One of the strangest things I am doing now is taking Japanese classes. Not because that in itself is strange, but because my teacher does not speak much English. This means I mostly use Chinese to communicate and ask questions (no-no #1 in learning an Asian language). It actually works out pretty well.

I routinely find strange phrases that make me wish I could just run off and get a Ph.D. in linguistics. (By the way, after reading this you will see why I am crap at languages. My wife can hear a phrase and repeat it like the world’s best Mynah. Me, I need to build all kinds of crazy mnemonics too have a clue. That said, once I know it, I know it.) I am starting to have a lot of crossovers and routinely find myself searching for English words on conference calls with the States due to the rewiring in my brain.

Here are some interesting observations and examples:
Tate Mono (pronounced: Taa Teah Mo No) means house or building. I find this one of the easiest words for me to remember because I love the Tate MOderN in London (pronounced T-eight). It is easy to remember Tate Mono as a building. A NICE building :)
Biiru, Kohii, Noto, Tepurekoda (Beer, Coffee, Notebook, Tape recorder) all sound very close to the English word, but drink to much Biiru…
Otearai (pronounced: Oh Teah Ah Ra EE) meaning toilet and you may have a hard time finding this if you can’t say it! The Brits got this one right with “Loo.” Side Note in China “Lu” means street, which often doubles as the toilet.
~ no ~ no ~ no when describing possessiveness (as in My wife or My book) you use “no.” The problem is there is no limit so you can get sentences that to an outsider sound like “No, No, No!” Interestingly enough the word for “No” in Japanese is “Iie” or what Mr. Miyagi says a lot (seriously go back and watch).
Leggo Eggo I swear this had a meaning, but I forgot to write it down I was laughing so hard.
Shite this actually means “give” as in “Mama cyu shite” (Mama give me a kiss) or “Mama ryori shitte” (Mama give me your cooking). Not to be confused with “Mama your cooking is shite”.

Now all that said, Chinese also has its funny phrases. We were at the flower market last weekend and B wanted to know if the flowers were suitable (he shi) for direct sun, so I told the lady:

“Zai Tai Tai de yang tai, tai yang tai da” or “On wifey’s porch the sun is quite strong”

The lady answered “no problem” in the blink of an eye. It didn’t phase me until we walked away how strange that (mostly) correct sentence was AND that someone else could even understand it! Gotta love Chinese.

Somebody had too much beer
Originally uploaded by beuk

We told her to bring the beer in. She couldn’t lift it but still
managed to have some fun. Who says there are no rednecks in Taiwan?

Hello all and welcome back!

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Who thinks this is safe? (those are all full BIG glass bottles of beer)

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Oh yeah, It is the same guy that thinks THIS is safe.

For the record, at least this is only a cart pulled by a tractor, not the actual 3-wheeled truck that can cruise at highway speeds loaded with bricks(!) in the same way.

Since, I have been taking this online photo class by Amber Ludlow, I have started looking at things in different ways. I am not saying that I have become that much better of a photographer, but I have come to the point where I am willing to beat my wife over the head in order to get at the camera and take the shot before she sees it. I thought I would share with you some photos from one day out last week. It is hard to come up with new exciting shots every time, but here we go:

If you thought crossing the street was hard in the U.S. check this lady out. In China, there are basically very few rules governing traffic. Might makes right, and if your car is bigger you win. This lady finally managed to get across, but only after several cars buzzed around her in all directions like a bee keeper near a hive. Note: no sidewalk, no crosswalk, no light, no stop signs. (Not that it would have mattered)

The next stop was to the Ehtical goods market, er… Ethical,…Ethnic. Yeah, I don’t know what they mean either because inside they sell the kind of stuff that is still left over at the end of a garage sale.

This boy was my ice cream buddy. I had a lovely lunch for a total of 3RMB (40 cents). My coke also cost 3 RMB. I had such a a good time that I offered to buy two big beers for the family that made me lunch (I say family because they live in their noodle store). I asked how much was a BIG bottle of beer. 1.5 rmb! I bought two, even though they were reluctant to take my gift. Total cost of lunch: 9 RMB. I now walk 50 yards to two ladies with two children hanging around a box covered by a movers blanket. Yes, when you want to buy an ice cream, you look for the moving blankets because they are covering the ice cream containers. The answer to how much for one was 8 RMB! Are you kidding me? A whole dollar? No way, when my entire lunch was equal to that. I then spoke to her in Chinese to say that I know you are cheating me and you know you are cheating me, so how about letting me take some pictures of your children. In the end it was a win-win for all of us. The boy above has some great black eyes. Really looking into the camera. His friend to the right was a bit more shy.

Last, but not least, some fake Xi’an soldiers being sent to the U.S. The new owners will be glad to know that great care was taken in packing them. I still need to fin a picture of one of the three wheeled trucks over flowing with bricks. It is so common I often forget that it is such an unusual sight.

When I sent this to Blogger, I did not mean for it to become the TOP post, but anyway. This is a bar in SanLiTun. Ironically, you need to go “up the backside” of this bar to reach another bar. Now why doesn’t anyone see a problem with naming their bar Ahole?

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Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone