Xin Nian Kuai Le – 新年快乐
New Year Happy Happy, that’s it on Chinese. Maybe I should make it
Xin Nian Kuai Le Leng – 新年快乐冷
New Year Happy Happy Cold, that’s what it really is.
Tag Archives: Imported
Hiking in Yellow Mountains (黄山)
A few weeks ago already colleague organized a hiking tour in the famous Yellow Mountains. It was 2 days of hiking with the night camping in tents somewhere inbetween. So although it was not a long treck (at least compared to other hiking tours I’ve done like Monte Rosa or Kilimanjaro 😉 ) we still had to carry quite a lot of stuff. Continue reading Hiking in Yellow Mountains (黄山)
Cruel Culture
I have to think if I want to stay in such a cruel country as China:
While looking up a totally innocent character (司), Babylon also returned another one (which it sometimes does, don’t know why): Continue reading Cruel Culture
We’ll be famous!
Taking Movies
Today, I wanted to get some things done on the laptop (like describing hiking tours or weekend trips here…), the weather was nice, so I picked one of our 2 balconies (the ‘back’ one, which is a bit larger and does not feature the washing machine), sat down with a fresh cup of cappucchino, started my laptop, and watched the streets below me. Continue reading We’ll be famous!
Xiamen – 3. Day: Botanical Garden
For today, I had planned to pay the Botanical Garden a visit and then go on through the neighbouring mountains, maybe down to Nanputuo Temple. Well, it turned out that the Botanical Garden was less Botanical and less Garden after all, but more like park. I spend a good 4 hours there and didn’t see everything. But as I got up late and wanted to be back early to catch the flight, it made up my day.
It was worth it, definitely. It has an AAAA rating for some good reason. Continue reading Xiamen – 3. Day: Botanical Garden
Xiamen – 2. Day: Gulangyu Island
Western Breadkfast Buffet
….hm, that’s something I haven’t enjoyed for quite some time. OK, the masochists amongst us could certainly still go with rice soup, fried noodles, dumplings and the like. But the enjoyers went for omelet, müsli, baked ham and beans, juices (unfortunately not fresh), fruits and the like. And the coffee was actually drinkable.
Tomorrow again!
Continue reading Xiamen – 2. Day: Gulangyu Island
Xiamen – 1. Day: Promenades and Parks
Before we start with Xiamen, a nice small city at Chinas south-east coast, let’s revisit today’s China Daily, an 8-page-only edition due to Chinas national holiday week. Just because it’s fun to sit in a four-star western-style hotel in a by far not overcrowded good-looking hotel bar, with actually really good live music, be looked after by very attentive staff, enjoying cool Tsingtao, and reading:
- Sites overflowing with holiday visitors…”The torrent of people is 10 times what it normally is”….56,100 people visited the Forbidden City on Saturday, exceeding its maximum capacity by 12 per cent…huge cowds of tourists have also put the nations’s transport system to the test…the three subway stops near TianAnMen Square were closed…due to overcrowding.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, come to Xiamen! There is lots of empty space! You’re not alone, but you’ll find deserted areas if you have need for them! Continue reading Xiamen – 1. Day: Promenades and Parks
Grammar
“Du” vs. “Dich”
A real life chat log of today:
[13:33] Birger: 今日暑天
[13:37] Friend: wowowow
[15:40] Friend: ich mag kochen 😀
[15:52] Friend: dich mag nicht chicken feet
[15:52] Friend: 😉
[15:59] Birger: 🙂
[16:01] Birger: Unfortunately, our Grammar is more complex…without good reason, as I apparently understood you well. But correct would be:
“Du magst Hühner-Füße nicht.” oder, besser, “Du magst keine Hühner-Füße.”
[16:02] Birger: Ill-thinking people could, based on “dich”, interpret it the other way round: “Chicken feet do not like you” 😉
[16:15] Friend: u mean dich mag nicht chicken feet=Chicken feet do not like you?
[17:01] Birger: I mean: Can be interpreted as such. It’s not a correct sentence.
