Tidbits
Bits and pieces of information from class…and from Lu-lu’s entertaining side-commentary:
A scooter is, literally, an electric donkey (because a donkey isn’t as big as a horse and a scooter isn’t as big as a car?!?): Dian luzi.
A computer is, literally, an electric brain: Dian nao.
If someone says, “Oh, you SHOULDN’T have!” and it really wasn’t a big deal, you can reply, “Mao mao yu”, which means, literally, “feather, feather rain”, or, something that doesn’t pose a big problem.
(sort of) Rude Chinese saying: “Zhongwen Chule yizi si tiao tui de douchi”, which translates to mean something like, “Aside from a chair, Chinese will eat anything with four legs”…but Lu-lu tried to stress that this is more true of Cantonese than any Chinese. She says the saying about Shanghainese is that they will WEAR anything.
Beer belly – “pi jiu du” (Which is actually a direct translation…)
Honey is, literally, bee jam: “fengmi”
Digital camera is, literally, number little parts to look for appearance machine: shu ma zhao xiang ji
The Internet is, literally, enter (get on, or in) net (a net): shang wang
The stars on the Chinese flag: the biggest star represents the Communist Party and the four smaller stars represent, equally, the Worker, the Farmer, the Army and Intellectuals.
Cell phone is, literally, hand machine: shou ji.
Lu-lu was praying the other night and prayed for an hour or so for a boyfriend. (She is 32 and in China, it is very unusual to not be married by this age.) After praying for a boyfriend, she felt restless and as if God wasn’t going to respond. She finished her prayers with, “Jesus, if no boyfriend, then at least can you send me some decent dark chocolate?”
Lu-lu’s favorite thing in the world is a piece of crispy, spicy chicken from KFC. She likes the wings or legs only and when she brings a bucket to a friend’s house or to a family function, she picks out her favorite pieces before handing the bucket over for the rest of the diners. However, she only allows herself this extravagance on her birthday. The Chinese celebrate two birthdays, though, according to the Western calendar and the lunar calendar. Her Western calendar birthday is on August 6th and she dreams about chicken every night, in anticipation of her birthday.
This Monday is the Chinese Valentine’s day. There are stands set up in the Metro that hand out paper-strip bracelets similar to the ones you get at theme parks. These paper strips call you out to other Metro riders as being SINGLE. If someone sees you wearing a strip and thinks you are attractive, they might come and strike up a conversation. Lu-lu is very excited for Monday to come. I promised I’d go with her to find the stand with the strips…
