新年好呀: Happy New Year

And Merry Christmas from blogcharm.com: to get into the spirit of the season, blogcharm decided to go out of business, and to wipe out everyone's existing blogs in the process--with no prior warning. (Perhaps it makes sense that a dot-com company would fold if they don't have the technical know-how to send a mass email to their subscribers.) But they're providing a great opportunity to get in on livevideo--another company they'll probably manage to screw up.

Fortunately, Google does a great job of caching Internet pages, and I was able to get back most of my entries. So I'm at a new location now, and once I've got the hang of using the Putonghua menu blogger is currently giving me, I'll be posting a little bit of old and a little bit of new when I get the chance.

What Does it Mean in English?

Here, I'll be setting up a glossary of just a few phrases, either hanzi or pinyin that pop up from time to time on my blog, so that folks don't have to search through pages of posts to find out one little phrase. Entries will be alphabetized according to pinyin. (Look for this page to grow.)

比胜客 (Bi sheng ke): Chinese name for Pizza Hut
不好意思 (bu hao yi si): Literally translated, "Not good meaning," this is often used instead of "I'm sorry."
等等 (deng deng): Usually translated as "and so on" or "etc.," this phrase sometimes actually means, "End list," as in "Three aspects to consider are quality, speed and quantity, 等等."
加油! (Jia you!): Literally "Add gas!," this is a cheer similar to "Let's go!"
可爱 (ke ai): Cute, lovely, beautiful, or (as it often refers to adult females dressed like children) cutesy.
老师 （lao shi): Teacher
雪碧 (Xue bi): Chinese name for Sprite
意想不到 (yi xiang bu dao): Surprisingly, used only for good surprises
外国人 (wai guo ren): Literally, "Outside country person"; foreigner(s)
找不到 (zhao bu dao): Not able to be found; not available.