one new topic a week on a problem, useful tool or interesting article they'd come across during their time spent studying Chinese or living in China. Thankfully I awoke from this nightmare.