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Was it really though? It would be too expensive for someone in china to buy when they can get cheaper flags domestically and there can't be a high demand for them in the USA.
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Jan 31, 2017 18:25
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Haier posted:If u r reading this thread, plz tell us WHYYYYY? No why.
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Jan 31, 2017 18:27
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKAxV-uZuiQ
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Feb 1, 2017 04:18
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A Korea travel question, I won't be able to take the free tour on the way to hk, but I am still interested in getting out of the airport. When does everything shut down and open again during the night? Also how much money should I take for a half night jaunt above the train /bus to Seoul?
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Feb 1, 2017 04:21
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INTERACTION ONE; 27-year-old woman: Her: "I have two cats at my house." Me: "Oh, I guess I won't be able to visit your house some day. I am allergic to cats." Her: "What? Allergic to cats? I never heard of anyone that is allergic to cats." Me: "It's quite common. A lot of people are allergic to cats or pets." Her: "I never heard of this before. Chinese aren't allergic to cats. It must be because foreigners are different." Me: *Deletes* INTERACTION TWO; 25-year-old woman: Her: *Asks me all kinds of questions about myself* Me: *Answers each question* Me: "So, how about you?" *Asks same questions* Her: "I am a girl." Me: "So?" Her: "A traditional girl will not say much about herself, it is good. Mysterious." Me: "So why did you ask me all of those questions?" Her: "You're a man." Me: "And?" Her: "Men are different." Me: "That's a double standard." Her: "Foreigners are more open than Chinese. It is easy for you to talk about anything. In China we do not share so much." Me: "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK" Me: *Turns off phone for a while*
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Feb 1, 2017 05:12
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Hahahaha! Do you ever just say gently caress it and just troll people instead?
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Feb 1, 2017 06:32
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Haier posted:If u r reading this thread, plz tell us WHYYYYY? I like this thread, but this is the one talking point I really disagree with. It's never a waste of time to learn a language, even if it turns out to be less useful in practical terms than you'd anticipated.
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Feb 1, 2017 08:06
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pedro0930 posted:My guess would be some kind of Fish, probably Ko. Oh yea now I see it
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Feb 1, 2017 08:15
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Phlegmish posted:I like this thread, but this is the one talking point I really disagree with. It's never a waste of time to learn a language, even if it turns out to be less useful in practical terms than you'd anticipated. I don't think this is ever the sentiment, rather that if you were to learn a language you should learn a different one than mandarin.
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Feb 1, 2017 08:19
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oohhboy posted:A Korea travel question, I won't be able to take the free tour on the way to hk, but I am still interested in getting out of the airport. When does everything shut down and open again during the night? Other peeps in the thread who've lived there rather than just visited can probably give a better idea, but having consulted with my other half, generally things seem to start winding down between 10pm and midnight, depending on the area, outside of 24 hour places (fastfood, coffee, spa, etc). Museums and palaces seem to close a fair bit earlier, ~6pm. Depending on the line, the subways shutdown between 11:30 and 12:30 on weeknights, earlier on the weekend. As for money, depends on what you wanna do, but generally it's pretty cheap/reasonable.
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Feb 1, 2017 09:11
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Phlegmish posted:I like this thread, but this is the one talking point I really disagree with. It's never a waste of time to learn a language, even if it turns out to be less useful in practical terms than you'd anticipated. Never? Really?
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Feb 1, 2017 10:23
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Kio pri Esperanto?
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Feb 1, 2017 10:29
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Sheep-Goats posted:Never? Really? Gorilla Salad posted:Kio pri Esperanto?
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Feb 1, 2017 11:22
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bozxgVQ9m0
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Feb 1, 2017 11:55
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It takes people a moment or two to get over the fact that you are speaking mandarin and sometimes more than a minute to be convinced that you will understand if they respond in mandarin. Because of this strong preconception sometimes it's easier to talk with them in a language they barely understand because then they actually listen to you rather guess what you want even though you just loving told them.
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Feb 1, 2017 12:06
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That's Hong Kong, not China.
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Feb 1, 2017 12:13
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Was watching a video about a foreign talking in Chinese about how his book will soon be published in Taiwan. Most of his fans are mainlanders, so the comments section was filled with Chinese people poo poo-talking Taiwan. I asked one of them why they didn't like Taiwan and his comment was filled with defensive comments about how I should come to mainland China myself before judging. But I never said anything about China, just asked why he didn't like Taiwan...
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Feb 1, 2017 13:02
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What do you have against China you racist?
