筷子

I did a presentation about chopsticks for my UBC Mandarin class tonight. Here is a transcript:


筷子是什么？

筷子是中国的食具。他们吃饭的时候，总是用筷子，不用叉子，或是刀子。很多国家像似中国，日本，韩国，越南 都用筷子吃饭。筷子大部份都是用玻璃或是竹子做的。有一些用铁，骨头，或者是各种木头。



筷子的历史：History of Chopsticks

今天叫筷子。筷子在中国一二零零年发明。这个子筷是从两个子来的。

- 音："快" － quick
- 意思：“竹” －bamboo.


礼仪在中国 - Etiquette - lǐ yí

中国人吃饭的时候有很多规则。我有两个告诉你们：

1. 夹起食物之后，不应该放回盘碟
2. 不能用筷子對著人或用餐時拿筷子指手畫腳


我的筷子故事

我有一个弟弟。我们小岁的时候，他每天喜欢玩。有一天，他在沙发上，他想他是一个海象。所以他有两支筷子在他的嘴巴，然后说“我是一个海象，我是一个海象，大家看我”。虽然，他摔交了。两支筷子戳到在他的喉咙后面。我妈妈马上在他去医院，他后来没有问题。现在，他不想他是一个海象.

Parking

This is another movie from the Taiwan Film Festival, "Parking":

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/7-2-LTbSnT4/

TV Shows

I've been looking for something to watch thats entertaining + has a relatively easy to follow plot. That's led me to a couple of shows that are popular in English. Namely, "Deal or No Deal" and "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?".

Deal or No Deal is called "动感秀场". I've looked at several versions (Mainland Chinese, and Taiwanese), and all seem to be some sort of variety show that includes a lot of dancing and/or singing, and not a lot to do with cases + money. You can see a clip here: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/9uoR6k3Qay0/ .

Are you smarter than a 5th grader has several variations. The Taiwan one was quite good (百萬小學堂), but has a lot of noises and flashy sounds. 不考不知道 - "Are you smarter than a primary student" seems to be pretty solid all around. You can see it here: http://www.tudou.com/playlist/playindex.do?lid=2199497 . The questions are a bit easier and the format is good as far as I can tell. I'm planning to watch more soon.

Hear Me

On Friday, we saw "Hear me" at the Taiwan International film festival in Vancouver. It's a movie about a young guy who falls in love with a deaf girl. It was very fun to watch. I've also found it on Tudou:

http://www.tudou.com/playlist/playindex.do?lid=7858172

I would like to see a couple others from the festival, namely "Parking" and "Tears".