{"id":70,"date":"2010-05-06T11:20:33","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T17:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laowaiteacher.wordpress.com\/?p=70"},"modified":"2010-05-06T11:20:33","modified_gmt":"2010-05-06T17:20:33","slug":"clothes-washing-and-traditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/2010\/05\/06\/clothes-washing-and-traditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Clothes Washing and Traditions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For all of its modern appearances, there are numerous opportunities to still find old traditions still in use in China. \u00a0For example, this woman is on her way to her clothes washing spot on the side of this small lake near the C.I.T. Xinbei campus. \u00a0She is carrying her little wooden stool that has served her well for many years and yet feels at home in using a modern plastic tub to make her work that much easier in comparison to the other ladies who must use the lake itself as a tub.<\/p>\n

It is strange to see these ladies washing on the sides of the lake when they have to pass a number of laundry shops to get there. \u00a0Obviously there is an issue of economics It is obviously cheaper to do one’s own laundry than to send it out for others to do. \u00a0We were fortunate to have a modern washing machine in our apartment allowing us to do our own laundry. \u00a0But it isn’t all about money. \u00a0In the housing compound which included a number of beautiful homes worth millions of yuan, it is easy to see women out washing clothes the old-fashioned way in the courtyards in behind their mansions. \u00a0It has more to do with habits of a lifetime lived rather than taking advantage of the economic boom that is transforming China today.<\/p>\n

Now, for another small Chinese lesson. \u00a0Besides learning how to say hello and how are you, it is important to learn basic forms of politeness. \u00a0Saying “please,” “thank you” and “you’re welcome” will go a long way in earning respect among the local people you meet and those with whom you will work. \u00a0“Please” was an expression I didn’t learn until quite late. \u00a0As a result, I guess I may have sounded a bit disrespectful to those with whom I\u00a0came into contact. \u00a0I imagine that I sounded like the typical self-centered North American. \u00a0This time around, I intend to change that impression. \u00a0“Please” is qing<\/a> – \u8bf7. \u00a0This might be misleading as there are many variations on the word please that have more to do with association to other words and context as well as intention. \u00a0But that said, saying please as a stand alone word or an introductory word is well worth the time and effort to learn it. \u00a0“Thank you” is more universal as Xi\u00e8xie<\/a> – \u8c22\u8c22. \u00a0To say “You’re welcome” catches most Chinese by surprise whereas saying “Thank you” is not as surprising. \u00a0Whenever I said “You’re welcome” I could see that I had earned even more respect. \u00a0In Chinese, “You’re welcome” is B\u00fa k\u00e8qi<\/a> – \u4e0d\u5ba2\u6c14 . \u00a0This version of “You’re welcome” is the informal version. \u00a0Just a reminder that you can click on the pinyin versions of the Chinese words to listen to the words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all of its modern appearances, there are numerous opportunities to still find old traditions still in use in China. \u00a0For example, this woman is on her way to her clothes washing spot on the side of this small lake … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,28,33,41,49,50,74,100,103,141,164,217,238],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-c-i-t","tag-changzhou","tag-china","tag-chinese-language","tag-communicate","tag-communication","tag-esl","tag-foreign-teacher","tag-ft","tag-mandarin","tag-on-line-language-lessons","tag-teaching-esl","tag-xinbei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/pilgrim\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}