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Feb 1, 2017 14:34
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Have we mentioned that there's been another abduction from Hong Kong yet?
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Feb 1, 2017 15:37
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Boiled Water posted:I don't think this is ever the sentiment, rather that if you were to learn a language you should learn a different one than mandarin. Yeah, it's more of a question of opportunity cost. From what I can tell, all else being equal, there's a large number of languages you're better off putting time and money into learning. (I'd still love to know it, but damned if I'd rather not learn Spanish first).
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Feb 1, 2017 15:50
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Deceitful Penguin posted:You would not believe how just knowing a few words of a small language will cheer people up. And supposedly it does something for your cognition but I found the idea that being a polyglot makes you more intelligent to be dubious at best. I'm not saying it doesn't do anything. The idea of worth however means your get significant rewards for doing it off one kind or another. This doesn't have to be some autistically measurable material thing but there are definitely activities that are a waste of time too. Say for example you're interested in the classical world -- it's not wrong to lean Latin but Greek has probably four times as much utility. Or if you're interested in the modern world -- Chinese isn't worth nothing but it has a hilariously fractional amount of utility and cultural access compared to so many other similar things you could be doing, like learning Japanese or German or Spanish or like HTML or whatever.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:06
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I actually had some REAL TALK with my boss's daughter tonight. She's a grade 6 kid. Her: *Showing me old photos of the anime convention here in Shenzhen a few months ago. She points out an ugly boy with her friends* Her: "This is my classmate. His family has many many money. Some men told she family that they will kill him!" Me: "What? Did they steal him? Is he dead?" Her: "No, they told his mom and dad that they will kill she if they do not give them many money." Me: "Oh, I see. Did they give the money?" Her: "No, they didn't. He goes from his house to school in the police car, and goes back to home in the police car. Every day!" Me: LOL Her: "The day we went to the (anime convention), my mother gave me 100 RMB to buy the books and toys. His parents gave him many money." Me: "What is a lot of money for a kid?" Her: "One-hundred one-hundreds." Me: "... Ten thousand?" Her: "Yes!!" Me: "Hory poo poo. Kids don't need that much money to do anything with. That's wrong. What did he buy?" Her: "Many toys and books! He needs a taxi to carry home." Me: "No wonder he was getting ransomed."
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Feb 1, 2017 16:07
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Haier posted:I actually had some REAL TALK with my boss's daughter tonight. She's a grade 6 kid. Haha, a literal child is better at carrying a conversation. I love this thread so much.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:59
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Sheep-Goats posted:I'm not saying it doesn't do anything. The idea of worth however means your get significant rewards for doing it off one kind or another. This doesn't have to be some autistically measurable material thing but there are definitely activities that are a waste of time too. Say for example you're interested in the classical world -- it's not wrong to lean Latin but Greek has probably four times as much utility. Or if you're interested in the modern world -- Chinese isn't worth nothing but it has a hilariously fractional amount of utility and cultural access compared to so many other similar things you could be doing, like learning Japanese or German or Spanish or like HTML or whatever. If you like it, do it anyway. Yeah, there's more useful languages (man, if I'd have taken Spanish rather than French...) but on the whole just learning any language is neat enough. Also you're never gonna convince me and the Flem that learning obscure languages is a bad thing for obvious reasons. 
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Feb 1, 2017 17:09
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Esperanto is still wonderfully useful for knowing a person is a pretentious dickhead/lizardperson right away though. So it's useful, in a way. Yeah but you don't need to actually learn Esperanto properly to simply notice it I lived in this thread for a while and learnt to speak in Dogwhistle
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Feb 1, 2017 17:13
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Haier posted:I actually had some REAL TALK with my boss's daughter tonight. She's a grade 6 kid. What's the name of that movie where Richard Pryor gets hired to be some rich little brat's official friend?
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Feb 1, 2017 18:16
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Well I wasted a few years learning Japanese (only to find that Kanji are poo poo) so ehhh. No learning is ever bad, but some of it is still a waste of time. I originally went to China largely out of an interest for Tang era poetry. There are a few problems with learning Chinese and Tang poets though. The first is that no one in Mainland China gives a poo poo about them beyond giving some forced clannish nod in their direction. The second is that classical Chinese poetry is apparently so different from spoken Chinese (even in its time, the centuries have only made things worse) that it's basically like learning a dialect with very difficult grammar rules to even begin to read it. Third is that despite China's massive population it's modern cultural output is a loving joke -- this is due in part to the living human rear end that functions as their government but largely because nobody gives a poo poo about actual culture in the Mainland, everybody just wants to be a businessman. On the other hand you could learn something like Thai. Thai has basically nothing as far as a literary canon goes compared to English or Chinese but Thai people actually like Thai books and poems, you see them for sale in 7-11s sometimes, Bangkok makes a large number of movies many of which are actually very good, etc. Plus if you speak Thai to a Thai person the reaction isn't to stare at them like a dog stares at someone who has just done a card trick and then to turn to your friend and yell at them "HEY THE FOREIGNER SPEAKS CHINESE!" If you learned German you'd have Rilke and operas to listen to and some research and math documentation that you could access even though you'd probably never need German to talk to a German person in 2017 since their English is usually so good. Spanish gives you libraries of literature and three different continents to use the language on. Chinese is just such a busted, decrepit choice that if we didn't know they had a billion people no one would ever bother with it.
