User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Gong Xi Fa Cai!
January 26, 2009 at 3:10 AMThere is even a song titled "恭喜发财" in China. Chinese people really love this phrase.
恭喜发财 （by 刘德华）
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy1cE-LWyRg
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 26, 2009 at 2:01 AMHi kdombros,
The Chinese custom you referred to is called "坐月子" (zuo4 yue4 zi). According to the Wiki article, it's "做(do)月子", but not “坐(sit)”, in some southern dialects. So it's possible that the right one is "做月子" since in general old words are still well preserved in dialects.
I don't agree with this assumption. Using "坐" (sit) also makes sense, and furthermore, in ancient Chinese "坐" also meant "不劳，不费力" (do not labor). This custom seems to have a very long history in China, but the character "做" was created only one thousand years or so ago.
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9D%90%E6%9C%88%E5%AD%90
Posted on: Chinese New Year News
January 25, 2009 at 4:01 PM中国有一种神秘动物叫"四不像"。这其实是"麋鹿"。可没想到，中国还有"六不像"。据说这是一种牛叫"金毛羚牛"。因为今年是丑年，这个有金毛的"吉祥动物"在中国受到注目。祝大家牛年快乐，牛奶安全！
http://news.66wz.com/system/2009/01/12/101095525.shtml
Posted on: Slang-ular Momentum
January 25, 2009 at 3:15 PMWhen I was young, more than twenty years ago, I used to send messages to the US by telex every day, where a lot of abbreviations were used in order to reduce the number of characters and save telex fee. Using such jargons and abbreviations made myself feel "professional" at that time, haha. This lesson just reminded me of my good old days. tks.
Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac
January 25, 2009 at 2:12 PMHi zhenlijiang,
You guessed it right. I'm going to 包饺子 with some of my friends in about an hour. I can hear the sounds of Chinese firecrackers (鞭炮) outside now. My friends are watching 春节晚会, but I must say it's just as boring as 紅白歌合戦 in Japan.
The last line in your above comment reminds me of "じゃじゃ馬億万長者" (The Beverly Hillbillies), a famous American comedy drama I often saw when I was a child in 1960s. Maybe "じゃじゃ馬" (a restive horse) could be translated as "男人婆" in Chinese.
それにしても「じゃじゃ馬の相」とは、さすがに丙午だけのことはありますな、ご本人は承服していない模様ですが。笑 私の「ひのえ馬」の妻も子供のころはかなりの「お転婆」だったようです。では、日本人にとりましては今年二回目となりますが、よい年をお迎えください。
Posted on: Chinese New Year News
January 25, 2009 at 1:33 PM悲喜交集的一年快要过去了。祝大家春节快乐，有更美好的生活！
Posted on: Birth by Chinese Zodiac
January 25, 2009 at 1:13 PMHi zhenlijiang,
You are very right. Nobody knows that even the Big Bang theory can survive the 21st century. What really matters is an inquiring mind of human beings. That said, in reality, I'm just busy digesting and memorizing something other clever guys offers, often without thinking for myself, haha.
By the way, I have an interesting book titled "汉字中的动物" (Animals in Chinese characters), where the author explains a person's typical character based on zodiac animals. Of course, it's merely superstition, but studying the cultural aspect and history of superstition is a social science.
The author says the people belong to "午马" (horse, your animal) is 灵魂自由的忙人，奔放洒脱，志在千里，喜欢表达自己，具有梦想，具有独立精神，自信心强，待人和气，精力充沛，但有时显得比较急躁和鲁莽。不喜欢受任何限制的人，老说"我反对.....。" 属马的人天性具有叛逆的成分，生性不服输。在感情上喜欢独享秘密，不愿受人管教。缺点：自负，不考虑他人的观点。优点：洞察力强，自制力强。 It's not so bad.
I belong to 亥豕 (pig), and "my character" is 无拘无束的游人，坦率，洒脱，温顺，大度，有福，温和而又与人为善的猪老说，"我喜欢.....。" 属猪的人总是追求舒适的生活，总怕没有安全感，注重物质享受。属猪的人表面温顺，但又有其刚毅的一面。"毅"字中就有"豕"。属猪的人坚韧不拔，勇往直前的拼劲。缺点：有些优柔寡断。优点：刚毅淳朴，心地善良。 Wow, I didn't know I was 淳朴 and 善良！
All I can say is that "a horse" and "a pig" can get along very well, at least, at my home. My wife is "火马", just like you, haha.
Posted on: Slang-ular Momentum
January 25, 2009 at 11:13 AMRegarding "囧" (jiong3), actually its ancient shape in small seal characters (小篆书) looks much more distressed (and hilarious!) than one in modern Chinese. Ironically enough, the original meaning of this character is "bright".
http://chinese-characters.org/meaning/5/56E7.html
Posted on: Lucky Duckies
January 25, 2009 at 9:11 AMHi lavender 86,
The pronounciation of "u" in the four pinyin marks "jun", "qun", "xun" and "yun" are slightly different from that in other marks such as "tun", "lun" and "shun". The former one is "ü", as you expected, and the latter one is "u". In short, "ü" is pronounced with more pursed lips than "u".
Posted on: Pregnancy Series 2: Pregnancy House Ar-rest
January 26, 2009 at 3:20 AMHi leeht,
Both "把门关上" and "把门带上" basically have the same meaning. Dictionary-wise, "带" implies "顺便 do something" (顺便 = in passing, conveniently, incidentally). Actually, the word "顺便" is very difficult to translate into English, while there is an exact counterpart in Japanese, "ついでに".