Yes, 2006 is the Year of the Puppy. Not Dog …. Puppy. Apparently Chinese society has come to celebrate youth just as much as the rest of the world. Dog, Puppy, Puppy Dog, Lassie, or whatever you want to call this year we hope it will be good to you and your loved ones. Those of you lucky enough to have spent Chinese New Years in China will know just how BIG this holiday has become. Loads of food, tons of fireworks and quite a few 干杯 cheers. The party gets larger with each passing year in step with China’s growing wealth. But despite all of the money and commercialization, Chinese New Years remains a time to get together with family and friends. And believe us getting home for the holidays is no simple task in a county of 1.3 billion people.
To our audience in China and around the world … 新年快乐！
新年快乐！
Hi Cpod and fellow poddsters!
It’s new years in China and it is just craaaaazi. I have never seen so many little trees with little oranges ever. And the oranges are real b/c you can ‘tou chi’ 偷吃, that is–take a five-finger-discount- and pluck them off for a quick bite. There have been red lanterns and decorations put up for some time now, but a couple of days ago the REALLY BIG lanterns and banners came out. I am in Haikou, Hainan and typically the cars drive at a very leisurely island pace, but recently there has been an influx of mainlanders ‘da lu’ people and their cars via the ferry, the traffic is just as hectic and frenzied as can be. I saw a few minor collisions already, so be careful out there! Every few minutes the kids, and many adults set of small fire crackers. People tell me it is going to get super-loud come new year’s eve and day. I got my earplugs all ready to go. Heck back home they’ve all but banned fire-crackers these days.
I want to thank the cPod crew for getting ChinesePod out there on the internet for us. It has really been a fun spark to my studies. I have the good fortune of being able to study here in China and I can’t say enough how ‘grounded’ their lessons are, let me tell you, ALL the words they use are ‘high-frequency’ and practical language that you can’t get in 98% of the language books out there. After each podcast lesson I find that I am bound to ‘hear’ the very same words that Kai-en and Jenny just used!
I’m going out to the countryside where there’s no internet (well actually there is a little wang-ba in town) so I will have to go without my podcast for a bit, but anyway see everyone in the new year!
PS: Ken, did you give everyone some red-packets? You are married and likely the oldest, so it all falls on you!
新年快乐！xin nian kuai le ************ Happy new year！ ***********