User Comments - pulosm
pulosm
Posted on: New York City
October 29, 2007 at 12:33 PMKyle, you are right that in Cantonese the word for soy sauce is generally 豉油 (see yau), which sounds like "soy", but this might have come from the Japanese "shōyu," I'm not sure. The first Chinese immigrants abroad where from southern China, which is why most Chinatowns (until very recently) where primarily Cantonese speaking. Following that, we get lots of name places from Cantonese, as well as food names. For example, 叉燒 is usually rendered "char siu" and not "cha shao." Also, "chow mein," (though this one isn't too different in Mandarin, either), "chop suey," etc.
Posted on: New York City
October 28, 2007 at 8:51 PM瑞士 is "soei si" (pronounced kinda like soy see") and 瑞典 is "soei din" (kinda liked soy deen).
Posted on: New York City
October 27, 2007 at 2:44 PMMastersenshi, Amber beat me to it! One cool thing about 圣地亚哥 (Shèngdìyàgē) is that the first word "sheng" means "holy" or "saint" so it actually is a translation of "San", while the rest is just phonetic. It's kind of a mix of phoneticization and literal translation! San Francisco is a little different, because the name literally means "old gold mountain," because of the gold rush and what not (I believe), so it doesn't sound like it at all!
Posted on: 中国的口音
October 26, 2007 at 1:59 AM还有“冇”的正确的发音没有那么高声，不像普通话的二声一样，你要从声音最低部往上到声音的中部起来。 你们那样发呢，就像“帽子”的意思。 ：-）
Posted on: 中国的口音
October 25, 2007 at 11:15 PMＪｅｎｎｙ和乐观， 谢谢你们俩！！！ 这个话题的难点在于“方言”这个词。有时你们讲的并不是方言而是描写某个地方说普通话的时候带什么口音。 其实一般上方言这个词对我来讲有贬义的感觉因为好像它的用法是来看不起那些不同的语言的。 FYI: 管粤语叫广东话是有一点不礼貌。这是因为广东有很多方言，不只是粤语那种。所以用广东话这个词来描写粤语会无意的得罪很多广东人。
Posted on: New York City
October 25, 2007 at 1:54 PM(1) Kyle, I don't know what you mean about "bastardized" and/or 方言. Until very recently, the vast majority of Chinese-Americans spoke Cantonese or some other "方言". Cantonese, spoken widely throughout the word, deserves more of a designation than "bastardized" or "方言". (2) Goulniky: 唐人街 was the traditional name for chinatowns throughout the word. As time passed, though, people began to use the directly-translated-from-English version, or 中国城. They are both still widely used, though, I think the former is used more in Cantonese, while the latter is used more in Mandarin. At least, that's how I use them. Changye, you are right!!! Except, do people use 巴士(bus) and 的士(taxi) in Mandarin, too? I just like to share with people who don't know that Cantonese has influenced the names of most places because they were the first immigrants. Even the words for Mexico and Canada are closer when read in Cantonese, though they aren't as drastic as 瑞士(Swiss) and 瑞典(Sweden)!!! For Canada, Mandarin COULD have used the "ka" for "ka fei" (i.e., just added the mouth radical), but they didn't! They kept the Cantonese. :-) One funny example of this is with names. Somewhere in Beijing I saw Ricky Martin (he was a popular Pepsi advertiser when I lived there) written as "lei ji ma ding", which is close. But then when I read it in Cantonese, it made sense, "Li ki ma ting" Ha ha ha! (He has other versions, too, now). What about Pepsi?! I just thought of this! Bak-Si sounds more like Pepsi than "Bai shi" does... Okay, I need to calm down. ;-)
Posted on: New York City
October 25, 2007 at 3:15 AMFYI: If you pronounce the characters for New York (Niu Yue) in Cantonese, it sounds like New York (nyoo yeuk).
Posted on: 休闲游戏
October 21, 2007 at 4:09 AM空闲的时候要念中文才对！ 电动和其他的游戏只是一种浪费时间的方法。 thanh hang: Vừa mới 失恋 không?
Posted on: Please Speak Chinese
October 16, 2007 at 3:08 PMWell, maybe if you are from France they will believe that you can't speak English. No one believes the French are capable of learning any foreign languages at all. :-)
Posted on: New York City
October 29, 2007 at 11:49 PMBtw, NO one in New York would ever use the phrase "big apple." ;-) Also, I vote LA as the best place to practice Chinese outside of a Chinese-speaking country. Maybe Vancouver. New York...hmm...not as much.