Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Everyday something new
Today I found a lady who sells fresh milk from local cows for one fourth the price I can find at the supermarket. And the best part is that it tastes better and is less likely to be poisoned! Hooray.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Cell phones, mysterious strangers, and what is lost in translation
A few pieces of background before I start.
First, you must know that cell phones are quite ubiquitous here in China. Everyone has one, absolutely everyone. Also most people do not use their cell phones to talk on, mostly people send text messages. They are cheaper than speaking to someone and perhaps less obnoxious than people talking on them all the time.
Second, as a foreigner living in a Chinese city without many other foreigners, you become an object of curiosity. I am often approached by people who ask for my phone number. Often after a short conversaton they will ask me if I want to be their friend. I still don't quite know what to make of such forwardness. Were I not in China this would not happen. I just can't imagine it happening to me in America. My initial reaction is to be friendly (Sure I'll take another friend!) but this is just not how friends are made. It makes me uncomfortable to have to turn down someone's request of friendship, but if I accepted all these requests I would have a phone full of so-called "friends" who I really know nothing about. So I usually decline to give my phone number out. I feel much better about giving out my email address, but few Chinese people I meet use email very often.
So since I rarely give out my phone number to strangers, I also have a policy of not answering the phone if it is a number I don't recognize. Too many times have I answered the phone at 7am only to find it is some person on the other end of the phone who always seems shocked that anyone has picked up. I don't know if I am being pranked, or if it is so many wrong numbers, or what. Often they will continue to call back. It doesn't take too many instances of this sort of thing to be wary about giving out my phone number and to answer the phone if someone strange calls.
Recently I got a message on my phone from an unknown number. Here is the first part of our back and forth:
Stranger: Where have you been?
Me: Who are you?
Stranger: I am your friend
Me: What is your name?
Stranger: maybe we can be friends, hehe, remember me, good night
Me: If you do not tell me your name how can we be friends?
Then he asked if I understood Chinese, since his English was not good. I texted him that I did (the rest of the conversation was in Chinese texts), he then replied that he thought I must be a Chinese person lying to him only pretending to be a foreigner. I assured him I really was a foreigner. Then he told me to be straight with him, he said "Don't lie to me, I am slow to anger but my fists are strong." Then I asked him who gave me his phone number. He replied with this truly weird response: "You ask who gave me your phone number? ha ha... its a secret! why?
... and so on. Then he switched to Chinese and we continued our conversation.
I really don't know what to make of interactions like these. He claimed that I gave him my phone number but that I never gave him my name. It is possible, even though I try not to give out my number to too many people I have given it out on occasion, though the fact that he did not know my name and really wanted me to tell him what it was, was a little weird to be honest. Of course it could be that this person was just completely inept at talking to other people and doesn't know how to make friends. Every country has people like this.
I often wonder if being a foreigner, an obvious outsider, makes me attactive to other people who feel they too are outsiders. I do meet many great and wonderful people (students, professors, friends of friends) but there are also weird encounters. Like last year there would be people who would stake out the door to the foreign student dorm waiting for a foreigner to leave so they can pounce, pressing their essay into my hands, pleading with me to read it for them, or to teach them English ("I'll be your bestest friend!!!") The fact that they won't relent even when I tell them I am on my way to class, makes me think that they are not normal, that they do not know how to relate to people.
The real difficulty is language of course, even if this person is speaking to me in English, so much is lost in translation. ("did they really mean exactly what they said? Probably they meant to say ___ instead of ___. Yes that makes more sense.") But often it is not all that clear. Chinese can be the same way. To be honest I usually feel more comfortable talking to a stranger in Chinese. If someone approaches me and is speaking in Chinese, I feel I have a better handle on the situation. I'm sure my language skills in Chinese cause people much confusion (in fact I know they do ;-) but I don't come up to people asking to be their best friend and make them give me their phone number.
First, you must know that cell phones are quite ubiquitous here in China. Everyone has one, absolutely everyone. Also most people do not use their cell phones to talk on, mostly people send text messages. They are cheaper than speaking to someone and perhaps less obnoxious than people talking on them all the time.
