h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

in what way?

I have yet to establish if one of my new Chinese mates is her boyfriend.

that would be a bit of a possible complication...

Different continent...same old problems!

Indeed, and I'm assuming that the basics are the same, or are we going to have a difficult, ( but no longer illegal), relationship....!

Well, that's a lot of teeth!

Moving away from illegal is always a good idea in my book! Also being able to speak each other's language a little might help. My guy spoke no English at all and couldn't understand my broad Manchurian accent (that's Manchuria not Manchester!!)

It was wonderful for an affair...but wouldn't have worked in the long term. As we had no idea what each other's views were on anything we got on just great!

So can you speak Chinese? We have quite a lot of Chinese students at the uni here, so I get quite a lot through my till. They all speak Chinese to one another, and it sounds so cool!

No, not any more...it was very rocky at the best of times - and it was Mandarin whereas most Chinese folk abroad speak Cantonese. Can't understand any of that.

I did try learning with Linguaphone but the Chinese told me that I was using ridiculously old-fashioned language (ie Schoolmaster instead of teacher) and they were slighly offended that I wanted to check up on whether the interpreter was doing her job properly!! (which later, watching a video of her translations was a moot point!)

Most of my vocabulary had to do with steam engines anyway which really isn't much use in everyday life...

Anyway, foreign languages always sound far more interesting than ours...we imagine that they are discussing really interesting things because they sound cool - and when I stayed in Spain for a few weeks I thought that the women in the shop next door must have been planning a murder or something, they were so furious and agitated. But, in reality, they're just discussing the weather or the TV. Sigh...

I like the flow of languages... german is very abrupt, whereas chinese and arabic flow together a lot more.

Have I been away that long or have you been reaaaaly chatty?
Now got some name cards, and have learnt the etiquette for handing them out.
My Chinese name, which I thought up, is White North Dragon, ( no giggling at the back!), which encompasses my "things" about Yorkshire and Dragons.
Mandarin, or more politically correctly, Putonghua, ( can't remember the Pinyin tones), is more of a lingua franca here now, but people hold a conversation round you in Mandarin or Cantonese, like in a restaurant, and you expect it to come to blows!
In Tunisia Arabic sounded like they wanted to spit, ( And here, people do! Usually very noisily from their balcony when you're still in bed and three quarters asleep..).
I'm learning Chinese, but with 12 vowel sounds and about 24 consonants, could be slow work. Learnt some useful phrases like:-
"You're very beautiful, can I have your phone number? " (Hardly my style that).

Neither really

White North Dragon sounds like a cool name!

We mainly have students from UAE, so maybe it's a regional difference...

Sounds really cool

Yes, if I was any cooler I could be a freezer compartment!
Still working on the same girl, but how is it that when you're trying to talk to same, attractive Germans hold you in long mouth to ear conversations at Chinese nightclub Hallwe'en parties? ( What, it's happened to you too?)

Pretty much, yep! Actually it was the drunken Cardars in my case!

On Chinese names...I don't suppose it will happen to you but just do check out that your name is translated correctly...

Story follows:

My friend Ali was teaching English as a Foreign Language in Taiwan and they gave her a name 'Cherry Blossom' which was very nice.

Then, she tried to open a bank account and found out that that the Chinese for 'Cherry Blossom' was actually Chinese for 'Wobbly Fat Thighs'...

She got her revenge by teaching the class that had named her that, in any formal business situation in the UK, the visiting businessmen were expected to sing a song denoting their respect for the place they were visiting.

The song went like this:

Ying tong ying tong, ying tong ying tong, ying tong diddle i po...

Diddle i po, diddle i po.
I miss Spike Milligan, funniest Manic Depressive I ever saw.
Om shanti, om shanti, om shanti Spike.
My name is OK because:
My boss translated it;
I,ve just learned 2 of the 3 characters;
No one would dare!
Did she have Fat flabby thighs?

Um. Yes. But even so...

And they certainly didn't get to see them!

Glad your name's okay!

It doesn't pay to get people's backs up, ( a concept I think which will be particularly difficult to translate into Chinese).
I haven't seen a puf puff since I got here, but I hear them in the night and early morning, really sounds like that "lonesome whistle blows"