User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Overseas Chinese
April 26, 2008 at 11:46 PMHi pituitaryadennoma, Thank you very much for correction and clarification! In short, “过关” does not necessarily mean “being proficient”, but “到位” does. And the former is often used in relation to a test or competition. Let me try to “到位” in Chinese!!!
Posted on: Overseas Chinese
April 26, 2008 at 12:20 PMHi henning, Thanks, you’ve raised an interesting question. Let me report the result of my “research”, though I’ve just drunk two bottles of “青岛啤酒”, with 葱油饼 and 韭菜盒子. The word “到位” mainly has two meanings, one is “take one’s position”, and another is “achieve a satisfactory level, have sufficient knowledge about a subject.” And the latter one is very close to the meaning of “过关”, but the connotation of “过关” is more “pass a test, clear the hurdle, and gain authorization” than “achieve something”. Of course, the two words are often interchangeable. Both “你的英语到位了吗？” and “你的英语过关了吗？” probably have almost the same nuance and meaning. Please be noted that you can say “你的英语学到位了”, but not “你的英语学过关了”. Now, let me go back to the kitchen and have another round of beer. Enjoy your weekend!
Posted on: 撒娇
April 26, 2008 at 10:23 AMHi huaihouzi, "Acting like a spoilt child" or "acting like a baby" are not so bad for translations of "撒娇", but both of them have somewhat negative connotations, don't they? On the other hand, it seems that "撒娇" doesn't necessarily have a negative meaning.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part I
April 26, 2008 at 10:16 AMHi daxiong, p.s.2 I’m not so sure, but “西里尔” might be the transliteration based on the English word “Cyril”, and “基利尔” based on the Russian counterpart (I don’t know how to write it down). The foreign pronunciation “ki” is usually transcribed into a Chinese character of which consonant is “ji” in China.
Posted on: Regional Accents Part I
April 26, 2008 at 10:06 AMHi daixiong, Thank you very much for introducing a clever find-a-word method by using Wikipedia! Now let me show you another word-finding tip. Firstly, you need to access Google (China) or 百度. Of course, other search engines are all OK if they have Chinese versions. Secondly, a) search by a keyword “кири́ллица”, you will get the following page, where you can see some Chinese translations such as 西里尔字母, 西里爾字母, 基利尔字母, and 基立爾字母. Luckily enough, you can also get “斯拉夫字母” as a bonus. a) кири́ллица http://www.google.cn/search?aq=-1&oq=&complete=1&hl=zh-CN&newwindow=1&q=%D0%BA%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B8%CC%81%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta= Thirdly, you search by keywords in Chinese, then you can see which word is most commonly used, at least, on the Internet. In this case, “基利尔” is more frequently used than “西里尔”, but it doesn’t automatically mean the former is more authentic than the latter. b) 西里尔字母, 西里爾字母 (Cyrillic alphabet) 72,800 http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=%E8%A5%BF%E9%87%8C%E5%B0%94%E5%AD%97%E6%AF%8D&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta=&aq=f c) 基利尔字母, 基立爾字母 (Cyrillic alphabet) 259,000 http://www.google.cn/search?aq=f&complete=1&hl=zh-CN&newwindow=1&q=%E5%9F%BA%E5%88%A9%E5%B0%94%E5%AD%97%E6%AF%8D&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta= d) 斯拉夫字母 (Slavic alphabet) 98,200 http://www.google.cn/search?aq=f&complete=1&hl=zh-CN&newwindow=1&q=%E6%96%AF%E6%8B%89%E5%A4%AB%E5%AD%97%E6%AF%8D&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta= p.s. In case of Google (China), you have four options when searching, 所有网页, 中文网页, 简体中文网页, and 中国的网页. I recommend you not to choose “所有网页” when searching by a keyword in English or other languages than Chinese.
Posted on: Overseas Chinese
April 26, 2008 at 6:48 AM除了华侨华裔之外各个国家都有许多中国留学生。 虽然身在异乡但他们仍然满怀对祖国的挚爱之情， 国家危机一旦发生华人学生就扛着红旗参加示威。 平时老实的中国学生一夜间就变为祖国保卫队员， 为了保护奥运火炬好几千个留学生就变成防御墙。 华人对民族国家的自尊心不得不让人感动和佩服。 跟中国人相比海外日本人表现不好就像废物似的。 人数不多嗓门太小声细如蚊爱国教育也远远不足! 毛主席曾说过人多力量大我认为他真有先见之明。
Posted on: Not on purpose
April 26, 2008 at 12:52 AMHi light487, I don’t think that young Chinese males particularly prone to cry or sob, on the contrary, I believe they usually try to fight back the tears so as not to lose face. 为了男子汉的面子, 我不哭，绝对不哭！ I also hear that Chinese people are good at keeping a straight face or a poker face, which I think is one of the reasons why Chinese are traditionally known for being excellent traders and negotiators. On the other hand, I saw 温家宝, the PM of the PRC, wearing an old jacket and talking to Chinese farmers, with tears in his eyes, several times on TV. It is tough to be a good politician in any country.
Posted on: Not on purpose
April 25, 2008 at 7:35 AMToday’s dialogue is very tragic, and today’s thread is full of comments about toilets and 厕所. 你们这样做是故意的吧！
Posted on: Ping Pong Nation
April 25, 2008 at 6:08 AMHi sophie20461, I didn’t know that 桌球 meant “billiard (台球, 撞球)” in China. I found a lot of web pages with 福原爱 and 桌球 on them, but it is highly possible that the word “桌球” was purposely used just because she comes from Japan, where “桌球” means ping-pong. http://www.tabletennis.com.tw/index_1.htm And judging from the websites below, it seems that “桌球” means ping-pong in Taiwan, as well as in Japan, which might be a leftover from when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. Btw, there is also the word “撞球 (billiard)” in Japanese, though not commonly used. http://www.ttxiao.idv.tw/ http://www.tabletennis.com.tw/index_1.htm
Posted on: Overseas Chinese
April 27, 2008 at 2:31 AMHi auntie68, I believe that you have been busy over the last few days. Btw, I found the same book translated into Japanese at Amazon, under the title of “華人の歴史”. What hitokiri6993 said is right. The book is really expensive. The price is about 45 USD, but fortunately Amazon also offers some secondhand copies of the book. It’s only about 11 USD, so it seems that I can afford to buy it. Interestingly, this book was published not buy 講談社 (kodansha) in Japan, but by みすず書房, one of academic Japanese publishers. In general, the books みすず書房 publishes are usually expensive. http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E8%8F%AF%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AE%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2-%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3-%E3%83%91%E3%83%B3/dp/4622033739