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oik
Joined: 02 Jul 2003
Posts: 12
Location: london
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 Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 1:33 am Post subject: |
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| Little_Firecracker wrote: |
Last year, I was in a queue at Tesco, and a black woman behind asked me if I could translate some Chinese words on her keychain. The characters already had the 'pinyin' underneath, so I could tell what they should sound like, but I didn't know what they meant as (although I'm multi-lingual) my first language is still English...Next thing I knew, her kids started laughing at me 'cos I couldn't understand it...
I consider my spoken Mandarin generally fair...not brilliant, but enough to get by. I would love to improve on it, and it would be nice if I had the chance to use it more (and I do so every chance I get)...But I was brought up in a pre-dominantly English-educated, mixed-race family, so I've had little contact with mainstream Chinese culture...Neither of my parents have a firm grasp of the Chinese language...My dad could probably read Latin better than he can Chinese... |
hmm join the club... |
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Guest
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| Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:17 am Post subject: random thought |
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As a gwei-lao, I have to agree with the premise of this topic. In the UK I feel (maybe it's just me!) that our socialising does indeed revolve around booze...... I fully admit I am part of this boozy culture.... however, when I was last in China I felt more comfortable (culturally speaking) than I do in the UK...... the 'tea bar' experience I had was most enjoyable!!
Pointless little bit of info I know! :)
Actually, no, the point is that someone born and brought up in a 'western' culture can actually find they've been misplaced culturally........
Pretty much thinking aloud here.......... |
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Little_Firecracker
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 27
Location: Fylde Coast, Lancashire. UK
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| Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2004 6:40 pm Post subject: |
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| oik wrote: | | hmm join the club... |
Hey, recognise your ID from somewhere...Are you a member of the BBC boards too??
Sorry, I know this is neither here nor there, but am just curious...
:-)
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Charme
Cyber Residence <<< Make yourself at home and sign my Guestbook!
"I didn't make the world. I just try to live in it." |
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GweiLo
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 149
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| Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2004 5:06 pm Post subject: |
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The prevalence of STD's is much lower in the UK than in many other parts of the world and as sp's own links state the increase in the occurence in the UK is mirrored in other parts of Europe.
I did a quick comparison of the statistics given in sp's link and those for other nations, and it seems that the prevelance of alcoholism in the UK is similar to the rest of Europe and the US, so again if we are a nation of alcoholics it would seem we are no more so than those other parts of the world where I can find stats.
I think the answer to the questions sp poses must be either no, or no more so than most of the rest of the world. |
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