Second, as a foreigner living in a Chinese city without many other foreigners, you become an object of curiosity. I am often approached by people who ask for my phone number. Often after a short conversaton they will ask me if I want to be their friend. I still don't quite know what to make of such forwardness. Were I not in China this would not happen. I just can't imagine it happening to me in America. My initial reaction is to be friendly (Sure I'll take another friend!) but this is just not how friends are made. It makes me uncomfortable to have to turn down someone's request of friendship, but if I accepted all these requests I would have a phone full of so-called "friends" who I really know nothing about. So I usually decline to give my phone number out. I feel much better about giving out my email address, but few Chinese people I meet use email very often.
So since I rarely give out my phone number to strangers, I also have a policy of not answering the phone if it is a number I don't recognize. Too many times have I answered the phone at 7am only to find it is some person on the other end of the phone who always seems shocked that anyone has picked up. I don't know if I am being pranked, or if it is so many wrong numbers, or what. Often they will continue to call back. It doesn't take too many instances of this sort of thing to be wary about giving out my phone number and to answer the phone if someone strange calls.
Recently I got a message on my phone from an unknown number. Here is the first part of our back and forth:
Stranger: Where have you been?
Me: Who are you?
Stranger: I am your friend
Me: What is your name?
Stranger: maybe we can be friends, hehe, remember me, good night
Me: If you do not tell me your name how can we be friends?
Then he asked if I understood Chinese, since his English was not good. I texted him that I did (the rest of the conversation was in Chinese texts), he then replied that he thought I must be a Chinese person lying to him only pretending to be a foreigner. I assured him I really was a foreigner. Then he told me to be straight with him, he said "Don't lie to me, I am slow to anger but my fists are strong." Then I asked him who gave me his phone number. He replied with this truly weird response: "You ask who gave me your phone number? ha ha... its a secret! why?
... and so on. Then he switched to Chinese and we continued our conversation.
I really don't know what to make of interactions like these. He claimed that I gave him my phone number but that I never gave him my name. It is possible, even though I try not to give out my number to too many people I have given it out on occasion, though the fact that he did not know my name and really wanted me to tell him what it was, was a little weird to be honest. Of course it could be that this person was just completely inept at talking to other people and doesn't know how to make friends. Every country has people like this.
I often wonder if being a foreigner, an obvious outsider, makes me attactive to other people who feel they too are outsiders. I do meet many great and wonderful people (students, professors, friends of friends) but there are also weird encounters. Like last year there would be people who would stake out the door to the foreign student dorm waiting for a foreigner to leave so they can pounce, pressing their essay into my hands, pleading with me to read it for them, or to teach them English ("I'll be your bestest friend!!!") The fact that they won't relent even when I tell them I am on my way to class, makes me think that they are not normal, that they do not know how to relate to people.
The real difficulty is language of course, even if this person is speaking to me in English, so much is lost in translation. ("did they really mean exactly what they said? Probably they meant to say ___ instead of ___. Yes that makes more sense.") But often it is not all that clear. Chinese can be the same way. To be honest I usually feel more comfortable talking to a stranger in Chinese. If someone approaches me and is speaking in Chinese, I feel I have a better handle on the situation. I'm sure my language skills in Chinese cause people much confusion (in fact I know they do ;-) but I don't come up to people asking to be their best friend and make them give me their phone number.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
KABOOM
I saw this news piece on a massive fire in Beijing yesterday night. Thank goodness the building was still unoccupied. I don't know about the explanation of an errant firework being the cause though. I suppose anything is possible, this is China after all. I did watch Kaifeng's massive fireworks show last night to celebrate Lantern Festival, which marks the end of the Chinese Lunar New Year/ Spring Festival period. It was certainly the largest fireworks show I've ever seen. It lasted for over half an hour and was bigger than Chicago's Fourth of July show by my reckoning at least. The highlight was certainly the fireworks that when they exploded turned into paper lanterns -with lit candles inside!!!- and then floated away. One point for China! They were pretty darn cool.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Damn You Timmothy Geithner
I just read in the New York Times that our new Treasury secretary made the statement the China is manipulating it currency. The point here is not even whether or not China is manipulating its currency.
In my humble opinion, even if China is manipulating its currency (keeping the value low so as to make its exports cheaper and thus more competitive) there is nothing that America can do about it. Unless the new administration wants to start a trade war (using tariffs) with China, and really bring about a second Great Depression, then what is the point in says such antagonizing stuff? All saying stuff like this does is make America's nativists/ nationalists feel good and antagonize the Chinese government, who (if the Treasury Secretary needs reminding) are the people who are lending us so much of the money in our debt and who we are hoping will continue to lend to us to pay for Obama's ambitious (and much needed) stimulus package.
