Weird. I get a lot of ‘Are you French?’ questions. I’m not French, but I do look more French than anything else, so I was always quite impressed. Maybe the South is more cultured than y’all think?
[quote=“Chris”]Back in my high school days, a friend of mine (who happens to be Jewish, but nobody would ever know by the way he looks or acts) was told by this strange old man (a guy known in the neighborhood for being a racist old coot), completely out of the blue, “Now listen sonny: money can’t buy you a Jewish Christmas.” 
To this day, we have know idea what he meant by that.[/quote]
Racist old man probably knew your friend was Jewish (by his surname? Or your friend’s parents and family looked more Jewish?) and was implying no matter how much money Jews have they could buy TV stations, radio stations, sports teams, but the one thing they could not buy was a Christian holiday.
OR
Most Jews go to Chinese restaurants for Christmas because they’re the only ones open. And so racist old man was implying that money can’t buy you a dinner at a fancy Chinese restaurant. But here’s the kicker, it CAN! The more money you have, the nicer the restaurant! And you don’t have to make reservations either because everyone else stays home for dinner on Christmas. So it’s really quite nice.
So, essentially, racist old man is senile and I bet you even he doesn’t know what he meant. 
I’m a bit confused by the grammar. Does this mean, “Grandma, do foreigners also come from our world?” or “Grandma, are foreigners also able to come to our world?” The first makes more sense, I guess I just don’t recognize the construction.
For the interested, yuli used the same construction but substituted “cochroach” in place of “foreigner”.
People, if you’re going to write in Chinese, please post English translations.
I’m a bit confused by the grammar. Does this mean, “Grandma, do foreigners also come from our world?” or “Grandma, are foreigners also able to come to our world?” The first makes more sense, I guess I just don’t recognize the construction.
For the interested, yuli used the same construction but substituted “cochroach” in place of “foreigner”.
People, if you’re going to write in Chinese, please post English translations.[/quote]
I had to Google Transversulate it.
I got the main gist (and the cockaroach difference) but the idea the child conveyed was lost in the grammar.
[quote=“914”][quote=“Chris”]Back in my high school days, a friend of mine (who happens to be Jewish, but nobody would ever know by the way he looks or acts) was told by this strange old man (a guy known in the neighborhood for being a racist old coot), completely out of the blue, “Now listen sonny: money can’t buy you a Jewish Christmas.”
To this day, we have know idea what he meant by that.[/quote]
Racist old man probably knew your friend was Jewish (by his surname? Or your friend’s parents and family looked more Jewish?) and was implying no matter how much money Jews have they could buy TV stations, radio stations, sports teams, but the one thing they could not buy was a Christian holiday.
OR
Most Jews go to Chinese restaurants for Christmas because they’re the only ones open. And so racist old man was implying that money can’t buy you a dinner at a fancy Chinese restaurant. But here’s the kicker, it CAN! The more money you have, the nicer the restaurant! And you don’t have to make reservations either because everyone else stays home for dinner on Christmas. So it’s really quite nice.
So, essentially, racist old man is senile and I bet you even he doesn’t know what he meant. :p[/quote]
Ummm… I think you’re looking too much into it and by “Jewish Christmas” he meant something more akin to “something unattainable”.
Thanks, Lili. That was a joke post I was making for Chris. He tends to have a lot of things bottled up and on his mind (see Pet Peeves thread). Small rages, as we call it.
“Money can’t buy you class, sonny!” Oh the irony, old man.
I’m a bit confused by the grammar. Does this mean, “Grandma, do foreigners also come from our world?” or “Grandma, are foreigners also able to come to our world?” The first makes more sense, I guess I just don’t recognize the construction.
For the interested, yuli used the same construction but substituted “cochroach” in place of “foreigner”.
People, if you’re going to write in Chinese, please post English translations.[/quote]
Apologies for not supplying an English translation. Actually, now that I re read it, I realise I left two characters out, but they don’t make any real difference to the meaning. She said: 阿嬷 外國人也會來到我們這個世界? Grandma, do foreigners also come to our world? She was quite clearly mixing up the words for foreigner ( 外國人) and alien (外星人). It was quite cute really.
Isn’t “alien” officially used in the USA for people who don’t have US citizenship?
Isn’t “alien” officially used in the USA for people who don’t have US citizenship?[/quote]
Could be. I’m not 'merican, but, in this case, she was definitely referring to the little green type, with antennae, from outer space. 外星人 means extraterrestrial rather than ‘foreign’ or ‘from another country’ in the sense you refer to above.
had a guy tell me once that taiwanese were further along the evolutionary scale than caucasions. I asked him how so? He said that because white ppl had more hair on their chest, that we were closer to monkeys than they were. Cant really argue with that logic now can you?
Taiwan uses ALIEN also. Or, did you think the A in ARC stands for ADOGA?
Yes, and so does Japan (and perhaps other countries do the same - i just don’t know anything about that).
Anyway, to put it simply, in US usage, “alien” appears to mean “resident foreigner” (see boalt.org/bjil/docs/BJIL27.2_Berry.pdf for a detailed explanation), and it looks like Japan and Taiwan, where English is not the normal business language, reflect American influence through this usage…
No fanny pack. No socks with your sandals, pulled halfway up to your knees- you said it yourself. No silly 80’s style sun visor. Why on earth would she have cause to think you are an American? 
[/quote]
Was the Missus wearing the same thing? That would be yankish, nu?
I was walking down the hill from my old jungle home one fine day and a lovely gentleman asked me if I was walking down the hill. :roflmao:
As you were… and the “ROTFL” mark you used shows that you are still a 外國人 
After overhearing our conversation about how my son doesn’t like to eat much and is a little small for his age, an old lady said, “Don’t worry. My son didn’t like to eat when he was a baby either, but now he’s 160cm tall!”
As you were… and the “ROTFL” mark you used shows that you are still a 外國人 [/quote]
Yuli, I know it’s common for locals to state the obvious as a polite way of greeting a stranger. My icon was indicating that I thought this particular statement of fact was super QQ. And I guess your penchant for posting Mandarin characters without translations shows you are 自命不凡的人
I’m glad to hear that. Now we just have to find a better explanation why your comment showed up in [url=Odd comments from random strangers thread. 
And if you think my using 外國人 here is anything more than a quotation (the original is available a few posts back), then i think i should invite you to my little island where we all use “Mandarin characters” even though we call them “kanji”: Neighboring Ishigaki Island: direct flights from Jan. 2010 - there are still several direct flights from Taipei (via Hualien) scheduled for the next two months, and i think if you were to go you’d like what you see (underwater and otherwise). We also usually think of “random strangers” as “guests” and use locally distilled alcohol to disinfect them and ourselves.
good one in Family Mart this morning, while buying a T.Times…
old Chinese bloke, pipes up, in mandarin…
“How much is the English paper?.. NT$15? thats a good deal… hey, the only problem is I dont read English!”
Got a laugh from all the staff too…