Rainbow warriors

I finally have a good response for the Greenpeace activists I can't help running into. They always open with the same question: "Do you have time for Greenpeace?" Of course, my honest answer is that I don't have the fucking time of day for Greenpeace. But they're always such nice guys (if a bit unkempt and underfed) that I would feel bad saying this. Now, instead, I can tell them:

"Depends. Are y'all going to go to war with France again?"

A week without the Great White One: Day 3

Mym Bueb sy Hosesagg

En alti Käpselibischtoole
E Borpmenee, nadyrlig lär,
E Ryssbley und e Stiggli Kohle,
E Naasduech, wo gärn suuber wär,
E schimmlig-grien Stigg Kandiszugger,
E Glee, vierblettrig und verblieht
E Mässer und e Hampfle Glugger
E Loos, wo sicher nimme zieht,
Zindhelzli und e Niele-Zwygli,
E Billet uff der Minschterdurm,
E Luupen und e Schnurregygli
Und z underscht noon e Räägewurm
Was soone Gnopf - s isch fascht e Wunder --
Nit alles mit sich ummedrait!
E Sagg voll Miggis, Drägg und Blunder?
E Sagg voll Buebe-Sääligkeit! (Blasius)

(Available in manifold other versions.)

我太笨了!

It's official: Our Chinese class has now gone through more configurations than the average European cabinet. The only remaining original class members are me and Yu xiansheng, who's currently in Costa Rica for a couple weeks. One of last night's participants, a high-school freshman, set a new record for transitoriness: In general, the pattern has been that they show up for one class and never return; she didn't even stay for the whole class. Apparently, there was some misunderstanding about her background; rather than the two years of instruction Liu laoshi expected, she'd had three or four weeks. The other newbie studied a semester or two some years ago. He was shaky, but he thinks between coming early and asking his mom for help, he can get up to speed.

I had high hopes we could hit the ground running, since Chen xiaojie, who joined the previous week, is on fire. I mean, Liu laoshi always tries to speak as much Chinese as she can, which usually results in a lot of blank looks. Not only is Chen xiaojie unfazed, she herself can chat away. Just eavesdropping on the two of them is valuable learning time for me. I understood enough of last Monday's dialogue about Chinese books in public libraries to be able to summarise it for our high-schooler. But due to the cavalcade of interruptions, we barely managed to finish the lesson we'd started the class before.

I've gotten lazy about flashing my cards and, to my embarrassment, had forgotten the tones on some of the new characters. Fortunately, I can now say 我太笨--"I am so stupid!" Teacher says it's valuable not only when you can't follow a conversation but as a humble reply when someone asks you to teach them something. We've been learning a fair bit of polite talk lately. Have to say someone sucks? Liu laoshi encourages us not to use anything stronger than 不很好--"not very good". From what we're learning, the Chinese seem unusually fond of negative expressions. For "medium", they prefer to say 不大. Our text even translates 不少 (lit. "not few") as "many" without further comment.