Archive for September, 2009
Border Crossings Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 6, 2009
Today I wanted to 过关 (cross the border), and so I hopped on the usual 班车 (shuttle bus) to the border station. There I noticed a sign saying that you couldn’t carry more than 2000支 cigarettes. For purchasing bus tickets into the city, you can use 八达通 (octopus card) which is similar to Beijing’s 一卡通…
Relatively Speaking Posted by Transparent Language on Sep 4, 2009
When speaking another language, it can sometimes feel like trying to stick a square peg into a round hole. Some ideas in your native language do not carry over into the target language. Although plurals in English may often lose distinctions in Chinese, the most elusive counterpart may be a direct answer. When somebody says应该…