Random Bits

...The rhythmic poetry of the "second language" tour guide. Yes, guide. It seems that they often confirm, yes, confirm, their spiel on the fly, on the fly, with repetition of word and phrases. Yes, words and phrases.

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...Consistent, if not correct. Interesting to see two commercial signs...the Littie Sheep restaurant and a Teddy Bear shop called Cuddies. Both of these were printed in all caps, which made the exchange of the penultimate L with an I that much more evident.

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..."My English name is..." -- Our guide in Xi'an told us her "English name" was "Candy." In Suzhou, we had "Sheila." In Shanghai, "Jo." I've run into "English names" in other Chinese acquaintances as well. Is it because they don't trust us not to mangle their real names? Is it because they want to make things more comfortable for us? Or is there some insecurity involved in the practice?

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...Potato Potahto -- For Xi'an, I've been saying she-on. Over here, I'm hearing something closer to cee-ann. And for the big city, instead of shang-high (rhyming with hang high), it seems to be closer to shahng-high. (Similarly, when we visited Japan a few years ago, it was clear that the two cities we visted were not to-ki-yo and ky-o-to, but tok-yo and kyo-to.)

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...Hometown Hero -- Given how many times his face seems to show up on billboards, it seems that NBA star Yao Ming is to Shanghai as Michael Jordan was to Chicago. While we're here this week, a few NBA teams are playing exhibitions to sold out crowds here. Perhaps China is starting to take to basketball in the way that Japan has adopted baseball.