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May. 8th, 2008 05:07 pm

Because I don't actually know any German, a lesson on Chinese instead!

Today's VL clip has a bit of my current favourite kink which is Thore Christian speaking English! &hearts&hearts&hearts!


Ok, so I think Christian is only officially out to Olli and Judith at this point, but what would make Olivia say that he's straight? Because if I recall correctly, she knows everything that's happened up till just before Olli and Christian officially get together, asked for details about the first time Christian and Olli had sex, and oh yes, was the one who told Olli that Christian was totally into him and he should follow Christian and get him.

And ok, let's assume that somehow she became a totally oblivious person even though she was previously clairvoyant enough to pick up on Olli liking Christian and Christian liking Olli. So ok, she doesn't notice that Oliver and Christian basically stand less than two inches apart whenever possible and are both suddenly no longer angsting over their big gay love. But what amnesia pill did she take that made her forget that a: Christian has had gay sex before and b: was jealous that the guy he had total gay sex with was dancing with another man? Like, has she just not talked to Oliver about Christian at all since Olli and Christian got together and therefore assumed that all gay sex has disappeared.

Oh soap operas, your plot holes, they are so big and unavoidable.


*

So Thore + English (OMG &hearts!) makes me want to mention that my biggest random pet peeve ever is when tv/movies have a very very western language speaking person try to speak mandarin. I mean, I was born in China and lived there till I was six and I speak mandarin and sir, that is not mandarin.

Like the other day, I was forced to watch Firefly and there's this one scene where the captain rambles off something that's supposed to be Chinese and I watched it at least three times and couldn't understand a syllable of what he was trying to say. And just when a character is suppose to be fluent or at least know the language well enough, it really takes me out of the reality of the scene when they just can't do it.

So here's thing thing: Chinese is all about short, concise sounds. Like you know how in English, you can have two distinct sounds in one syllable? Like the word 'well', there's a 'woo' sound and an 'ell' sound but it's just one syllable? Ok, in Chinese that would be two separate words. So for something like 'chen', in English you would have 'ch' + 'ang', but in Chinese it would all be together.

Also, you know how English has a natural rhythm of up and down intonation in a sentence? Not so much in Chinese. Our intonation distinguishes between words. (I could be wrong about this since I know nothing about linguistics, but I did notice that the boyfriend pronounced my name weird because he went down on one of the characters and I would be all, "But it goes up!")

In conclusion, please consider trying Japanese if you need an exotic Asian language for your alternative ratings-friendly words: I am told it is much more pronounceable by those who know nothing of Asian languages.
[identity profile] gigitrek.livejournal.com on 2008-05-08 11:42 pm (UTC)

I'm going to go with "She was really drunk."

I'm more surprised that both Oliver and Christian could cuddle up to her a la John Candy/Steve Martin in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" and not immediately realize she wasn't quite what they were expecting.
[identity profile] frisbyg.livejournal.com on 2008-05-09 01:57 am (UTC)

*knows nothing about asian languages other than reeeeally hoping that the kanji on her back says PURE and not BIG HOBAG FROM SLUTSVILLE*

:P

SHPRECHEN!
[identity profile] euphorazine.livejournal.com on 2008-05-09 04:51 pm (UTC)

According to my little sister, my old school has started teaching Mandarin as a compulsory foreign language instead of French. Apparently speaking Mandarin is the only way to get ahead in the business world of tomorrow, and my headmistress has big plans for her girls. All I can think is that they are all going to be accidentally insulting each other when they get the pronunciation and cadence wrong.

My father worked in various places around China, Hong Kong and Japan for a while and said (and I quote) "I didn't want to try asking someone to pass the tea and end up telling them that I peed on their mother last night instead." Oh, dad.