What is the difference between a big school and a big school?

Today I had a chat with Fredrik at a cup of coffee in the cafe where we usually go. We started talking about the difference in languages since there was entering a couple of japanese, a young lady, probably a student and an older man with shirt and intellectual appearance. Both seemed to be very balanced and well educated, something that might be special to see in China (at least for our conception of balance & education).
Unnecessary to say that chinese people „hate“ japanese, as they say, and the reason is easy and not to understand for a foreigner like me: „because of history, you know“. I dont know if the reason they name most of the time should just hide a kind of envy. To discuss about that is equal to enter in a never ending cycle.
I tried, I was misunderstood and at the end I was taught.
Anyway, the japanese couple beside our table began to discuss something and we were happy that we were able to distinguish chinese from japanese.
We as very beginner in learning the chinese language have a bit of a clue how this language works:
'daxue' means university and 'xue' just means school. If you put the caracter for 'big' (in chinese 'da') infront of 'xue' you get a 'big school', a university.
An other example could be shown from a question form. 'Bu' is the negation and it works like the following formula: verb + 'Bu' +verb. Translated it would sound like this 'do you see or you dont?', 'do you go or you dont?', 'do you like or you dont',....
As I know there is no word for 'without', you are supposed to by-pass it and replace it with a sentence where you use 'not have'. Or lets put it this way: dictionary says 'without' is same word as 'not have' but if you use it you actually say 'not have' in chinese. Confused?

The question came up.
Do you think the Chinese language can be as specific as English when it is about a certain subject for example in science?
I surely do not know but Im really curious about that, how accurate you can determinate and define the differences in things.

Our conclusion:
For now it seems like japanese are drawing with tiny brushes to make sure every stroke is in the right place and chinese is painted like a contemporary illustration done with one bucket and it says 'daxue'.

random news VS. whats going on?

what happened?
we went to a beach on the weekend, we got to know a really nice french man who inspired with some great pix to put some effort to fix my 50mm, i fixed my 50mm lens, i got the booklet/catalogue from the shooting , i got a book from zhouhanlin (kate)-the photographer girl- her final work on the university, we have a exam on thursday (tomorrow), further there will be a party in laowaitan on friday because some guys will leave china and go back to sweden or whatever.. sad to hear for those who stay.
my girl told me she managed to sell my guitar, im rich again.

that was written last wednesday if i remember well, and this time i'll throw on the blog, just to save the site from my laziness. maybe this kind of diary writing is going to be posted more often in the future..i like it.

more news since that is also: inter milan won the champions league, i got 80 points at the last exam (yes!), helene has a blog as well now, we bought finally tennis rackets, bayern lost the champions league, i got my first tie and nothing even more boring to tell.

in the next episode you learn how to burn a bridge after passing it without being a bastard, a pyromaniac or steven seagal!

The racket is broken after 2 days..

About a meeting

"On wednesday there is a meeting at the government and it is organized by the government." James, the man who makes everything possible (no matter how......), asked three foreigners to show up at that date.
So, today Sandra, Federigo de Svezia and I went there..
you know, when someone tells you that you are going to watch a new action movie with lots of great actors, expensive cars and so on but at the end instead of that you get a theater performance acted by 13 years old kids, while you are filmed by a local TV. Maybe they are talented and give their best, but still it is not the same what you've expected. So what are you going to say when they ask you questions from which you can tell they just want to get the proof they are good, unique and that they have reason to be proud? You lie. Straight in the face.
..well, we went there and we figured out really soon that the location was a kind of a museum, people were expecting us and welcome us really formal and friendly. After a while we recognized a camera team is joining us.. taking pictures of us... filming.. and interviewing: How many cities have you been in china? Do you travel by yourself or with a friend as a translator? Did you have some trouble while travelling?
Do you like China? Do you like this place? What do you thinkg about the Chinese Government? What about their service?
We knew it was all about representing the foreign face for the TV.

Anyway, we've seen a historic temple, exchanged some contacts, got to know some people, got a free thermos bottle and too much money to pay the taxi. Hao de!

Dong Qian Lake - Fotostream

I was trying to write something about the last day of holiday, beginning with a introduction of the translation programs and the difficulties to use them in the right way, if there is one... but it didn't came as expected.

The "Good Morning, first of all a Photo..." post was inspired by Kwerfeldein.de, I think it is one of the nicest ways to start a posting :)

On monday, Fredrik, Emilie and I went to Dong Qian Lake in the near south of Ningbo. Nice weather, ocean breeze, suntan and beeing tourist - everything captured with our cameras.

(fredriks picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/hanfre79)