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Sinosplice Life - Education & Personal Development
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Feminine Product Euphemisms in Chinese - Sinosplice
I saw this posted by David Moser on Facebook recently: David writes: This bilingual sign in the restroom of a Beijing hospital is interesting. The Chinese literally reads: “[If this is] a special day, [if] you need a feminine hygiene product, please contact someone at the front desk.” The English eschews such gentle euphemisms: “If you need a tampon during your period, please contact with... Read More
Children's Charity Bazaar - Sinosplice
Some friends in Shanghai are organizing this: If you’re in Shanghai this January 1st (2025), come to the Children’s Charity Bazaar, which benefits the Heart to Heart Foundation, helping underprivileged children get the heart surgery they desperately need. You don’t even have to wake up early! 11am until 5pm at the 889 mall (889 Wanhangdu Rd.). Some more info about Heart to Heart from its... Read More
More Pants than Pant - Sinosplice
So I had a great time on my trip to Naples, Italy (I’ll have to write more about that soon), and after returning to Shanghai I have continued to study Italian through Duolingo and ChatGPT. One thing that I’ve noticed about Italian is that plural forms require a lot more attention than I’ve ever given them in any of my language study to date. In... Read More
Business Trip to Naples, Italy - Sinosplice
I’ve got a trip coming up this October 6-12, and it’s to Naples, Italy. I’m quite excited about it because I’ve never been to Italy. The trip is a meeting with some European academics working on a multilingual, international platform for teaching Chinese. I’ve been contributing to the project through the Chinese Grammar Wiki, and this month I’ll finally be able to meet up with... Read More
This BBQ is FIRE - Sinosplice
The fire component 火 has been enhanced on this sign, quite appropriately, since the word is 烧烤 (shāokǎo), or “barbecue.” Taken on a mountain road near Tonglu, Zhejiang Province (浙江省桐庐县). (PSSST…. If you’re looking to finally learn to read Chinese characters, by sure to check out my new book!)
Reflections on my Experience Learning to Write Chinese Characters - Sinosplice
I recently contributed the following reflection to a book called Transforming Hanzi Pedagogy in the Digital Age: Theory, Research, and Practice: 电写时代的汉字教学: 理论与实践 (1st Edition) by Chengzhi Chu (Editor), Matthew D. Coss (Editor), Phyllis N. Zhang (Editor). With permission from the authors, I’d like to share my contribution to the book. Reflections on Writing Chinese Characters In and Beyond School by John Pasden Writing as... Read More
Standing Escalator Etiquette in Japan - Sinosplice
I always liked how people in Japan stood on one side of the escalators and let those in a hurry clomp on up or down the other side. It seemed courteous and efficient. At some point, years ago (maybe around 2010?), Shanghai also implemented such a system. Signs went up. I was told that Shanghai was adopting Hong Kong’s escalator etiquette. In any case, I... Read More
Sleep No More in Shanghai - Sinosplice
Last Friday I went to a production of Sleep No More (不眠之夜) here in Shanghai. My wife bought us tickets. Although she has a pretty good record of choosing this kind of live entertainment, for some reason I was expecting something boring. Sleep No More is definitely not boring. In this immersive theatre experience, the audience disperses and wonders through sets covering 5 floors while... Read More
Thoughts on Yangshuo (Guangxi) - Sinosplice
The first week of October is still China’s “National Day Golden Week” holiday, meaning that we get 7 consecutive days of vacation October 1-7. Of course, such a treat can’t come without a bit of pain… in this case, we also had to work the weekend after to “make up for” some of the days off. Truly a maddening system. A seven-day workweek following the... Read More
HACKED - Sinosplice
Hello to my email subscribers (if you’re still there). I’ve been hacked in a way that is only visible to my email subscribers. Spam messages are going out through WordPress.com email notifications. I’m working on fixing it, but unfortunately this happened right when I went on vacation to Yangshuo with my family. Will try to solve it ASAP!
