User Comments - selfcontrol2011

Posted on: Of Soldiers and Military People

I would be surprised if Chinese people even have those terms. The army/navy/marines are almost part of Amrican culture. It's natural for Americans to know most of the rankings, but I'd be surprised if Chinese people do. My guess is that they use 军人and 兵 99% of the time for everyone in the military

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with people adopting aspects of other cultures , or choosing foreign religions, or anything else of that nature. All I'm talking about is languages, in this case Chinese.

I think it would be a lot better for a Chinese speaking person to say " 我要去动物园” , instead of " 我要去zoo" . I think that instead of saying "你要写essay马”， it would be much better and proper to say " 你要写文章吗”

I think the communist party in China has begun to recognize this sloppy new form of speaking/writing and they are wisely cracking down on it. I commend them for at least trying to stop all of this. As others have mentioned, languages generally can't be controlled and historically languages end up rubbing off one another. Perhaps if Chinese people realize this, they can willfully avoid it and maintain a relatively pure language (compared to English, Japanese, Persian and other major languages) .

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

LuXun's thoughts on traveling throughout East Asia aren't related to this discussion.

Nothing can be done about the past (in terms of foreign words being used in Chinese), but the present and future can be taken control of

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

"I guess English is an extremely poor language by your standards. It really is a bastard language."

I agree with you : )

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

right, this is true. In addition to the languages that you mentioned, there are also many other languages from which English has imported words.

Kabob is either from Turkish or Persian

Karioke is from Japanese

Coffee is from Turkish and Arabic

Hummus is from Arabic

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

hey mate, I guess we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. We have different views on the subject, and neither of our views on this matter are going to make a difference. The Chinese will decide for themselves which words they choose to use when they speak Chinese

cheers!

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

First off, I never actually used the word "purity", I said the "purer a language is the better" and " it's better for a language to be as pure as possible" .

One of the meanings of the word "pure" is "unmixed", and that is exactly what I mean. I think languages should be preserved the same way that other aspects of a culture should be preserved.

I'm not sure if Australians use the word "lame" to mean "not cool", but that is what I meant. I think it isn't cool for a whole lot of loadwords to be imported into a language because I think languages should have their own words without copying other languages.

There isn't anything problematic about the use of Arabic numerals, however since China has its own numerical system, I think it should use its own system rather than using a foreign one.

(by the way, if in Australia you guys don't use the word "lame" , let me know what you say instead)

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

dui :)

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

I really doubt that the concept of waiting in line is foreign to Chinese people. I think that they just have a different idea of what is good line waiting etiquette. In the West, people are very strict about waiting in lines and aren't shy about let others know how angry they get when people cut in line. In China, people aren't as sensitive regarding this particular issue.

Posted on: Discussing Basketball Teams

I don't understand what the concept of 排队. Doesn't that just mean "to wait in line" ?

Japanese and Koreans used Chinese characters because they wanted to. In fact, Japan had to writing system whatsoever until they learned Chinese characters ( based on their own people's wishes )，　and Hiragana/Katakana also originated from Chinese characters