User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: What's up?
February 27, 2008 at 6:36 AMLong time no see. 好久不见了 (hao3 jiu3 bu jian4 le) 好久没见了 (hao3 jiu3 mei2 jian4 le) I have not drunk good alcohol for a long time. 我好久不喝好酒了 (bu4 he1 hao3 jiu3 le) 我好久没喝好酒了 (mei2 he1 hao3 jiu3 le)
Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 7:52 AMHaving seen the above list posted by bazza, I have noticed that “--- ford” has been all transliterated as “福德” (fu2 de2), but an American automaker “Ford” is called “福特” (fu2 te4) here in China. I presume this is because the company selected “福特” so as not to be mistaken for a German car manufacturer (德国汽车公司).
Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 5:59 AMHi chittttywang3, Thanks for your supplement. Wow, I did not expect to hear “major cities? perhaps in the 1800s”, but you might be partly right. To tell you the truth, I actually half expected someone to tell me that Scotland is NOT a city. I found both 曼彻斯特 (Manchester, man4 che4 si1 te4) and 伯明翰 (Birmingham, bo2 ming2 han4) in my dictionary (not new, it was edited in the mid 1980s!) but forgot to list them before posting the comment. I think 曼彻斯特 is easier to understand than 曼城 is for foreigners, but natives might prefer 曼城 since it is more memorable. The same goes for 费拉德尔菲亚 (Philadelphia, fei4 la1 de2 er3 fei4 ya4) and 费城 (fei4 cheng2).
Posted on: London
February 26, 2008 at 4:24 AMBelow are the names of major cities in England. I think that transliteration is the best way to translate Western names of people and places, even though some transcriptions are a little disastrous, such as 威尔士, 约克 and 苏格兰. ---------------------------------------------------- (A) literal translation Cambridge 剑桥 jian4 qiao2 Oxford 牛津 niu2 jin1 ---------------------------------------------------- (B) transliteration, but 堡 and 浦 are selected very wisely. Edinburgh 爱丁堡 ai4 ding1 bao3 Liverpool 利物浦 li4 wu4 pu3 ----------------------------------------------------- (C) transliteration Aberdeen 阿伯丁 a1 bo2 ding1 Canterbury 坎特伯雷 kan3 te4 bo2 lei2 Eton 伊顿 yi1 dun4 Glasgow 格拉斯哥 ge2 la1 si1 ge1 Greenwich 格林威治 ge2 lin2 wei1 zhi4 Lancashire 兰开夏 lan2 kai1 xia4 Lancaster 兰开斯特 lan2 kai1 si1 te4 London 伦敦 lun2 dun1 Newcastle 纽卡斯尔 niu3 ka3 si1 er3 Portsmouth 朴次茅斯 po4 ci4 mao2 si1 Scotland 苏格兰 su1 ge2 lan2 Salisbury 索尔兹伯里 suo3 er3 ci2 bo2 li3 Winchester 温切斯特 wen1 qie1 si1 te4 Wimbledon 温布尔登 wen1 bu4 er3 deng1 Wales 威尔士 wei1 er3 shi4 Westminster 威斯敏斯特 wei1 si1 min3 si1 te4 York 约克 yue1 ke4 Yorkshire 约克夏 yue1 ke4 xia4 ------------------------------------------------------
Posted on: 陈冠希事件
February 25, 2008 at 7:35 AM演艺界简直就是魑魅魍魉栖息的巢穴。 一不小心连老练的明星也容易上圈套。 丑闻一旦曝光就通过因特网迅速传开， 总渴望好消息的老百姓高兴的不得了。 因为文娱界确有不计其数的美男美女， 特别是年轻人往往沉湎色欲可以理解。 但是当代年轻女明星如此不顾后果地 留下性生活的物证还是让人难以置信。 我平时只看人民网等比较严肃的报纸， 所以对黄色信息不大熟悉不过真奇怪， 揭露丑闻的第二天我就知道这条新闻。 我很怕以前的许多女友万一暴露照片!
Posted on: Bank Hours
February 24, 2008 at 6:26 AMHi John, Have you gotten a pay raise?
Posted on: Bank Hours
February 24, 2008 at 4:34 AMBelow are three variants of the word “ying2 ye4” arranged in ascendant order of complexity. From the standpoint of intricacy, Japanese kanji basically fall somewhere between simplified and traditional Chinese characters, which fortunately enables Japanese people to read both relatively easily. 营业 (Chinese, simplified) 営業 (Japanese kanji) 營業 (Chinese, traditional)
Posted on: Bank Hours
February 24, 2008 at 2:50 AMThere are some patterns of asking about business hours, but I still think that “你们几点开门? 几点关门?” is the simplest and most “communicable” way for me. “营业时间” (ying2 ye4 shi2 jian1) is somewhat cumbersome to pronounce and is not so colloquial. One of the principles of conversational Chinese is “the shorter, the better”. 你们几点上班？ 你们几点下班？ 你们晚上营业到几点？ 你们早上几点开始营业？ 你们营业时间几点到几点？ 你们的营业时间几点到几点？ 你们的营业时间是几点到几点？ 你们的营业时间是从几点到几点？
Posted on: Behind the Scenes at the Beauty Pageant
February 23, 2008 at 11:35 AMHi auntie68, Thank you for your patient explanation. I think I understand what you would like to say. It is a matter of mathematical theory of sets or how to define, i.e. narrowly or broadly, the word “kita”, which should be interpreted on case-by-case basis. “Kita” in your national anthem is “inclusive” only when assuming Singaporean people. If a Singaporean singer sings the anthem just in front of Singaporean audience, the “kita” uttered by the singer would be genuinely “inclusive” and rousing. On the other hand, the “kita” is non-inclusive, for example, when the Singapore national anthem is being sung before Indonesian people in Jakarta. At least the Indonesian audience does not think that they are also included in the “kita”!
Posted on: London
February 27, 2008 at 7:03 AMHi pena007, Nantes 南特 (nan2 te4) Corsica 科西嘉 (ke1 xi1 jia1) French towns http://www.fgdtz.com/bbs/ShowPost.Asp?ID=151 World nations and towns http://ct.natti.org/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=44&id=819 http://epizza.open.edu.cn/sbpage/plce.htm