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Feb 1, 2017 18:32
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Can confirm that many Germans speak decent English. Not all, but many. Although they are usually impressed if you can speak their language. And apparently German with an American accent is kind of cool.
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Feb 1, 2017 18:48
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oohhboy posted:A Korea travel question, I won't be able to take the free tour on the way to hk, but I am still interested in getting out of the airport. When does everything shut down and open again during the night? Hate to say it, but ~it depends~ The big thing will be your arrival airport. If you're landing at Gimpo, congratulations! You can get on the AREX and be in the city center of Seoul fairly quickly. If you're landing at Incheon, you would be wise to spend the extra $10 and get on the express train from Incheon to Seoul Station, cutting the commute to 35 minutes. The all-stop ticket is cheaper, but you stop at EVERY stop along the way, including Gimpo airport Trains shut down around midnight, so plan accordingly. Most subways will shut down around midnight and start running again around 5 AM. At that point if you need to go anywhere you'll need a taxi. Taxis are fairly cheap compared to the US. Stuff like museums and landmarks will be closed if you visit at night, but most of the rest of Seoul is open late at night, especially around college towns. I think a fast sight-seeing route around Seoul would be Gwanghwamun, -short walk to> Cheonggyecheon -taxi to> Myeong-dong -walk to> Namsam Tower (take the cable car, it's worth it IMO) -walk to> Seoul Station. You can always take a Seoul City Tour Bus, which isn't free, but might be the best way to hit a bunch of destinations, take a picture, and get back on time. If you're talking like, 8pm - 4am night time visit, go to any college area (I would recommend Hongdae or Sincheon) and start bar hopping. kimcicle fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Feb 1, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 19:32
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Sheep-Goats posted:On the other hand you could learn something like Thai. Thai has basically nothing as far as a literary canon goes compared to English or Chinese but Thai people actually like Thai books and poems, you see them for sale in 7-11s sometimes, Bangkok makes a large number of movies many of which are actually very good, etc. Plus if you speak Thai to a Thai person the reaction isn't to stare at them like a dog stares at someone who has just done a card trick and then to turn to your friend and yell at them "HEY THE FOREIGNER SPEAKS CHINESE!" Mmm, not really. You are right that there is little in the way of literary canon, but most people don't really read. TV and radio are much more popular forms of entertainment in contemporary Thailand, have been for years if not decades. The educated elite who are inclined to read would be as likely to pick up an English book as they would a Thai one*, more so in many cases. I can also remember when I was doing my undergrad thesis on politics in Thailand and wanted to find some Thai journal articles to really sell it to my supervisors. I asked one of my friends who had studied poli sci at a university in Bangkok what journals I should look for, and she said not to bother, anything worth a drat gets translated to English anyways (I tried anyways -- was true). I got a lot of "HEY WHITEY SPEAKING THAI" in Thailand. Towards the end of my time there, I'd say 1 in 5 reactions was to ask if I was half Thai, just because it's so rare for a Westerner to bother learning it to any degree of proficiency (this is a confluence of Thai not really being very useful, and the poo poo-tier expats the country tends to attract). In Laos (Lao is basically a dialect of Thai) on the other hand, people would be like "oh yeah that's two bucks" without batting an eye. I don't really know why that is considering Laos is much less developed/cosmopolitan, maybe it wraps back around to where they have less exposure to foreigners and thus are less inclined to build up a big "them/us" distinction, or just assume everyone can secretly speak Lao because who the hell doesn't speak Lao, or something like that. *English in Thailand can be bit like French in Tolstoy's Russia -- fancy foreign language for letting people know you're part of the upper crust. You find a lot of English "loanwords" being unnecessarily dropped into conversations when there are perfectly good Thai ones, just to give the sentence a bit of zazz or make the speaker appear more educated/well-traveled.
