User Comments - hwangd01

Posted on: The Surname Code

Thank you, changye - I learn something new whenever you post anything! 金, 李, 朴 are so much more prominent, that I find it weird to meet other Koreans with the same last name as me, 黄. My dad told me that our name originates from China during the Song dynasty when a bunch of 黄's moved to the Peninsula. I remember the Cpod discussion about the controversy of the name of the said peninsula, so I'll just say "the Peninsula."

Posted on: The Surname Code

Thank you! It's unfortunate for me, that yellow is the color of cowardice in the US.

Posted on: The Surname Code

Jenny, how do you break down my name? It's 黄. It's not a really common Korean name, and people always ask me if I'm Chinese! I just tell them "sure, why not," and this confuses them greatly, since in the US, it is borderline politically incorrect to ask someone where they come from. Does anybody have 荒 as a last name? I want to try it out for kicks, since it is much more 神秘 than "yellow."

Posted on: Night Cat

About the ...的 sentences: Is the 的 part of the 是....的 pattern? If so what happened to 是?

If the 是....的 pattern is used for emphasis, what good does it do to omit the 是? In these examples, is the 的 used solely to indicate that the events were in the past, and not necessarily for emphasis?

Posted on: Weather Forecast

I was reading Wikipedia and read the following sentence： "Unlike Cantonese and Taiwanese which are syllable timed languages, Mandarin is a stress timed language (Avery & Ehrlich 1992) like many western languages including English." I was nonplussed, because I thought Mandarin was a syllable timed language. For example, in this lesson, the weather lady sounds syllable-timed to me. Her syllables come at you at regular intervals like a machine gun.

Also, what do they mean by stress in Mandarin? Do multisyllabic words have a stressed syllable as in \ˈsi-lə-bəl\? I guess if there is a 字 with a neutral tone, then the toned syllable(s) would sound stressed.

Posted on: Seoul

Hmm. Well, I think that once a name takes root, then it's really hard to get everybody to change that name. For instance, Americans call the city "Cairo" even now, and have not changed it to the more authentic "al-Qahira" القـــاهــرة. By your logic, we should have changed it to al-Qahira, since we can't read Arabic. The same goes for Krung Thep, or Bangkok. Americans have said Cairo and Bangkok so long, that it would take some sort of wide-spread concensus or public policy to have people change those names.

It is very easy for Koreans to pronounce and remember 北京 as 북경 (Bukgyeong), and therefore I don't think we would have changed the name to 베이징 (Be-i-jing) without some sort of official policy or public concensus. It would take the media, en masse, to started publishing 베이징 for this new appellation to catch on. I am not convinced by the argument that Koreans changed the pronunciation to Be-i-jing because many modern Koreans have difficulty with Hanja (汉字).

Posted on: Seoul

About the Korea- and Seoul- naming discussion, I just wanted to point out something. It seems, at least in South Korea, naming of other East Asian places has changed to reflect the pronunciation of the place by its natives.

Beijing: 北京 - in Hanja pronunciation, this is read 북경 (pronounced Bukgyeong). However, Koreans write and pronounce this as 베이징(pronounced Be-i-jing).

Kyoto: 京都 (in Hanja, this is 경도, or Gyeongdo), but it is now written and pronounced 교토 (Gyoto). 

Tokyo: 東京 (in Hanja, this is 동경, or Donggyeong), but it is now written and pronounced 도쿄(Dokyo). I remember my grandmother pronouncing Tokyo as Donggyeong, but my mother pronounces it as Dokyo.

I don't know the naming policies of South Korea, but may be a reason for the preference of 首尔 (Seoul) over 汉城 is that pronouncing closer to the native is a sign of respect? I also do buy the argument that 汉城 may show a subservience that the Koreans don't want.

And for the excellent response I'm about to get from changye, I want to say that I appreciate your knowledge of all things Asian (or maybe just all things, period).

BTW, I secretly like 汉城 over 首尔 because it seems more genuinely Chinese, which is the language that I want to learn. I also think that Finland is more authentic for English than Suomi, because of the long history behind the name.

Posted on: Tool Delivery

A basic question about measure words: When you see a sentence such as 给我把螺丝刀, is this the same as 给我一把螺丝刀? And if this is true, is there a subtle difference in what they mean? Can you use any measure word this way, such as 给我讲件故事?

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing

changye,

Wow! I must say that I am very impressed by your knowledge of East Asian history and current events. I am just your average language slut (can I say that here?) and would have never guessed that the Zha in Zhajiangmian (炸酱面)and Ja in Jajangmyeon (짜장면) are actually different characters. However, I have tasted both 炸酱面 and 짜장면, and they are quite different. We also always eat our 짜장면 with dakgwang (닥광) which is the same as Japanese takuan, and raw onions. Of course I like the Korean version better because I grew up with it, but I can clearly see how the Korean dish is derived from the Chinese one.

Oh, I hope you don't mind that I put my face over Dokdo ;-)

Posted on: Hungry Traveler: Beijing

Hi, I just had my Korean two cents to add to the discussion. The Korean version of zhajiangmian has a similar name, 짜장면= Jajangmyeon. It belongs to a type of Korean cuisine, that pays full homage to its Chinese origins. The name for this type of cuisine is 한국식중화요리, hanguksik junghwayori, which means Korean style chinese food. (한국식중화요리 are Korean words that are completely from Chinese, and you can probably guess the characters that they represent.) It has to be ordered from specialty restaurants, not available in your average Korean restaurant. It is a favorite comfort food for Koreans.

I've always heard that Koreans are extremely xenophobic, and was not welcoming of Chinese migrants, and that is the reason that very few Chinese remain in Korea.