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Category Archives: Beijinger Checklist / BJSLBC™

Hang the wall on the gun

Scene: A towering glass and granite building located in Shangdi, suburban Beijing, the Silicon Valley of the capital city, not far from the comparatively puny corporate campuses of Google, Baidu, IBM, etc. The building top’s massive, fengshui-correct sculpture is only slightly obfuscated by the awkward bulk of the Beijing Sounds Studios name rendered in two [...]

Posted 06 January 2010 † syz § beijing-r § běijīnghuà § consonant elision § taxi § unexpected érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (19) °

Cheap AND delicious

The YU cafeteria is one of the best audio links to Old Beijing. Over the clink of dishes and the munching of radish tucked inside your bǐng (饼 = pan bread) you can listen idly to the deals that the city used to offer.
[Transcript linked to audio available on this page -- click on the [...]

Posted 23 December 2009 † syz § Yuèmǔ U. ‡ Comments (12) °

Soundbites: Your *what* went bad?

Today’s pop quiz: Fill in the blank to name that lighting fixture component. Write it down so you can go to the store and buy it. Better yet, try to find it in a dictionary without using the English word that you already know.
24 hours to respond. Answer tomorrow. Winning entry receives usual jackpot. Terms [...]

Posted 16 October 2009 † syz § BJS Daily § consonant elision § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (7) °

Soundbites: Cushaw

Not even Yuèmǔ U. (i.e. 岳母 / mother-in-law university) is infallible, especially in the face of her mother’s knowledge of the guā (瓜 = squashes) that grow in their Beijing sìhéyuànr (四合院儿 = traditional courtyard house*).
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
TLL (Tàilǎolao 太姥姥, i.e. PBS’s great grandma): Zhè shì wōguā, wōguā.
这是倭瓜，倭瓜
This is cushaw, cushaw.
YU: [...]

Posted 12 October 2009 † syz § consonant elision ‡ Comments (7) °

Is the pirate’s Beijing Paradise in danger?

For those of you new to Talk Like a Pirate Day, it was first declared a Beijing Sounds staff holiday in 2008 when, reminded by Pinyin.info, a post was created to celebrate the R-ful Mandarin of the most rhotic city in Asia [feel free to quote that last phrase to your friends]. This year the [...]

Posted 18 September 2009 † syz § EXMARaLDA transcriptions § Talk Like a Pirate Day § beijing-r § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (6) °

Sand Diapers

On the dispensability of disposable paper products

Beijing Sounds management comes from a strong anti-paper tradition, having grown up with cloth napkins (non-matching, mostly) rolled into individually labeled napkin rings. There was also the spasm of late 70s anti-paper-product activism that accompanied the arrival of First American Uncle Beijing Sounds, when Grandmother Beijing Sounds threw in [...]

Posted 02 July 2009 † syz § EXMARaLDA transcriptions § Yuèmǔ U. ‡ Comments (11) °

Have you been abroad?

On the pointlessness of leaving Beijing (or at least China, at any rate); the BJSLBC™
April 2009, a taxi somewhere across central Beijing…

Posted 05 May 2009 † syz § consonant elision § taxi ‡ Comments (9) °

Super female students. How much money? An ex-con

No, it’s not sex industry, just sexy běijīnghuà. Who’s responsible for the cheap headline tricks? Blame sexybeijing.tv…
Why had I never come across SexyBeijing.tv before last week?! The hostess, Anna Sophie Loewenberg aka Su Fei, is both forever-single and singular. Whether it’s her sundresses, pretty darned good běijīnghuà, or disarmingly candid questions and commentary — she [...]

Posted 22 January 2008 † syz § běijīnghuà § consonant elision § linguistics § street § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (11) °