Professor in the Peace Corps: Recent Comments

Comment on Earthquake Cafe

Anonymous — Fri, 23 May 2008 10:47:50 GMT

The responsibility to protect was solemnly accepted by all the nations in the UN summit. But I think such high-sounding doctrines as responsibility to protect and obligation to aid are simply rhetoric. The earthquake reminds me of a biblical story, Noah’s Ark. I was wondering if such kind of flood or any kind of devastating catastrophe hit China and most of the Chinese people became refugees, would the international community still offer assistance. The US has long proposed the theory that China threatens the world and the world is unable to feed China. Luckily, China is now able to feed herself. Coming to each other’s aid is undoubtedly beneficial to one’s long-term survival. But when helping others, one will of course consider his own capability. When nations offer help, it is limited to not affecting the prosperity and well-being of their own people. If such dreadful thing happened, the western politicians would favour Darwinist theory—let the Chinese prosper and decline by themselves. Would the Americans allow the Chinese refugees entering their country? Of course not. They are afraid that the Chinese would bring corruption, different ideologies, assimilate the American population and so on. The whole of Tuvalu can emigrate to new Zealand, because it has a population of 11000. But when it came to China, who would accept the 1.3 billion?

Comment on Fast food

Matt in Chongqing — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:29:17 GMT

First we should recognize that "lovin'" is not the same as "love" and it implies a certain slang that communicates the idea of liking the product, the brand, and some sort of brand loyalty (I'm reading in a lot here to 3 words.)

Translating this to Chinese gets tricky. Slang in Chinese doesn't consist of abbreviated characters but in new "words" created that traditionally mean something else but now has a new meaning. Or, a new word (with obvious meaning) is created. Two examples, of the first category might be 恐龙 and 青蛙 - dinosaur and frog. In slang, "dinosaur" means an ugly girl and "frog" means an ugly guy. Of the second type might be a word like 网友, literally "net friends," the Chinese translation of the word "netizens."

The word 爱 (love) in Chinese is not slang, it communicates a direct description of love that is just related in the traditional sense: family, husband, wife, etc. To use this in relation to a company would be a little, untactful. Therein comes 我就喜欢. You could lengthen this out to 我就是喜欢 which might directly translate to "I just like it" or "I simply like it" which the company felt correctly expressed the meaning of their slang "lovin'" term. A complicated expression for just 3 words and 4 characters, I know.

Comment on Doubly painful

Brenden — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:12:36 GMT

Peter,

Your post raises some interesting points. I'm a PCV in the republic of Georgia, working with small businesses on poverty reduction. My degree is in International Development Studies from a small liberal arts school in the American west. All that is simply to say that I have thought about this question a great deal - it's really important.

My thought is that true poverty mainly comes from a lack of choice. Here I define choice as the ability to make decisions that directly affect one's future. The vast majority of people in poverty, in my view, as suffering from a deficit of being able to make their own decisions - without the interference of an outside agent, be it global capitalism or a repressive government. Part of the difficulty in overcoming this choice deficit is that for many, the lack of choice has been beaten into them for so long that it becomes a habit, rather than a response to the environment. Cultural factors - for instance, 80+ years of Soviet domination - have made it difficult for the people I work with to think of doing anything new or different, despite the fact that small changes would have a potentially large impact.

Recognizing choice as key to poverty reduction is the first step to combating poverty. At the very least, helping people see choice where they thought none existed before can have an enormous impact on lives that are directly impacted by poverty.

After choice comes government, capitalism, and value structures. But at the very core of it all is the ability to make decisions for ones own self - free from coercion or force. This is a pretty hard thing to do...

I'm actually not sure if you read your comments, so here goes nothing...

Comment on Fate and Forrest Gump

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:25:35 GMT

Forrest Gump is widely popular with Americans as well as international visitors to Washington, DC. In fact, at the Capitol reflecting pool (which is 2 miles from the Lincoln Memorial) the most common feedback tour guides hear is about Forrest Gump.

Take a group to the Lincoln Memorial and walk down to the reflecting pool. Tour guides will automatically hear Forrest Gump talk. Goodness, if the tour guide doesn't meantion Forrest the tourists don't feel like they got their money's worth. You might think tourists would want to hear only about our 16th president, but in reality they stand around and call for JENNY!

After I let them get the Forrest Gump out of their systems, I then can do a nice Lincoln presentation.

Yup, if you have seen it on the TV/Movie screen, it MUST be important!

Comment on And sometime the bear eats you

Peter Vernezze — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 13:43:57 GMT

Thanks. I have to get tested again in a couple of weeks. I only achieved a novice high at the training and the Peace Corps requires you achieve at least intermediate low. When I read the standard for intermediate low, it seems fairly modest, but there are many times when I really doubt my chances and my sanity. Plus, I tend to freeze up on the tests. Thanks for the encouragement

Comment on And sometime the bear eats you

demoiselle — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:14:34 GMT

Hello! I've been reading your journal - very interesting.

I'm currently in Moscow, with supposedly intermediate Russian skills. Sometimes I feel very proud -- but other times I'm lost. Usually if I am driving the conversation it is ok - I manage to stay within the safety of my knowledge. But when my conversational partner wants to lead the talk (cleaning lady, today, discussing Putin and politics) I very quickly get to the point of nodding, and saying "Da." (Yes.)

It gets better with practice and time. I think.

Comment on Back to Basics

lee — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:21:26 GMT

How true this is. We have a lot of hispanics in our school district and even though they have lived here in Wis. for months to years, many of the adults do not speak english. I have often thought poorly of them for not trying to learn english, but I can see fom your blog, learning a language and using a language are 2 different things. To use the language you have to be brave and take the chance of being laughed at or misunderstood. How many of us are willing to do that if we can avoid it?

Comment on Euphemisms

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:09:57 GMT

Asian tourist love standing next to American blonds at tourist sites and having their picture taken. American high school girls with flowing hair are the most popular ... and of course, the girls like the attention, too!

Comment on More lesson plans

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 23:46:40 GMT

I enjoy your website blog. Please keep teaching American-speak. I was delighted recently to be dealing with Chinese visitors who had marginal oral skills. However when I announced that lunch was nice, they responded with pride "Great! We are starving!".

Your website is one of the better Peace Corp blogs. Thanks for representing America so well.