Chinese-like Graffiti in Atlanta - Sinosplice
My original hometown may be Tampa, Florida, but my family relocated from there to Atlanta, Georgia in 2020. So this past July, I was finally able to take my whole China-based family to visit this new “home base” in the US. It was great to be back with family for almost a whole month after being unable to visit due to COVID for about 4... Read More
Share Bikes, Stacked High - Sinosplice
Years ago, I blogged about Mobike and how it was changing the way we commute in Shanghai. That’s old news now. COVID has come and gone (sort of). But we’re still using these shared bikes. Now there are two big names: Meituan (unlock the bikes by scanning their QR codes with WeChat) and Hello Bike (unlock the bikes by scanning their QR codes with AliPay).... Read More
Rate of Speech Affects Learning - Sinosplice
I think rate of speech is one of those things that gets some attention at certain points in one’s studies (especially the beginning), but easily gets forgotten under mountains of vocabulary, tsunamis of pronunciation, and avalanches of grammar. Here’s a You Can Learn Chinese podcast from last month where we discuss how rate of speech stays relevant at different stages of one’s studies:
Using ChatGPT to Learn Chinese - Sinosplice
I got back from a family trip to Lijiang (Yunnan) last week. It was quite interesting being there again when my first and only trip to Lijiang happened a full 20 years ago! (Yeah, yeah… I’m old!) I remember even then that some tourists were lamenting that Lijiang was “too commercialized.” Obviously it’s more commercialized now, but I still found it nice. One big difference... Read More
Post-COVID 2023 - Sinosplice
I stopped writing in late 2022 because I didn’t want to turn this blog into a big whine-fest about COVID, and as a result, in a time when COVID in China was impacting every single aspect of my life, I found myself with nothing to write about. I’d get an idea to write about “little signs of hope” and all the ways that people in... Read More
Eason and Lason - Sinosplice
Two little personal stories about creativity, adaptation, and prejudice. Eason When I first heard this English name I didn’t like it much, and just chalked it up to “Chinese creativity” with English. Later I realize that “Eason” was actually the transcription (back to English) of the Chinese mispronunciation of “Ethan.” The spelling is a reasonable mix of the word “easy” and the name “Jason.” This... Read More
Sanya Style - Sinosplice
This is just a random shot I snapped of a cafe/bar in the 后海村 (Hòuhǎi Cūn) area of Sanya. The surfboard, especially, makes the whole picture feel so different from the rest of my China experience, and there’s some fun stuff in what’s written in the Chinese as well. Just thought it was worth a share. P.S. We left Sanya on August 1st, the very... Read More
A Repurposed Chinese Character in Sanya - Sinosplice
Last week I made my very first (and very overdue) trip to Sanya (三亚). Sanya is a city on the south side of the southernmost island off of mainland China. It’s basically the farthest south you can go on land in China. As such, it’s got a nice tropical climate and a bit of a beach party vibe (at least at the touristy places where... Read More
Wooo-Laaa-Laaa - Sinosplice
I am amused at the bold use of the name “Wooo-Laaa-Laaa” at this restaurant in a Shanghai mall: The Chinese name is 吴辣辣 (Wú Là Là), and while 吴 may be the surname of the owner (or maybe not), and 辣 clearly leads one to expect spicy food here, they really wanted to do the (French?) “woo-la-la” thing with the restaurant name, which is an... Read More
Half - Sinosplice
Life has been hectic at the start of a new semester, amidst a (fading???) pandemic. BUT, one personal milestone has passed in August: my Chinaversary. This one marks 22 years. And 22 is actually kind of special, because that’s half my age. I’m not quite there yet, but in a few months, I will have been in China fully half of my life. That’s kind... Read More
Happy Halloween from Shanghai (2022) - Sinosplice
Wow, I took a much longer break than I expected since my last post. I’ve had some thoughts that I’ve debated with myself about sharing. I’m just not sure how much value there is to making post after post about the COVID situation here in Shanghai, and quite frankly, I’m pretty sick of the topic myself. But it’s still not going away. So instead, for... Read More
Bianging around with Biang - Sinosplice
After writing that blog post about the crazy Chinese character “biang“ a while back, I had to share this tweet by Alexander Zapryagaev @JPRidgeway about biang: You think you saw biang? Get ready for: to make a biang sound to biang something wild biang in the forest chemical element biangium to catch a biang in the river River Biang to eat biang it’s raining biang... Read More
The Press: a nice Cafe/Restaurant in Shanghai - Sinosplice
I don’t often write about food or restaurants here. Maybe it’s finally being able to actually eat in a restaurant that’s got me excited about it; I don’t know. But I really liked this restaurant near the Bund called The Press (申报饭店). It’s got cool old Shanghai Western-style architecture, plenty of Shanghai culture, Italian food on the menu (my kids loved it!), and great espresso-based... Read More
Bad Translation Puzzle: "Divided" - Sinosplice
I was at Shanghai’s Global Harbor mall the other day (it’s open, but there’s hardly any business, and eat-in dining is still prohibited at restaurants), and I saw this text on the window: A zoomed in version of the key part: My 10yo daughter spotted it and was rightly confused by it. 少女 (shàonǚ) means “young woman” (girl in her early teens), and I suppose... Read More
Does This Font Make the Character Unreadable? - Sinosplice
I’ve been seeing this app icon in ads around Shanghai recently: Can you read it? Specifically, I want to focus on the character on the left. Whether you can read it is all about how you parse the different parts of the character. Clearly this structure is of the overall form ⿰, with the right half further breaking down into ⿱. Pretty standard. Top right... Read More