Links before dishes

[starlady]

Via everyone and their sister, ephemere's post No country for strangers is eloquent and vital. Go read it now; I'll wait here until you come back.

...Right then! All fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender, check out this post by cedarseed, because you will love it and it is awesome. cedarseed is pretty awesome, actually; I've been reading her journal since 2006 both for her art and for her posts on Lebanese politics.


The rest of these are related to three_weeks_for_dw:  

torachan is hosting a comment fic fest for trans characters. There are a lot of prompts to be filled...

inkstone has revived the Small Fandoms Friending Meme. Add your micro-fandoms to the comments! I put up Their Majesties' Bucketeers already and will shortly go back for more.

kake is making a series of posts on how to read Chinese-language menus. Yes! I will learn how to order the garlic eggplant and mabo doufu (yeah, that's the Japanese pronunciation) and then I will never starve or overpay for a meal in China, ever. Victory!

shareandsharealike is hosting a pan-fandom polyamory comment fic fest. Needs more prompts, written and filled!

Comments

[seekingferret]

Thinking about reading Chinese menus leads me to have flashbacks about Special Delivery, a puzzle in the 2008 MIT Mystery Hunt where a Chinese menu was handed to each team. The typos in the English spelled out "WHO HERE CAN READ CHINESE?"

We called in the answer "NOBODY". Unfortunately, though we came close, we never managed to solve the puzzle hidden in the Chinese.

[starlady]

My written Chinese is weak, but it's one thing I noticed consistently in studying spoken languages, that the practical preparation the classes give you for actually living in that country is...uneven. I didn't realize until I went there that in China most restaurants don't have a menu; you just order what you want and they make it. And if I'd known that I would have made it a point to learn the characters for food items. Next time I go back I will.

[kake]

Here via the threeweeks feed — thank you for the mention! I do hope I haven't over-promised on this one... I don't know how helpful my tips will be for reading Chinese menus in Actual China, since I've only tested myself on London menus so far. Hopefully it will help at least a bit, though! Do you travel to China often?

[starlady]

The good thing about written Chinese is that it's the same everywhere.* But see above about how most spoken language classes just don't cover important things like...words for food.

*Actually, this isn't even true; the PRC uses simplified characters and the ROC uses traditional, and in other countries which style is used varies. It is possible, though, to learn the simplifications and be able to see the traditional version of a character and remember the simplified, and vice versa.

I have been to China twice so far, to Shanghai and Beijing for about three weeks total. I will definitely be going again, more frequently, within the next few years.