User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: Finding One's seat
February 17, 2008 at 5:29 AMHi aert, I am willing to admit that I cannot trick you! More precisely, aspirated “k” and unaspirated “k” changed into “q” and “j” respectively in northern Chinese dialects at the end of Qing dynasty era, therefore, as you pointed out nicely, an English word “king”, which has an aspirated consonant, should have been transliterated using Chinese characters with a sound of “qin” or “qing”, preferably the latter one. In that sense, “乞力马扎罗” (Kilimanjaro) should be a better example you would expect. And this mountain name reminds me of old Chinese textbook series “老乞大” (lao3 qi3 da4) edited in medieval Korea, of which earliest edition was published at the turn of the fourteenth century. It is said that “乞大” was a transliteration of “Khitan/Khitai” (契丹), which later led to a Russian word that means “China”. As to Canada (加拿大 , jia1 na2 da4), I guess that the first vowel in the word, i.e. “kae” or “kia”(?) might be an important factor in transliteration, since the old sound “kia” changed into “jia” in China as we already mentioned before, although “c” in “Canada” is an aspirated consonant. Maybe, you can find some basic rules for transliteration in Chinese, but with many exceptions as usual. p.s. Wow, I have just found that “cathay” (China) is also said to have been derived from ““Khitan/Khitai” (契丹)!
Posted on: 马丁· 路德 · 金
February 16, 2008 at 9:45 AMHi hannahlm, Sorry, I am still sticking to “金” here. As you already know, the Chinese character “金” in Korean language has two different readings, i.e. 김 (kim) and 금 (keum). The former one is basically used only for names of people and places, and the latter one for the meanings such as “money, metals, and gold”, with some exceptions as expected. I have always been wondering why “金” has two readings, despite of the fact that almost most of Chinese characters used in Korean have only one reading. I have heard that there are only about twenty polyphonic characters in Korean, e.g. 茶 (차, 다), 車 (차, 거), 不 (부, 불), 切 (절, 체), and 金 (김, 금). Unlike Japan, medieval Korean society succeeded almost perfectly in unifying multi-pronunciations in their Chinese characters, and most of standardized readings are said to be based on authentic Chinese pronunciations from the 7th to 10th century, i.e. in the Tang (唐) dynasty era. The Japanese kanji “金” also has two readings based on ancient Chinese pronunciations , namely “こん” (kon) and “きん” (kin). The former was imported from China around the 5th to 6th century, and the latter from the 7th to 10th century, which perhaps correspond to금 (keum) and 김 (kim) respectively. The unified Silla (新羅 or 新罗) kingdom (7th - 10th century), strongly promoted Sinicization to demonstrate their loyalty to China and changed the names of people and places from traditional Korean style to Chinese one, which is the reason why modern Korean names are very similar to Chinese ones. I imagine that Korean people at that time were required to read their newly created Chinese names according to then-current authentic Chinese pronunciations. Otherwise, their big brother, China, could have felt unpleasant. In the case of “金”, its authentic reading was 김 (kim), but not outdated 금 (keum). Furthermore, the family name of the kings in Silla kingdom was “金”, therefore I further imagine that the ancient Korean establishment intentionally retained the two readings, 김 (kim) and 금 (keum), for “金”, and they did not allow to use the former one for words that mean “money, metals, and gold”. Please be noted that the last two paragraphs are only products of my imagination. Anyway, I am very interested in “金”. Dear hannahlm, I would appreciate your asking your Korean friends, preferably language guys, about this, only if you later have an opportunity. Of course, I am not twisting your arm!
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 8:03 AMHi Bill, Thanks for pointing this out. Classification of parts of speech in Chinese is always somewhat confusing. An English word “now” is used as a noun, adverb, and conjunction, and likewise, a Chinese word “现在” might also function as a noun and an adverb. And I have just looked up some dictionaries. Confusingly enough, “现在” is classified as a noun (时间词) in 现代汉语词典 (中国社会科学院), but at the same time, 新汉英辞典(商务印书馆) tells me that it is both an adverb and an adjective. What should I do? In my opinion, “现在” should be a noun when you say “现在是几点？”, but I am not sure whether it is a noun or an adverb in “现在几点？”. What about “现在的中国”? 新汉英辞典 says the “现在” is an adjective, just like “美丽的中国”, but I do not buy it. I think that the “现在” in “你现在去吗?” should be classified as an adverb, but why is it a noun in 现代汉语词典, such an authorized dictionary? Chinese grammar might perhaps have a slightly different concept about parts of speech from those in English. I am more confused now!
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 5:36 AMHi boran, “现在” is a noun, but “下课” is a verb, therefore you cannot say “下课几点”, but you can say like this, 下课时间是几点？Its translation is “what time does this class end?” And one more example, 上课时间是几点到几点?, “what are the hours for the class?”
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 4:05 AMHi John, Thanks a lot for the advice based on your own experience. As you said, “讲课” might be a somewhat formal word, just like “讲话” (jiang3 hua4, speak) and “讲演” (jiang3 yan3, make a speech), although I often use the word “讲价” (jiang3 jia4, bargain) when shopping!
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 3:37 AMHi sushan, It is my understanding that both teachers and students can say “上课” (shang4 ke4) when they mean “give a class” and “attend a class” respectively. I think that the meaning of “教课” and “教书” might be more “teach at school” than “give a class” I would suggest that you use “讲课” (jiang3 ke4) if you would like to mean “give a class” from the teacher’s point of view. Anyway, I am actually not so sure about that, so let me leave the conclusion to other guys, preferably native speakers. Casie, come on and join us!
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 3:10 AMHi Chand, You are exactly right!
Posted on: I Have Class
February 16, 2008 at 2:55 AMIt looks like that the teacher (老师, lao3 shi1) in the photo comes from Taiwan or Hong Kong. As finally30 said above, today’s picture is very educational in the sense that the clumsily-written “你好嗎?” on the blackboard (黑板, hei1 ban3) really encourages learners (学生, xue2 sheng) to handwrite Chinese characters (汉字, han4 zi4) without the least hesitation. p.s. I am afraid that I have no class. 很遗憾我没有风度。 (hen3 yi2 han4 wo3 mei2 you3 feng1 du4)
Posted on: Study Abroad
February 15, 2008 at 8:22 AMHi nicolas, Another tip for you, “大学生” and “留学生” have no neutral tone, but “学生” has it. 学生 (xue2 sheng) 大学生 (da4 xue2 sheng1) 留学生 (liu2 xue2 sheng1) 学生证 (xue2 sheng1 zheng4)
Posted on: 马丁· 路德 · 金
February 17, 2008 at 7:07 AMI am not joking, but at first I thought that “信达雅” was the name of a great interpreter or a scholar in China. Anyway, I fully agree that fidelity, fluency, and elegance are vital, somewhat mutually inconsistent though, elements of translation in any language. I would like to boldly add one more principle “简” (brevity) to “信达雅”, especially when translating something into Chinese. My observation tells me that educated Chinese people tend to write “short, concise but profound” sentences, which I always think is cool! I am afraid that “fidelity” sometimes seemingly cannot be applied to censorship bureaus in some countries. I heard that a part of Hilary Clinton’s autobiography was deliberately deleted in the course of translating in China. It is a more basic matter than translation.