User Comments - barryb
barryb
Posted on: Getting Nationalities Straight
March 16, 2008 at 1:38 PMHi, Kakyoism. Thanks for your reply. So, the characters used for names of countries and continents are approximations to the sounds. However, as Nevermind points out, there's usually a wide choice of Chinese characters that could be used for a sound (s/he? lists 20 that could have been used for America). It seems that the country names are nearly all friendly and diplomatic choices. There's been an effort to be positive. 1) Couldn't these characters have been used for continents, for example? 啡洲 - fei1zhou1 - Africa - this "fei1" is only used in transliterations (eg 咖啡 - ka1fei1 - coffee) 雅洲 - ya3zhou1 - Asia - "refined continent" (OK, different tone...) 瓯洲 - ou1zhou1 - Europe - "gull continent" 2) I've been reading Gavin Menzies' book "1421" describing Zheng He's fantastic voyages around the world. Seems the Chinese knew these continents long before the Europeans. They must have given them names, so what happened to them? Obviously, it doesn't matter what I think, these modern names exist. I'm just interested. Who decides these things?
Posted on: Getting Nationalities Straight
March 15, 2008 at 10:05 PMI love your toilet bowl image! The traditional character's even more vivid: here, the cross is three little squares. Diced carrot? Sorry, it's Saturday night in England.
Posted on: Getting Nationalities Straight
March 15, 2008 at 10:01 PMSorry, nevermind. I've just noticed that "vomit" is the archaic (古 gu3) meaning of 欧. Now it seems to just be a surname, like you say.
Posted on: Getting Nationalities Straight
March 15, 2008 at 9:42 PMThere's an interesting contrast between characters used to transliterate the names of countries and those used for continents (Chinese names and possible translations from zhongwen.com): Countries are positive: 德国 de2guo2 - Germany - "virtue land" 英国 ying1guo2 - England - "brave land" 美国 mei3guo2 - America - "beautiful land" 法国 fa3guo2 - France - "law land" 荷兰 he2lan2 - Holland - "lotus orchid" 意大利 yidali - Italy - "justice big benefit" 比利时 bi3li4shi2 - Belgium - "together benefit time" or bizarre/meaningless: 西班牙 xi1ban1ya2 - Spain - "west shift tooth" 葡萄牙 pu2tao2ya2 - Portugal - "grape tooth" (could be positive!) Only negative one I've found so far: 俄国 e4guo2 - Russia - "lean (ie skinny?) land" But continents have ugly names! 亚洲 ya4zhou1 - Asia - "inferior continent" 欧洲 ou1zhou1 - Europe - "vomit continent" 非洲 fei1zhou1 - Africa - "evils continent" an exception is America, but this is the same as the country 美洲 mei3zhou1 - America - "beautiful continent" Odd. Well, that's my view. Does anyone know any countries that prove me wrong?
Posted on: Going Dutch
March 13, 2008 at 10:44 AMEssential culture. When I listened to the dialogue I thought AA must have something to do with Alcoholics Anonymous. In British pub culture, we have The Round. Everyone in the group chooses a drink and one person remembers all the orders, goes to the bar, pays and carries the glasses back to the table. People synchronise their drinking and soon another person gets the next Round. This is one reason the English get so drunk - everyone tries to keep up. The Round is used as a test of character. It is obviously unfair because some drinks are more expensive, but who complains? Who exploits his mates by ordering expensive drinks? If the group is large, the evening will end before everyone can buy a Round, but do those who escaped make sure they get the first Round next weekend? (They better had!) Who's a 小气鬼 (xiao3qi4gui3 - a stingy/mean/tight b*****d)? It can be quite subtle. When I first went abroad and saw people in a group paying separately, I was puzzled. But I'm sure Alcoholics Anonymous would approve of the AA制 (AA zhi4).
Posted on: Insect Market and Having a Baby
March 9, 2008 at 1:23 PMThe other episodes of "Paul Merton in China" are good, too (links at bottom of YouTube window). Even if you watch nothing else, have a look at "The Man Who Builds Robots" - he's a true Chinese eccentric and a genius. And his wife complains just because he burnt the house down. Then there's Paul's chat with some women who point out that they have more free speech than Westerners. We're limited by "political correctness", but they can say what they like. Hmmm... not sure about that, but it makes you think!
Posted on: Buying a Newspaper
March 6, 2008 at 2:55 PMOf course you haven't! That's why Manchester Chinatown's better than London - it's aimed at the Chinese themselves (the only tourists in Manchester are lost). It's the area bounded by York Street, Portland Street, Oxford Street and Mosley Street - two minutes' walk from Oxford Rd station, and the library's nextdoor. Plenty of maps on the Web.
Posted on: Buying a Newspaper
March 6, 2008 at 2:19 PMBazza, have you been to Chinatown in Manchester, yet? It's the biggest in the UK outside London. The culture and people are mainly Cantonese, but there's Mandarin stuff, too. Should be less than an hour from West Yorkshire. I've not checked, but I'd be surprised if you can't get Mandarin newspapers. Even if you can't, it's great fun! Sunday lunchtime's best - no traffic and Sunday's when the Chinese meet up and it gets very busy. Go to an upstairs restaurant and you'll probably be the only English person there. Manchester Central Library now has a big Chinese section. Again, it's mainly for the Cantonese (ie traditional chars), but there's simplified stuff, too, I think.
Posted on: What's up?
March 1, 2008 at 12:52 AMBy the way, Clay, I've just been asking an English friend about Texas. He bought a Harley and biked round the Lone Star State. He loved it. He says he found the most generous friendly people he's ever met (n.b. he's never been to China). Bet you're homesick? 你想家吗？ Ni3 xiang3 jia1 ma? (Is the Chinese correct?)
Posted on: Getting Nationalities Straight
March 16, 2008 at 5:11 PMdaweidubolin, 圣帕特里克节快乐 - Happy St. Patrick's day - to you , too! Now there's one nice country name we can all agree on: 爱尔兰 - ai4er3lan2 - Ireland, which seems to be literally: "love you orchid". (I know these transliterations aren't really significant, but we do learn from them, don't we?) BTW is 尔 er3 = you ever used instead of 你 ni3 or 您 nin2, or is it archaic? BTW2 I've just been looking at the "St Patrick's Day" lesson from 1 yr ago. Lots of country names. Interesting that they DO change - eg Changye says the name for Japan has changed, it wasn't very nice, a long time ago.