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Feb 1, 2017 21:52
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China Thread: Do or do not, there is no why
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Feb 1, 2017 22:25
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[quote="Pompous Rhombus" post="468974830"] Mmm, not really. You are right that there is little in the way of literary canon, but most people don't really read. TV and radio are much more popular forms of entertainment in contemporary Thailand, have been for years if not decades. The educated elite who are inclined to read would be as likely to pick up an English book as they would a Thai one*, more so in many cases. I can also remember when I was doing my undergrad thesis on politics in Thailand and wanted to find some Thai journal articles to really sell it to my supervisors. I asked one of my friends who had studied poli sci at a university in Bangkok what journals I should look for, and she said not to bother, anything worth a drat gets translated to English anyways (I tried anyways -- was true). I got a lot of "HEY WHITEY SPEAKING THAI" in Thailand. Towards the end of my time there, I'd say 1 in 5 reactions was to ask if I was half Thai, just because it's so rare for a Westerner to bother learning it to any degree of proficiency (this is a confluence of Thai not really being very useful, and the poo poo-tier expats the country tends to attract). In Laos (Lao is basically a dialect of Thai) on the other hand, people would be like "oh yeah that's two bucks" without batting an eye. I don't really know why that is considering Laos is much less developed/cosmopolitan, maybe it wraps back around to where they have less exposure to foreigners and thus are less inclined to build up a big "them/us" distinction, or just assume everyone can secretly speak Lao because who the hell doesn't speak Lao, or something like that. *English in Thailand can be bit like French in Tolstoy's Russia -- fancy foreign language for letting people know you're part of the upper crust. You find a lot of English "loanwords" being unnecessarily dropped into conversations when there are perfectly good Thai ones, just to give the sentence a bit of zazz or make the speaker appear more educated/well-traveled. [/quote My time in both places leads me to believe that while Thais are definitely not big readers at least some of them read and some of them give a poo poo about reading. In China it was like you were an idiot to waste time with anything that wasn't running some shitass business.
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Feb 1, 2017 23:05
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Sheep-Goats posted:Third is that despite China's massive population it's modern cultural output is a loving joke -- this is due in part to the living human rear end that functions as their government but largely because nobody gives a poo poo about actual culture in the Mainland, everybody just wants to be a businessman. lol
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Feb 2, 2017 00:29
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Sheep-Goats posted:Spanish gives you libraries of literature and three different continents to use the language on. How could you forget Equatorial Guinea 
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Feb 2, 2017 00:53
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I had a (Han Chinese) friend who hated eating at Muslim restaurants because "rats walk on everything." He was uncomfortable around Chinese muslims because when he was a kid someone told him that they robbed people and threatened to stab them with the A I D S needle. Tough poo poo for him because I loved me some Chinese Muslim food.
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Feb 2, 2017 00:56
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Sheep-Goats posted:(Lao is basically a dialect of Thai) As a Lao, I resent this remark. Thai is a dialect of Lao.
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Feb 2, 2017 01:09
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hakimashou posted:I had a (Han Chinese) friend who hated eating at Muslim restaurants because "rats walk on everything." There's supposedly an authentic chuanr cart somewhere in NYC's Chinatown but I haven't managed to catch it yet.
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Feb 2, 2017 01:37
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Feb 2, 2017 02:22
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P-Mack posted:There's supposedly an authentic chuanr cart somewhere in NYC's Chinatown but I haven't managed to catch it yet. the muslim stuff is some of the food i miss the most. Hand pulled and knife cut noodles in the lamb or beef soup, crispy lamb ding stir fried on toothpicks with all that cumin and spice, so much good food and so cheap, and it was always everywhere. One of these days I'm going to figure out how to make chuanr right, it can't be that hard.
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Feb 2, 2017 02:42
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hakimashou posted:I had a (Han Chinese) friend who hated eating at Muslim restaurants because "rats walk on everything." What Chinese muslim group are they talking about? I have never heard a bad stereotype about the Hui, and their restaurants are always packed. In fact the Hui are like the model minority group in China, if one exists. Now if you're talking about Uighur yeah that's a total thing here. The bad stereotypes are usually about Uighurs and (not Muslim but also explicitly not Han Chinese) Tibetans and Mongolians, but not Hui. My city has Tibetan and Uighur districts that always have increased police presence and uncomfortable looking Han people clutching their bags and crossing the street if they see an obviously Uighur or Tibetan person coming up in front of them. Uighur food is super awesome, Tibetan food not so much.
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Feb 2, 2017 02:46
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