My Chinese Isn’t “Internet Worthy”
November 19th, 2006 by MarkIn the past all of the email I’ve gotten from Chinese people regarding my blog has been extremely positive, but last night, I received the first critical one.
I am not understand why you like writing the chinese character speech. Is very not colloquial, stiff, foreigner translate to the chinese from the english not seeming to make the real feeling. At the time which I was you, I wasn’t using the chinese character writing for such expressions. In the reading tedious and painful to find such unnatural speakings. Better letting girlfriend or wife or boyfriend to write such.
Cheerfully
XXXXXXIf Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
-James Madison
Ouch.
:
November 20th, 2006 at 12:59 am
Eww.. that’s a really sucky email to receive.
The writer’s grammar seems almost like he’s trying to make awkward mistakes. I wouldn’t be so sure it’s from a Chinese person, but maybe that’s just me being paranoid.
I’ve been thinking of starting up a Chinese blog myself lately, but I really don’t think I could just “let it flow.” I’d be too self-conscious to put up much of anything without first passing it under the eyes of a native speaker for review.
November 20th, 2006 at 3:23 am
I got one of those. See my Chinese journal for my snarky, no doubt mistake-ridden reply.
November 20th, 2006 at 7:13 am
I agree with Matt, my guess is that it’s a troll, and the person ran it through AltaVista Babel Fish.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:56 am
The ridiculousness of those comments aside, as a foreigner learning Chinese, I really enjoy your Chinese blog. It helps to reinforce vocabulary and grammar I already know, and introduces me to some new ideas. In fact, I wish you’d blog in Chinese more often. I guess in that way, you can compare your Chinese blog to pinyin on road signs - it’s more useful to the non-native speakers than the native ones!
November 20th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Wow. Thank you Holly. I appreciate the encouragement. I really did plan to write in Chinese more often.
November 20th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
TC,
Who, excluding John and Lennet, could possibly nitpick your Chinese? That’s just nuts.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Ha ha! That e-mail is priceless! Thanks for sharing. It does kind of seem like it was meant to be a joke.
I’m in no position to nitpick anyone’s Chinese. Maybe Brendan?
November 21st, 2006 at 5:54 pm
Oh, I meant on the whole 台灣國語 angle. Speaking of Brendan, I’d love to see Taiwanese people react to his Beijing accent.