User Comments - changye
changye
Posted on: 马丁· 路德 · 金
March 9, 2010 at 1:32 AMHi miiszhah
“金” (jin) is a transliteration of “king”. Unfortunately, modern Mandarin doesn't have the sound "ki", exactly speaking, the sound "ki" changed into "ji" in northern dialects, including Mandarin, a few hundred years ago. Furthermore, if you used the character “王” for the translation, Chinese people would mistakenly think that Martin Luther King is the king of a county in the world.
Posted on: Flying a Kite
March 9, 2010 at 1:23 AMHi Bill
That's an incredible website, thanks. My chubby dog never gets away from the PC now, hehe.
Posted on: Flying a Kite
March 8, 2010 at 12:26 PMHi kostang
In fact, the previous sentence “看你高兴的” is the very reason why “不过” is used there. Let me give you a more explanatory translation of the line,
看你高兴的。不过，今天风不大不小，很适合放风筝。
You look really happy, but (it's understandable), because the wind is just right today, and it's really good for flying a kite.
For the record, “不过” is often simply translated as "but", but it sometimes connotes "having said that".
Posted on: Flying a Kite
March 8, 2010 at 11:41 AM我家的小胖狗是母的，名字叫“芭迪”(Patty)，自称是西施犬，今年八周岁，体重十八斤，单身，处女，当然没下过崽子，现在急觅一条健壮的公狗，品种不限，年龄不限，婚历不限，非诚勿扰！
Posted on: Finding One's seat
March 8, 2010 at 11:25 AMHi go_manly
It seems that I haven't made any progress in the past two years, hehe. I still have no idea about the issue.
Posted on: Flying a Kite
March 8, 2010 at 9:46 AM很遗憾，我家狗狗的减肥总是失败。
Posted on: Flying a Kite
March 8, 2010 at 9:27 AM我希望你几年后还能穿那件衣服！我五六年前买的衣服，现在都穿不了了，这不是因为我胖了，而是因为我瘦了十二斤。
Posted on: Flying a Kite
March 8, 2010 at 8:47 AM“筝” means “古琴” (a harp), so it's interesting that “风筝” (a wind harp) indicates "a kite" in Chinese. Actually, some kites had a small bamboo whistle on them and they made sounds like a harp in the sky, and this is the reason a kite is called "风筝" in Chinese. I don't know why it's not called “风笛”, hehe.
P/S. Probably China also has a kite fighting. "Fight" is "争" (zheng1) in Chinese, and I guess it might also has something to do with the name “风筝” (feng1 zheng). In other words, the “筝” in “风筝” implies two things, namely a musical instrument and fighting. Just a guess.
Posted on: Dumb Joke
March 8, 2010 at 6:34 AMLet me translate connie's answer into (clumsy) English.
“讲” and “说” are both OK. They are usually interchangeable in many cases, but you have to use “讲” for some fixed expressions, such as “讲道理”, “讲卫生”, and “讲文明”. (These “讲” means "pay attention", which is the same as “讲究”)
Posted on: 马丁· 路德 · 金
March 9, 2010 at 3:29 AMHi bodawei
"The historical change from ki into ji" suggests that the two sounds are still similar to each other for native Chinese, and this is the reason that "ji" is one of the best choices for the transliteration of "ki" used in foreign words, such as Kissinger (基辛格), Kiev (基辅), Kirchhoff (基尔霍夫), and Kipling (吉卜林).