Yay NBC

I'm watching the Today show coverage of Beijing this morning as I'm getting ready to go into Temple. I am really pleasantly surprised to see Al Roker attempting to teach the masses basic Chinese phrases during his weather bit. Of course, he completely murders the pronunciation - qiao niao ("Bird's Nest") is "chow nee-yow," when it's really more like chow nyow (one syllable on the second word). Another reporter actually ventured out to the Pan Jia Yuan market -yay! - and negotiated for prices - yay! - and told everyone that most of the stuff for sale is souvenirs, not true antiques - yay! But she did the reverse, calling it the "pan ja yun" market instead of the "pan jya yu-an."



Better yet, Matt Lauer interviewed Da Shan! China's most famous foreigner! He makes jokes (in Chinese) about Western culture for Chinese audiences. It's like how Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock make jokes about Black culture for white audiences here in the US. Da Shan is actually a Canadian national. I have no idea what his Western name is, but his Chinese name means "big mountain," which is also a reference to "big nose."