So I'm back in school part-time now (at Jiaotong University) to take some serious Chinese classes, and the more I learn, the more I'm amused by the construction of certain Chinese words/phrases. Some are amusing, some are just great in how much sense they make. I've gone through a few of these before, but here are a couple more examples for you guys:
出租车: taxi | literally, "hired out car"
安排: organize/plan | literally, "peaceful rows"
中国: China | literally, "central country"
长鼻王: a brand of egg rolls called Pinocchio | literally, "long-nose king"
牛仔裤: jeans | literally, "cowboy pants"
味精: MSG | literally, "essence of flavour"
出租车: taxi | literally, "hired out car"
安排: organize/plan | literally, "peaceful rows"
中国: China | literally, "central country"
长鼻王: a brand of egg rolls called Pinocchio | literally, "long-nose king"
牛仔裤: jeans | literally, "cowboy pants"
味精: MSG | literally, "essence of flavour"
Some of the slang is pretty funny too:
做飞机: roll a J | literally, to make an airplane
我飞了: I'm high... | literally, "I'm flying"
Which leads me to my current favourite:
pangcha (I don't know the characters): Techno music. As in, pangchapangchapangchapangchapanchga... say it a few times and you'll get it.
The construction of certain Chinese characters is pretty cool too. Loyalty, for example, is 忠, which is actually a compound character: the top half means "centre" (same as in 中国), and the bottom half is "heart". Pretty fitting if you ask me.
Which leads me to my current favourite:
pangcha (I don't know the characters): Techno music. As in, pangchapangchapangchapangchapanchga... say it a few times and you'll get it.
The construction of certain Chinese characters is pretty cool too. Loyalty, for example, is 忠, which is actually a compound character: the top half means "centre" (same as in 中国), and the bottom half is "heart". Pretty fitting if you ask me.
1 comment:
Chinese characters are really cool. Sometimes you can just make out the sound of a character by not even knowing the pinyin. I think I told you that and learned it in Hong Kong.
Good job on going back to school to learn some decent Mandarin.. which you weren't doing. I plan on going to China after I graduate. Maybe I'll see ya there. If you're still there.
Post a Comment