User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Paris
April 30, 2008 at 12:29 AMIt is interesting to see that “Paris” and “Bali” are transliterated as “巴黎 (ba1 li2)” and “巴厘 (ba1 li2)” respectively, both of which have the same pronunciation in Chinese. In Japan, people sometimes use “巴里 (pa-ri)” instead of “パリ (pa-ri)” to mean “Paris”. Gee, a bit confusing to me. 巴里 sounds more romantic to my ears.
Posted on: 撒娇
April 29, 2008 at 9:22 AMHi auntie68, I think that it might not be a bad idea to invest some money to your poor Mac before the free-of-charge technician comes back. Btw, please kindly tell me whether “manja” is an adjective or a verb. The translation in My Indonesian-Japanese dictionary is “甘える”, which is obviously a verb, but Indonesian-Chinese one says it is 娇 or 娇滴滴, which seems to be an adjective.
Posted on: 撒娇
April 29, 2008 at 8:48 AMHi auntie68, Congratulations on your coming back! Probably your beloved Mac has finally revived. I’m just an “ever lasting” elementary learner of Indonesian, and of course it was the first time I’ve ever heard the word “manja”. Then, I looked up Indonesian-Japanese dictionary and got the translation “甘える (撒娇)”. It is interesting to know that some Asian languages have those similar-nuance words that are not easy to translate into English.
Posted on: 撒娇
April 28, 2008 at 2:09 PMHi pituitaryadenoma, Thanks for your clear answer. I feel very relieved to know that there is no “mysterious (or behind the scene) grammar rule” behind the usage of “地” and “的” that only natives employ. You even sometimes see “得” placed after 状语 (be careful, not 壮语 but 状语) in Chinese written by natives on the Internet. As to grammar, I imagine that the same goes in any country. For example, I’m relatively picky when it comes to Chinese grammar, but to tell you the truth, I don’t care much about my own language’s (Japanese) grammar! And that is just why a native speaker is not necessarily a good teacher in his/her language.
Posted on: Signing up for Art Class
April 28, 2008 at 7:40 AMHi pituitaryadenoma, You don’t have to be so nervous about the word “国画”. It’s just a matter of relativity or distinction. I imagine that every country has the similar word. In Japan, people often use “邦画” to mean “films made in Japan”, and “洋画” to indicate foreign films without any “egocentrism.” Similarly, 国語, 国字, and 国文学 usually mean “Japanese language”, “Japanese characters”, and “Japanese literature” respectively. I don’t see any “nationalistic sentiment” in these words. Take it easy! As to articles in Wikipedia, I think they tend to use as neutral words as possible since people all over the world read them (in that sense, you might be able to say Cpod should have used 中国画 instead of 国画), but I see no problem with 国画 being used by Chinese people in their own country. p.s. I like and respect your thoughts underlying your comments.
Posted on: 撒娇
April 28, 2008 at 6:54 AMHi pituitaryadenoma, I have a question. You wrote “明确的表达” in the above posting, and is it also OK to write “明确地表达”？ Are both of them grammatically correct? Or, “明确的表达” is just customarily used among native speakers? I’ve long been wondering about this. Please help.
Posted on: Overseas Chinese
April 27, 2008 at 11:30 PMp.s. > Chinese language (汉语) might play > an important role in this issue. Please add "in China" to the end of the sentence.
Posted on: Overseas Chinese
April 27, 2008 at 11:24 PMHi pituitaryadenoma, I think the issue of whether or not the concept of “华人, 华侨” includes ethnic groups other than 汉族 is very delicate both sentimentally and politically. Ultimately, the answer to this question should depend on individual. I suppose that Chinese language (汉语) might play an important role in this issue. For example, Manchu (满族) usually identify themselves 华人, as you said above, probably just because they do not speak 满语 anymore. Of course, the fact that 清朝 (Qing dynasty) was the empire founded by 满族 (女真族) is also an important factor in this problem. On the other hand, Korean, as well as Tibetan and Uighur, still preserve their own languages. Just a guess.
Posted on: Overseas Chinese
April 27, 2008 at 12:09 PMHi auntie68, I’ve found an interesting article about 旧金山 and 新金山 on the Internet. As far as I know, “唐山” is the name of a Chinese city, which is famous for having once been hit by a big earthquake in 1976. 先有"旧金山",后有"新金山". 最早的时候,人们在San Francisco淘金,后来就叫那是"金山". 在后来,有淘金梦的人,又到了墨尔本,开始了淘金.为了与San Francisco区别,就有了"新金山".而San Francisco也就成了"旧金山".
Posted on: Yoga
April 30, 2008 at 1:38 PMHi eulloba, In fact, the pronunciation of “明” was slightly different from that of “冥” more than two thousand year ago in ancient China, the former is believed to be “miang” and the latter “mieng”, “meng” or something like that. I guess that their similarities should be a coincidence. Many of the etymologies offered by 说文解字 have been refuted by scholars after the discovery of 甲骨文 (bone oracle scripts) at the end of the 19th century. The most “plausible” etymology of 冥 may be “the sun covered, and a man seeking light with his arms raised”. p.s. The 甲骨文 of “冥” really looks like that!