Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Anuradha Chepur]

Redrose, Admiral et al, please show up.

[Bob S.]

[wenzili]

Your performances made me clearly understand what's mean by "pride, prejudice and paranoia", which blinds someone�s eyes, blocks someone�s ears and numbs someone�s mind, makes him apperceive nothing but hatred, see nothing but darkness, hear nothing but lies.
Dear gentleman, how much do you know about our Chinese? You may suppose all of us are arranged by government after received a certain amount of allowance?
No! You are wrong!
Yesterday, when we united to protect our Olympic torch, we were voluntary. Then, when we all simultaneously rejected and angrily responded to the untruthful reports to Tibet riot, we were also voluntary.
Today, when we try to relieve our grieves, express our opinions upon Sichuan disaster-relief on this forum, we are voluntary too. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, we heard a noise, which was pretended to be from someone who is mostly familiar with our Chinese.
However, I cannot help asking this gentleman:
How many places have you ever been to China and how many Chinese have you contacted?
How many people, do you know, are touched to tear every day when they watching the quake scenes on TV?
Prejudice makes people cold and paranoia makes someone stubborn.
That is the reason made the tragedies in torch-relay happened and then the stupid star's curse splashed out.
Is there anything else more? Come on please, if any!
We fear nothing now, because we know, It is easy to shake down a mountain, but it is impossible to shake our China!

[Philo Kevetch]

Generations of indoctrination by party propaganda..... 'makes people cold, paranoid and stubborn'.

"We fear nothing........impossible to shake our China."

Hubris is a poor substitute for pride.

'thousands of years of history'? - a history of oppression of the masses

"protect 'our' Olympic torch / torch relay tragedies"?.... Surely, you jest!

The world continues to mourn with you, in spite of your nationalistic bombast.

Your expression of 'shock' regarding statements made by a 'star' is, quite frankly, ludicrous when compared to the plethora of vitriol and expressions of glee posted on 'Sina' and Sohu BBS' in response to the airplane attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City.

[Bob S.]

[rosemary010]

This May we, Chinese people, really have suffered a lot from the Wenchuan Earthquake, however, we have not been defeated, instead, we've become more united and show great resolution to overcome all kinds of challenges to make our country more thriving and prosperous. No words can describe our grief when we see the severe loss of human life and vast devastation resulted from the Wenchuan earthquake happened on May 12th. The number of the victims is increasing and the damage is beyond our imagination. In front of this unexpected catastrophe, we feel our inability to compete with the nature. Many people had been to the quake places and made their best effort to save more people�s life. People from all over the world had made some donations which relieved the widespread distress caused by the earthquake. I feel very sorry to those who died and who are suffering from losing their family and friends. But we can support each other, hand in hand, to make our family better again.

[valen_wong]

may be there are lots of people who ignore the good deeds of our gpvernment and our great people. however, we cannot lose our strength just for their narrow-minded human. we must stick to our point and fight with this natrual disaster. we will be the winner at last.
_________________
Life is to experience!~~

[Philo Kevetch]

This thread began with.. 'hope all our Chinese friends are OK after the earthquake' and was followed by similar wishes by posters from China and other countries.

The common thread in all the posts is a sincere sorrow for the victims and suffering of the survivors.

Expressing your thoughts and feelings in another language is not easy and some thoughts may be misunderstood due to a difference in cultural interpretation or simply 'lost in translation'.

I know that efforts to relieve the suffering are far from over and I'm sure that people around the globe continue to share your suffering and wish the people of China well.

In an effot to 'clear-up' a possible misinterpretation, could one of the posters from China please help me understand the cultural meaning of the following compilation of comments from several recent threads on the topic in this forum.

Thanks in advance - Philo

- "Come on our China! I'll be with you forever! We are the best!"
- "Let the world cheer for us."
- "Our Chinese people are unbeatable!"
- "We fear nothing now, because we know, it is easy to shake down a mountain, but it is impossible to shake our China!"
- "We will be the winner at last."
- Even though we've suffered a lot in this disaster, we saw our nationalism and patriotism."
- "Chinese will never be defeated!"

[rebecca_lr24]

The Sichuan earthquake was such a big blow to the whole nation. My heart was trembling when I saw the debris, the dead bodies, and the blood being everywhere, especially, when I knew that all almost all the school buildings collapsed while the government buildings were safe and sound.

According to the newspaper Herald Tribune �experts on earthquake dangers have warned for years that tens of millions of students in thousands of schools, from Asia to the Americas, face similar risks, yet programs to reinforce existing schools or require that new ones be built to extra-sturdy standards are inconsistent, slow and inadequately financed�.
We lost not a lot of lovely children, but a younger generation who will make their hometown prosperous in the future. However, they were perished in schools and no longer have the chance to devote themselves to our country.

I here, suggest the government with deep sincerity that action should be taken immediately to address this problem in order to avoid much greater loss of life.

[Philo Kevetch]

To all the posters from China ("Redrose, Admiral, et. al.") -

Allow me to express continued concern for the welfare of all those suffering through the latest disaster (floods) in your region.

I hope you are all well and return to post here as soon as you are able to let us know that you and those close to you are all okay.

Philo

[edison chen]

my hometown is ChongQing,which is located to the SiChuan province where the earthquake happened.I experienced the horrible affair. Do you guys really know the view after
the earthquake in the worst place?I do!i see it in person and in my rest life,it will never be erased in my mind.The officers,the soldiers or even the
citizens,all digged the ruins just by hand in order to save time as much as possible in the hope that they can rescue more wounded.Unfortunately, we've lost many of them,however, we'll never lost our courage to fight
against mischances.After this,i'm more sure that Chinese people are unbeatble!We will always united when troubles come,we are part of each other at the moment of crisis.
We have 2 billion hands together,what's more,they belong to one heart!
_________________
i will persist until i succed

[beibeizhu]

I think that our Chinawill become stronger and stronger because we have a great prime minister.I hope all our friends of Sichuan are OK after the earthquake in Sichuan province.

[Philo Kevetch]

Our thoughts and condolences go out to the people of Italy who suffered the loss family and friends in the recent earthquake. Philo