User Comments - changye

Posted on: Dirty Little Hands

Hi bababardwan,

I think that's a very good point. Actually, "ri4" (日) and "re4" (热) are very rare sounds both in modern and in ancient Chinese. Please look them up in a dictionary.

In both cases, there is virtually no other character that has the same sound in ordinary dictionaries, which I imagin the two words were very special for ancient people.

For the record, the old Chinese sounds (上古音, used before 4th century) of "日" and "热" are "niet" and "niat" respectively. They are very similar to each other.

So it's possible that ancient people created the sound "niat" to mean "hot" based on the sound "niet" (sun). And Then later, the character "热" was invented.

Haha, it's just a groundless blind guess. Just for fun.

Posted on: Transliteration into Chinese and the Long Pinky Fingernail

Hi tvan,

I remember that there is a female Taiwan singer "欧阳菲菲" who was very popular in Japan when I was young. Furthermore, there are "司马迁" and "诸葛亮" in Chinese history.

There are only about 100 two-character family names among about five thousands family names in use in modern China. Top-100 family names all has only one character.

The most common family name in China is "王" (wang2), and there more than ninety million "Mr.Wang" in China now. Top 10 are 王、李、張、劉、陳、楊、黄、趙、呉、周.

There is the chengyu "张三李四", which means that "Tom, Dick and Harry", but it seems that you might need to revise it, like 王三李四, based on the latest research result, hehe.

P/S. There are about 290,000 family names used in Japan, a counry that has less than one-tenth of Chinese population.

P/S.2 Three-character family names are very rare. Most of them are used by ethnic minorities.

Posted on: Transliteration into Chinese and the Long Pinky Fingernail

The English name "Donald" is usually transliterated as "唐纳德" (tang2 na4 de2) in Chinese. So "唐老鸭" is an abbreviation of "唐纳德 老鸭". For the record, 米老鼠 = 米奇老鼠.

Posted on: Public Speaking Tips

As far as I can see, Chinese political leaders, unlike Americans, are not so good at making speeches, at least they are NOT spellbinders, even though Chinese people are basically very eloquent in daily conversation.

I think this is probably because that national leaders and officials, down through the ranks, cannot afford any “improper” remarks made in public, and they must have everything "properly" prepared beforehand.

In China, even a child interviewed on TV is very well prepared to say “nicey-nice things”. Having said that, actually I prefer those poor speakers to “gifted orators”, especially in a one-party state just like China.

Posted on: 古埃及

T恤 (T-xu4) = T-shirt

"T恤" (T-xu4) is not so bad, but I don't know why they didn't make it "丁恤" (ding1 xu4), just like "丁字裤" (ding1 zi4 ku4). Probably the alphabet "T" sounds more "cool" than "丁" (ding1).

Interestingly enough, “thong” was translated as "丁字裤" (ding1 zi4 ku4), but not "T字裤" in Chinese. I think  "丁字裤" is a relatively new word, and that is why it didn't use an alphabet "T".

I imagine that "T恤" was introduced to mainland China through Taiwan or Hong Kong, but "丁字裤" directly came to China relatively recently. Perhaps the same goes for "卡拉OK/练歌厅".

Posted on: Rating Restaurants on Dianping

Hi cmyap67,

我很高兴你相信我的话。
Saya senang sekali karena anda percaya saya.

让我们努力学习中文吧！
Mari kita berusaha belajar bahasa Cina!

Posted on: Dirty Little Hands

A public restroom =
公厕 = 公共厕所 (gong1 gong4 ce4 suo3)
Some are pay toilets in China.

Posted on: Dirty Little Hands

Hi checkingoutchina,

I have eczema on the lids. It often comes back when the air is dry. It's really itchy. 同病相怜 (tong2 bing4 xiang1 lian2)吧 (ba), hehe！(Misery loves company!)

好像我的湿疹又犯了。
hao3 xiang4 wo3 de shi1 zhen3 you4 fan4 le.
It seems that my eczema is coming back.

Posted on: Rating Restaurants on Dianping

我每个周末都去洗桑拿，洗完后在澡堂旁边的一家小餐厅吃晚饭，当然也要喝酒。刚洗完桑拿后喝的一杯冰镇扎啤比什么都好喝，天下无双！那家餐厅规模虽小，但是很干净潇洒，并且有一个很可爱的女服务员。她是性格开朗，爱说话的一个湖南人，姓陈，汉族，二十八岁，身高一米五十三，未婚。再说，老板娘也相当丰满漂亮，她是今年四十岁，已婚，不过幸好现在她先生在国外打工。

我是个很忠诚的老常客，所以和她们俩已经认识很久了。我每周一次在那个男人的天堂一边喝酒一边和两位女士聊天开玩笑，高高兴兴地度过很愉快的时刻，好好享受短暂的虚拟青春。大家千万不要乱想，不要误会，我根本就没有做过坏事，也没有那样的打算。假如万一我在中国有个外遇，我家小胖狗“间谍”一定会向“日本当局”密告。我从小胆子就特小，自然不敢破坏“中日友好关系”。

那家小餐厅对我来说就是个三星级餐厅！

Posted on: Rating Restaurants on Dianping

According to the info I've just found on the Internet, there were several region's cuisines popluar in Shanghai in the past and they were called like, e.g. "苏帮菜" or "徽帮菜". And 上海菜 was called “本帮菜”, which literally means "local group cuisine". It makes sense.