Job Discussion Forums

Outsida · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 4:28 am Post subject: Moments that made you smile

Today we were discussing movies. I pointed out that Chinese people like literal titles, then I gave them a few examples of Chinese translations of English titles that sound funny when translated back into English. For example, MI3 is idiomatic, meaning something like "So good spy" (literally, it means "CD in a CD"), and Nixon became "The big liar".

So I asked them to come up with some new names for Superman Returns. These are their titles:

Stalwart Man Returns
Fly Again
Superman with his new lover
Hero comes back
The Big man returns
The blue man rises again

In another class of middle school students, one student couldn't finish his sentence. So another jumped in:

S1: I could have gone to Hong Kong, but...
S2: ... but I have become a baboon.

What moments made you smile?

ColinA · Joined: 31 May 2006 Posts: 262

therock · Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Posts: 1266 Location: China

Outsida · Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 1:32 pm Post subject:

Colin, your attempt at slagging off China and the people there would be laughable if I didn't pity your desperate attempts at survival so much. Still, the ol' Work for the Dole program should be keeping you busy, right?

Don't pretend your life is all that. You wouldn't be here so much if it was.

andrew_gz · Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 502 Location: Reborn in the PRC

A moment that made me smile?

Recalling Colin's bashing by the locals. (Now it all makes sense)
Now that's justice. (paid in advance)

ColinA · Joined: 31 May 2006 Posts: 262

adamsmith · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Posts: 259 Location: wuhan

In response to ColinA - why I am smiling in China

1. Getting on a plane and seeing the family at the destination airport. - I am single - no family, so I am smiling and don't have to fly 14 hours.
2. Seeing blue skies and breathing fresh air, at last. - I see blue skies almost everyday and the air is fresh (I don't live in one of the big cities)
3. Drinking water straight from the tap. - I come from canada where the water is pure - and I still don't drink it right from the tap
4. Driving my Camry again. - I can drive here, I no how to pass tests and get a drivers licence
5. Going fishing and actually enjoying the fish. - I fish to relax ( i am not sure how you enjoy the fish but I hope you are not catching suckerfish Laughing

). I never keep them anyway.
6. Going surfing in crystal clear water. I am too old to surf and can't swim anyway. Unless you are talking about surfing the net.
7. eating a baked/roast chicken dinner - I had a very nice roast beef dinner the other night and I still have not left china.
8. cooking on a 4 burner stove with an OVEN - they are available in china - you just need to spend some of that fabulous super that you are always bragging on.
9. teaching a high school curriculum that I didn't have to write - What, I always thought that part of teaching was developing the best way to get your target objectives accross. Most prewritten curriculums wont match your own teaching strengths so you would have to revise/revamp them anyway.
10 Being paid in dollars and not RMB/hr - Oh, i get paid in Dollars here so I am really smiling because I am spending RMB
11. enjoying pay TV instead of CCTV 9 - I get my tv from dvds - actually get a much larger range than if I was at home.
12 Not having to put up with drifters, desperadoes and deviates - I don't put up with them here, and I met a lot more drifters, desperadoes and deviates back home than I have here.
13 walking down the street without the usual "helloo, hahaha" - Well, at least back home I have friends who will say hello to me, I am sorry you dont have anyone to lhavee a laugh with
14 asking for something and not being told what I want to hear. Gee, whenever I ask for something, all I hear is chinese - I don't understand it so just take what I need and walk away.
15 going camping and seeing a million stars - I never count the stars, but when I go camping I can see many of them right here in the old PRC,
16 Not having to come up with excuses for being in China - Dont have an excuse - I just like it
17 Not having to kid myself that the cultural vices dont irk me. But, hey They irk me, I don't kid myself.
18 riding on a bus without obnoxiously loud VCD/music, mobile calls or conversations, Well if I had a camry I would not take the bus in the first place.
18 riding on a bus without being spat on by someone 2 seats up, people did not like you did they - this never happened to me or anyone else I know. I see lots of spittle on the floor of the bus though.
19 crossing the road without having to look in 4 directions at once. - OK, I will give you this one. Just make sure you look both ways down there.
20 crossing the road without a constant sewage smell drifting up through the pavement. - Stay out of the areas of town that are so rundown that they are not part of the sewage system then. But who knows - maybe you are just walking there to look for that little something that makes you smile (see 12.)[b][/b]

Outsida · Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2006 4:39 am Post subject:

andrew_gz · Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 502 Location: Reborn in the PRC

ColinA wrote, "The mugging was actually of a close friend after I left, but the story sounded better in the first person rather than the third, afterall what's in a name, especially an alias?"

I noticed elsewhere that a Mod chastised forumites for calling others a 'troll".
Given the above quote, just when is it OK to call someone a "troll"?

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

hmmmm. being called a troll is one of the milder forms of insult on this board. if trolling were banned outright, there'd be 50% less posters on this forum on day one.

andrew_gz · Joined: 15 Feb 2005 Posts: 502 Location: Reborn in the PRC

7969 wrote, "hmmmm. being called a troll is one of the milder forms of insult on this board"

Fair enough, what would you suggest?

Tezcatlipoca · Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1214

I got an email today that my fiancee's visa may be coming this fall (a full year earlier than expected). It's not a guarantee, but the thought of taking her 'home' and showing her all of the things about my life that she has been able to show me about hers, definitely brings a smile to my face.