Tag Archives: Shanghai

Asia, China

The Heavy Rains of Shanghai

I know for quite some time, even before I came here, that Shanghai has something like a “rain season”. Last year all of us Germans tried to figure out from the locals when exactly is that rain season. Rain seasons in other countries are quite predictable due to local and regional weather phenomenons. The Shanghai rain season is either unpretictable or the locals don’t care…we didn’t find out in advance but only when it started raining. Continue reading The Heavy Rains of Shanghai →

Asia, China

Sunset Sports Bar

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You might have heard that there is something like a Soccer World Championship somewhere, well, you may find hints on FIFAworldcup.com.

Recently, a bar named “Sunset Sports Bar” opened very close to my appartment. Just fall out of the south gate, turn right and there you are: A brand new bar, which tries with a couple of flags taped to the ceiling and some pretty fake cups to create something like a sports bar atmosphere. It wouldn’t work on a brand-new bar. It needs a bit of patina for that atmosphere to come up. And that old a Shanghai bar rarely becomes. Never mind, it’s a sports bar, it has beer, burgers, and large video screens, it’s just around the corner, and the staff is very friendly and understands a good bit of English. Hey man, what else could you ever want in Pudong? Continue reading Sunset Sports Bar →

Asia, China

Am I Deaf?

I am walking with a colleague through Wai Gao Qiao, that remote free trade zone at the outskirts of Shanghai where our project is located, on the way to our usual lunch location. We have to cross a large intersection, which leads directly to one of the main gates to the area, through which large trucks keep passing through. In the end, someone has to move all these freely traded goods, isn’t it? Quite a change over the centuries, given the fact that in earlier dynasties pure merchants where not well esteemed, actually had few or no rights as they were thought of not adding value as long as they would not produce any goods. But that’s long ago and not my issue. Chinese trade like hell nowadays.

Continue reading Am I Deaf? →

Asia

Fireworks – Or some LianYang night shots

Pitty or not, but again I did not see fabulous fireworks during the Chinese New Year festivities. Partly due to the fact that I was too lazy to travel into the city and then, after watching around, fight with thousands of people for dozens of taxis. So I stayed home also during the 2 nights, during which fireworks should be most dramatic: The actual New Year’s night (this year from Saturday, 28-Jan to Sunday, 29-Jan) and five nights later (from Wednesday to Thursday) as this is the eve of the 5. day of the New Lunar Year, on which traditionally the money man is called with a lot of explosive to attract his attention and leave some money over the year. So while we westerners try to scare away evil daemons the Chinese try to get someones attention by doing fireworks!

Continue reading Fireworks – Or some LianYang night shots →

Asia, China

8 Treasures Rice – 八宝饭

2 days ago a Shanghainese friend gave me a deep-frozen disc, apparently made from rice. Before packing it into my backpack I also noted some colored sprinkles on it, said decently “Thank you” (or maybe Xiexie) and forgot about it for a while. We spend the day shopping. Back home I put the rice disc into the fridge. Only then, via messenger, finding out what it actually was: Continue reading 8 Treasures Rice – 八宝饭 →

Asia, China

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