[17:01] Birger: But the form “dich” is used to express, TO WHOM something happens (so-called accusative case).
[17:01] Birger: While “du” is used to express, WHO DOES something.
[17:02] Birger: (nominative case)
[17:04] Birger: The Chinese language regulates that (to my knowledge) mostly with the position in the sentence:
Wo xihuan Chicken-feet [“du” case]
or
Chicken-feet xihuan Wo [“dich” case]
Wow, that’s Birger-grammar
[17:04] Birger: 😉
[17:06] Birger: Well, I just noticed I left out a few bu’s (不) here…
[17:07] Birger: And should have replaced wo with ni….well, I still need to practice Chinese a bit…
[17:07] Birger:
Ni bu xihuan Chicken-feet [“du” case]
Chicken-feet bu xihuan ni [“dich” case]
[17:09] Friend: Ich mag dich gramma
[17:10] Friend: Du gramma sounds interesting
[17:12] Friend: oh, should i replace mag with magst?
[17:22] Birger: No, was correct:
“Ich mag”
“Du magst”
“Er/sie/es mag”
“Wir mögen”
“Ihr mögt”
“Sie mögen”
🙂
But “Deine Grammatik”, instead of “Du Grammar” 😉
[17:23] Birger: Ah, maybe I got what you thought wrong….
[17:23] Friend: german magst complicated lauguage
[17:24] Birger: You can say:
“Ich mag dich.”
“Du magst mich”
But
“Ich mag deine Grammatik”
[17:25] Birger: German IS a complicated language when you come from Chinese and English.
It’s simple if you come from, hm, Latin, Russian, or some other easter European languages
[17:26] Friend: ok, can’t change that
[17:26] Friend: but ich mag german, du magst chinese?
[17:26] Birger: genau!
[17:28] Friend: but i am not sure whether german mag mir, or chinese magst dir 😉
[17:29] Birger: well, me neither…
[17:30] Friend: hehe
Added 10-Oct: Ja/Nein
[17:51] Friend: ich bin serious!!
[17:52] Birger: Du meinst das ernst?
[17:54] Friend: genau!
[17:55] Friend: ich meine
[17:55] Birger: That’s again a very Chinese way of saying ‘Yes’. 😉
[17:56] Friend: warrum?
[18:01] Birger: Chinese sentence structure (sorry don’t get that in Chinese now that quicky):
question: 你去上海吗? Ni qu Shanghai ma?
Anwer: 我去! Wo qu!
English:
Q: You’re going to Shanghai?
A: Yes. […I will go]
german the same:
Q: Du gehst nach Shanghai?
A: Ja. […ich werde gehen]
We answer primaril with Ja/Nein. The additional part […I will go] is optional.
Chinese, however, usually repeats the verb like you just did.
[18:02] Friend: got it
[18:03] Birger: We westerners struggle quite a bit with the fact that the Chinese language has no simple “Yes” or “No”! 😉
[18:03] Friend: ahh??!!
[18:06] Birger: Probably closest comes 是 / 不是. But it would be the wrong answer above:
question: 你去上海吗? Ni qu Shanghai ma?
answer: 是! Shi!
(according to my books that’s wrong, or at least unexpected)
Categories: Shanghai
Originally Created: 09/19/2005 12:39:54 PM
Last Edited: 10/10/2005
Skater’s Paradise
No news since we got a new pope…and the news about him diminshed a bit. That’s mostly due to too much work, my usual complain (I mean, the few updates here, not the popes sinking into the no-news-corner). However, the bit of spare time that’s still left I rather like to spend somewhere outside the appartment (which, by the way, is a new one, I hope I can write about that one soon) than in front of my laptop. I did experience some really nice weekends, which I would have to report about here, even lots of new pictures, but you know… Continue reading Skater’s Paradise
Xiamen – Additional Infos, Maps
All the links I had originally put up here are no longer valid. Nowadays, Google, Tripadvisor and the like are your friend. I’ve just left the little map of Xiamen here to see: