Simplified vs Traditional

Written Chinese has two versions, traditional and simplified. Traditional characters is the style that has been used for centuries, simplified characters were created by the PRC to increase literacy. Simplified Chinese focuses on reducing the number of strokes needed to write it. Not only does this make it easier to write, but it makes it easier to read when in small print, as some more complicated traditional characters are illegible in small type. For example, the word 'Taiwan' in traditional characters looks like this: 臺灣  Not so easy to see right? Let me magnify it:

臺灣

Even then its not that easy to read. Simplified characters make reading them easier by making them less complex. 'Taiwan' in simplified characters looks like this: 台湾

台湾

That makes it more clear, but sometimes the system does not make as much sense. 

There are traditional characters that are simple enough yet the PRC's system simplifies them anyway. 

Characters like 門 (mén) (gate) look simple, yet they are simplified to 门.

For some simplified characters, they are hardly different from their traditional counterparts. 

Characters such as 廈 (Shà) (skyscraper) are simplified to 厦. Can you spot the difference? The one on the left is traditional, the right is simplified.

廈 厦

The simplified one has the small dash on top removed. Wow! That makes it so much simpler!

Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas Chinese communities. Simplified characters are used in Mainland China and Singapore.

I personally prefer traditional characters because they are more well, traditional. But sometimes I mix them and substitute simplified characters when the traditional ones are insane like the example above.

For someone learning Chinese as a second language it really doesn't make much of a difference learning one system over the other. Its Chinese for gods sake, its going to be a challenge either way. The simplified system was created to increase literacy because they are easier to memorize and write for children who already knew the spoken language.

nasty words

there is an English slang word for white women who have sex with black me, so im wondering if there is a Chinese word that describes Chinese women who have sex with black men?

thanks

Pet.

Dear Pet

I've generally not seen ANY Black/Chinese relationships of any variety M/F M/M F/F F/M. Not even in the melting pot of the UK, thus I don't think there is. I have however heard this.

手指拗出唔拗入!!!!

When TCG's cousin bought home somebody my uncle's severely disagreed with not because of his skin colour of anything but because he was a freaking rich bum. You know the kind, the kind who is rich but only because of daddy. Btw I have no problem with wealth if you have made it decently, (unlike rentierism) but daddy wealth I hate to an extreme.

Anyway it was kind of like this scene out of the classic German film Festen



It sort of literally means finger bending one way, traitor to your own kind. Sorta.


There are also comparisoms you can draw from the distasteful Lou Jing incident.

Love lost?

Hi,

EDITED FOR PRIVACY

Is there something I can say or do,that Chinese understand to really show how much I love them.

J********

Sorry for the delay. But I'm going to be consistent as I am useless at relationships. Asking TCG is like asking me to perform brain surgery with a chainsaw. I also don't buy into manipulation (I feel that it is evil) and or tricks into getting people back either.

Unfortunately I don't have any constructive advice as I have said a few times Chinese people men and women are men and women first Chinese second. Therefore I don't really think there is anything to say or do which will change her mind and save the situation in the manner which you want. Since what will work with one woman may not work with another, but as said I do not like manipulation either.

TCG has been in a similar situation once. Whereby she phoned me up and told me she was going home goodbye... I was a stupid kid and made a grand gesture to win her back I took a shockingly expensive flight out landed less than 13 hours after the phone call. And I saw the other person... not nice.... In hindsight I could see she was saving my feelings by saying going home as in I've met somebody else. Much as other Chinese people will save face by telling outright lies but will reveal their actual feelings via their body language.

If anything if she is still around then I would ask in plain blunt terms her friends and or close family as to what the issues are and to see if they can be reconciled or not. As said women can be terrifically indirect and hint things. Add a dose of China with conservative values, body language reading and many of the reasons for the separation can be completely hidden from normal view.

Say No to Mandarin!

There is a war of words occurring in China. Literally. Since the PRC’s founding, the communist party has been pushing the country to adopt Putonghua (common speech) as a way to promote national unity. Putonghua is the establishment of adopting Beijing Mandarin as a lingua franca for all Chinese. While over 53% of Chinese already speak Mandarin natively, half of 1.3 billion people is still a lot. As a way to push Putonghua, the PRC government has banned using any dialect other than Mandarin in all television broadcasts, with the exception of Cantonese and Wu (Shanghainese) as they are the largest of the minority dialects. Non-Mandarin dialects are also discouraged in the public education system. Students can have their grades penalized for using Cantonese or other dialects.

Recently, the people of Guangzhou took to the streets under rumors that their TV broadcasts would mandate Mandarin. Many feel that the government is trying to replace all other dialects with Mandarin and that it will lead to a loss of identity.

While I agree that a national language is crucial for a strong unified nation, a national dialect is a little more of a hairy issue. In a country as vast and diverse as China, it becomes even more complex. In Imperial China, people rarely ventured far from their home villages (except for the Beijing bureaucrats). This resulted in thousands of dialects in different pockets all over China. It wasn’t unusual for the town over the mountain to speak another dialect. Ever since the Ming Dynasty, the government has tried to implement Beijing Mandarin as a national dialect. From then to the present day, it has been mostly successful. 53% of China speaks some accent of Mandarin but it took over 700 years. In the southeast of China, the mountainous terrain had isolated most communities from these national language efforts until modern times. As a result, lands from Shanghai to Guangxi still hold on to these pocket dialects, and they have firmly resisted Putonghua.

They still haven't got the hang of English yet

For all the ESL teachers who go to China. No offence some of them are good, however the majority are absolutely shit. TCG has met loads of ESL teachers with fake degrees or that they were hired primarily due to their skin colour.

There is also a phenomenon of fake CEOs as here TGC having worked in finance is sometimes employed to talk to these people and flush them out. TCG as said is THE perfect Chameleon in Asia. Ok I am not the crying freeman But I blend in everywhere and can pretend to be almost one of any nationality found in Far Eastern Asia. I.e my prior finance training and qualifications allows me to flush these people out incredibly easily as they use buzz words constantly which sound impressive. And because they are successful nobody dares to challenge him.

I mean if Bill Gates wore a fake watch would anybody tell him it was a fake watch?

More than once TCG as favors has been asked to sit in on presentations and ask intruding questions to such fakes.

Anyway what was I on about...

Ah yes The Pearl Necklace River Bridge.

I'm sorry. What the fuck? No seriously a Pearl Necklace?

The Urban dictionary says:

The glorious culmination of tit-fucking, in which you blow your nuts out all over a girl's tits, shoulders, neck, and, with any luck, chin. one of the highest expressions of love and affection bestowable upon a woman by a man.

Dashing Gent: Hey, I bet you'd look good in a "pearl necklace."

Big-Titted Dreamboat: Why, yes, I supposed you're right. Why don't you come on over to my place and baste my torpedo tits and elegant neck with your steaming hot man goo?

I can just imagine a CCP official being bull shitted by the architect. Ah a pearl necklace? You mean like this?


Oh I gave my wife a pearl necklace for her birthday!

Cue sniggering of the architects uncontrollably.

2017 when it opens CCP will have egg on its face.






*note the SOBs changed it to Pearl River Necklace while I was typing this up, still has the same connotations though.

Self delusion

Hi, I saw your blog as I was searching for the answer to this question. I have a Chinese friend who once told me about something she called "aku spirit." I don't know how to spell it, and accordingly I haven't been able to find an in-depth description of what it is. She told me it was a Chinese way of thinking, in order to deal with loss of an opportunity. For example, say you lost $20 dollars; the "aku spirit" (sp) way of thinking might include telling yourself that you spent the $20 on a nice meal and you thoroughly enjoyed it, in order to cope with losing the $20 and not worrying excessively about it.

Are you familiar with this? And if so, can you describe the correct spelling/saying?

Thanks




Dear Tobias

You don't give me much to work here, but I'll try.

This has been troubling me all week, in that I know how to pronounce this in Hakka and it shares a commonness (sp) with Cantonese too. This is familiar as language as my dad castigated me throughout life using this phrase but I can't actually remember the Chinese for it. And my dad isn't much help as he speaks to me in 4 different ways switching from Mandarin, to Hakka, to Cantonese to English often in single sentences.

The first thing I thought about was the work Ak, as you said Aku ~ Ak~ Ngak? 握 which isn't correct as 握 means to shake, hold or grip. It sounds a bloodly lot like Ak anyway but it is wrong as its usage in verbal form sounds correct but in written form isn't. 握 手 ak - shau ~ to shake hands.

Which is wrong i.e. 你 (you) 握 (shake) 我 (me). You go to a Mahjong den and somebody cheats if you say 你 (Lee) 握 (Ak) 我 (Knor), they will understand, but if you wrote it down they would laugh at you and correct you. The word I was looking for was 阨 (ngak) which means to deceive, this is a pain in the arse word as it is a borrowed word which actually comes from 呃. which again is (ngak) which means the same thing.

Hence initially I wrote: 握 (ak) 自(chee)己 (kay) ~ to trick oneself. But I know this is wrong, damned similar sounding words, the word I was looking for 阨 (ak)

阨 (ak) 自(chee)己 (kay) ~ deceive oneself.


I have no idea what the spirit bit refers to I've never heard it before there is also:

對…作出解釋；為 自己- which means to justify it to yourself which is more closer to what you were looking. I.e. I justified the spending to myself which isn't quite right again.

I've got to be doing something right now so this post may well be altered and updated shortly. However I am fairly confidence that 阨 (ak) 自(chee)己 (kay) ~ deceive oneself. Is what you are looking for my dad often said 不(bat)阨 (ak) 自(chee)己 (kay) ~ don't lie to yourself.


Continued the spirit issue, is tricky in that again subject to interpretation but what you posted to me earlier I think attitude is the correct saying

心态 psychology (sort of) (sam lay)
or
态度 or attitude (tai dough)

So

阨 自己态度

HTH (for now anyway)

Washing

Dear Chinese Guy.

I am Chinese myself and I watched a Chinese film The Knight of Gamblers, during a scene the hero is hypnotised by the special skill of Stephen Chow, and he imagines that he is seducing his female body guard 9 dragons. During the sequence she says "Sai bak bak," Which to my Chinese means to wash white white. While when after going to the gym and smelling awful my dad will tell me to "Chueng Leung," to wash ~ relieve.

What is the difference between these two expressions?

Gary Wong





Dear Gary

The film you are talking about is Knight of Gamblers starring Stephen Chow周星馳



You are correct about this in that there are two ways to say have a wash as follows:

洗白 白xi bai bai places the emphasis on washing something very clean, thus the repetition of the word( 白)bai ~ i.e wash white white.

OTOH we have an often used expression which your dad uses when he tells you that you stink and should go for a wash.

沖涼 chong liang means to 'take a shower' to cool off or refresh yourself
沖 Rinse
涼 Relieve.


The difference is 洗白 白is sort of a cuter more infantile version of 沖涼 , some girls and women who are grown up will say this to pretend to be cuter than they really are. This works for a cute girl it may not work for a not so cute girl, but then Asian girls have this ability to look Kwai.

This if you say to your girl friend and or wife. I wouldn't say it to a wife you've been married to for years as she would think you are taking the piss or something. Chinese women are like that.

Essentially if a woman asks me to 洗白白, I reckon my chances of scoring with her are 99/100 and I will tear her clothes and do her straightaway in the shower, during and after the shower.

On the flip side if any guy a friend, colleague etc, except a parent if you happen to be 5 years old or younger tells me to 洗白白, I will probably punch him in the face as I think he is trying to as we say in the UK pull me and get me in the sack to probably pound my ass. Unless of course it was the rare situation if say I were working in a laundry and a customer came in with some white sheets then I suppose that would be acceptable circumstance to use this phrase male to male.

Of course these are not the only expressions about washing but they are the most common and you didn't ask me about those either. Like 桑拿 (sauna) but it'd take me forever and as per rule 5 or is it 6 I can't be bothered with that.

Course this only applies to Cantonese, as Mandarin speakers in Taiwan or in China outside Hong Kong and Guangzhou will instead say xi zao ( 洗 澡)

Hope to have helped you out there.