All it is is bluster, stupid bluster, from a tax dodging dumb-ass. He may be a great economic mind who will pull the US out of its current economic crisis. And well, he better be, cause I know that I'm going to have to hear all about his stupid remarks from people complaining to me here. So, thanks a lot Timmothy, how about you pay your taxes and think before you open your mouth.
In my humble opinion, even if China is manipulating its currency (keeping the value low so as to make its exports cheaper and thus more competitive) there is nothing that America can do about it. Unless the new administration wants to start a trade war (using tariffs) with China, and really bring about a second Great Depression, then what is the point in says such antagonizing stuff? All saying stuff like this does is make America's nativists/ nationalists feel good and antagonize the Chinese government, who (if the Treasury Secretary needs reminding) are the people who are lending us so much of the money in our debt and who we are hoping will continue to lend to us to pay for Obama's ambitious (and much needed) stimulus package.
All it is is bluster, stupid bluster, from a tax dodging dumb-ass. He may be a great economic mind who will pull the US out of its current economic crisis. And well, he better be, cause I know that I'm going to have to hear all about his stupid remarks from people complaining to me here. So, thanks a lot Timmothy, how about you pay your taxes and think before you open your mouth.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
This post wasn't originally going to be all about KFC...
I went down to the KFC yesterday. Kaifeng being the upwardly mobile, quickly modernizing little city that can, has 3-4 KFCs. I don't care much for fast food (to be honest it is rather slow compared to the very quick service one usually gets in the eateries around campus) but it is nice to have some French fries once in a while. Of course the French Fries always take the longest because they are not very popular among Chinese people and so they never have any pre-made. The upside is that they are always fresh. The real reason to visit KFC though is the view from the second floor windows. This KFC is located on the south-west side of Gulou (Drum Tower) which is the name for the large area of asphalt in the center of town. It isn't really a square (in the municipal sense) since it also serves as a rather large intersection. As for the drum tower it is long gone. There are no statues or prominent buildings which denote the area either. Still though the place is well known and always crowded. The hustle and bustle (of which many Chinese cities have quite a lot of) is what makes the view from the second story KFC so wonderful.
A word on KFCs; in Chinese they are called 肯德基 Ken3de2ji1 (which is also how one says Kentucky in Chinese). Way back in 2004 on my first trip to China the characters in the name KFC were the first I ever tried looking up in a dictionary. (For those of you unfamiliar with Chinese it is not a dictionary friendly language, and learning to use one takes lots of practice.) But I digress from this digression. The characters literally translate to: willing and virtuous foundation (although the 基 (foundation) is a homophone with 鸡 (chicken) so I still like to refer to the place as: the virtuous and willing chicken.)
The other nice thing about KFC is that so long as you buy something (like one bag of fries) you can stay at your table as long as you like. (Actually you can often sit at a table without having bought anything, but I'm still not quite comfortable with that, and I think it is probably officially frowned upon.) The other nice thing about KFC and about China is general is that basically no restaurant cares about you bringing in outside food or drinks. In fact is it quite common. For example I have often gone to the dumpling shop outside my building, placed my order and then told then that I will be sitting in the restaurant right next door, so when they are ready please bring them over. So when I order my fries I always make sure to bring my own drink and often a bag of mandarin oranges or anything else I please.
If I plan to make a trip to the KFC timing is always important. Since it sits smack in the center of one of Kaifeng's busiest shopping districts the KFC is very busy during meal time. But on the weekend it is filled to the bursting point all day long with weary shoppers, especially in the winter as it is well heated for a Chinese building, and there are no other places for people to stop and sit. (ie. a coffee shop; not even a Starbucks. I keep hoping that with all the shitty new development going in all the time someone will be daring enough to plop a Starbucks down in Kaifeng, but it will be quite some time before that. I don't even think Zhengzhou has one. Oh well. Its probably bad judgement to ever wish for a Starbucks, so I'll hold my tongue in the future.)
The best time then is usually right after the lunch rush clears out. Then you have most of the rest of the day in relative calm. I very much love people watching and being in China only makes it that much more interesting. Of course the problem of doing it here in China is that I am being stared at by the people I'd like to be watching. Which is certainly the case if I were to sit in the first floor for instance. Chinese people love a good show, even if that show is some random white guy sitting in a KFC eating french fries and looking out the window. Even on the second floor I have to position myself with my back to the room to ignore all the people who keep turning around to look at me.
I think I will have more on what there is later.
A word on KFCs; in Chinese they are called 肯德基 Ken3de2ji1 (which is also how one says Kentucky in Chinese). Way back in 2004 on my first trip to China the characters in the name KFC were the first I ever tried looking up in a dictionary. (For those of you unfamiliar with Chinese it is not a dictionary friendly language, and learning to use one takes lots of practice.) But I digress from this digression. The characters literally translate to: willing and virtuous foundation (although the 基 (foundation) is a homophone with 鸡 (chicken) so I still like to refer to the place as: the virtuous and willing chicken.)
The other nice thing about KFC is that so long as you buy something (like one bag of fries) you can stay at your table as long as you like. (Actually you can often sit at a table without having bought anything, but I'm still not quite comfortable with that, and I think it is probably officially frowned upon.) The other nice thing about KFC and about China is general is that basically no restaurant cares about you bringing in outside food or drinks. In fact is it quite common. For example I have often gone to the dumpling shop outside my building, placed my order and then told then that I will be sitting in the restaurant right next door, so when they are ready please bring them over. So when I order my fries I always make sure to bring my own drink and often a bag of mandarin oranges or anything else I please.
If I plan to make a trip to the KFC timing is always important. Since it sits smack in the center of one of Kaifeng's busiest shopping districts the KFC is very busy during meal time. But on the weekend it is filled to the bursting point all day long with weary shoppers, especially in the winter as it is well heated for a Chinese building, and there are no other places for people to stop and sit. (ie. a coffee shop; not even a Starbucks. I keep hoping that with all the shitty new development going in all the time someone will be daring enough to plop a Starbucks down in Kaifeng, but it will be quite some time before that. I don't even think Zhengzhou has one. Oh well. Its probably bad judgement to ever wish for a Starbucks, so I'll hold my tongue in the future.)
The best time then is usually right after the lunch rush clears out. Then you have most of the rest of the day in relative calm. I very much love people watching and being in China only makes it that much more interesting. Of course the problem of doing it here in China is that I am being stared at by the people I'd like to be watching. Which is certainly the case if I were to sit in the first floor for instance. Chinese people love a good show, even if that show is some random white guy sitting in a KFC eating french fries and looking out the window. Even on the second floor I have to position myself with my back to the room to ignore all the people who keep turning around to look at me.
Here is a little view from the window.
I think I will have more on what there is later.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Just how difficult is learning Chinese?
Maybe this will only appeal to people studying Chinese, but I will post it anyway 'cause I enjoy it so much.
This was written to commemorate the 80th birthday of John DeFrancis, professor of Chinese at the University of Hawaii, who also happens to be the editor of both of my favorite Chinese-English electronic dictionaries.
Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard
This was written to commemorate the 80th birthday of John DeFrancis, professor of Chinese at the University of Hawaii, who also happens to be the editor of both of my favorite Chinese-English electronic dictionaries.
Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard
Sunday, December 14, 2008
All that stands between me and the cold winds blowing down from Siberia
I went looking to buy a heater for my quite chilly apartment. A the big department store downtown they want 400 kuai ($58) for this unit. Too much! So I went to my local hardware store where I had bought my rice cooker and they wanted only 260 kuai ($40). "But couldn't you make it a little cheaper?" I pleaded. But of course. And so I only paid 240 kuai ($35). I was really hoping to go lower and I'm sure it could be gotten for even less, that is the way it is in China. No matter how little you pay, or how good a deal you get. You can always do better.Oh and my favorite new phrase in Chinese is: "别宰我!" (biézǎiwǒ) Which literally means: "Don't slaughter me!" But is what you say when you are being fleeced.
Generally I can get a good price in Kaifeng. Especially when I up my already pretty strong Kaifeng accent. Any hint of which coming from a white guy like me usually leaves people stunned. I'm not sure how I've picked one up exactly but I'm sure it has to do with my lazy tones.
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