Archive for March, 2006

Give

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

Cesare from Italy (!) requested the Chinese character for “give,” as in “I can give you a definite perhaps” (quote by Samuel Goldwyn of MGM fame)… lol.

Want to see this character embroidered on a women’s or unisex t-shirt?  Or on a women’s or unisex tank top?  Click the appropriate preceding link.  Got a translation request [...]

What’s the difference between “transliteration” versus “translation?” (FAQ)

Saturday, March 11th, 2006

“Translation” simply means identifying the corresponding word(s) in one language to their meaningful equivalent in another language (as you will find is the case with most of the posts on this site).
“Transliteration,” on the other hand, essentially means converting word(s) in one language to word(s) in another language by means of their close approximation in sound.  [...]

Platinum

Saturday, March 11th, 2006

Stephanie from Virginia requested the Chinese translation for “platinum”…  well, because she prefers silver and platinum tones over gold (oh yeah).

…  where the first character means “white” and the second character means “gold.”
This of course, was how it was translated for the longest time before the rise in popularity of actual “white gold.”  So more [...]

Fisherman

Friday, March 10th, 2006

Phyllis from New York requested the Chinese characters for “fisherman” to put on a shirt, as a gift for her friend who is a fisherman.  Isn’t that nice?

…  where essentially the first character means “to fish” and the second character means “man.”
Want to see these characters embroidered on a women’s or unisex t-shirt?  Or on [...]

Chef

Thursday, March 9th, 2006

Will from Virginia requested the Chinese translation for “chef”…  well, because he kicks butt in the kitchen…  or so he keeps telling me…  (I’m still waiting for some proof hoss…  *cough - hint - cough*).

…  where essentially the first character means “big,” the second character means “kitchen,” and the third character can mean “teacher” or “tutor.”  For [...]

Tai Chi Chuan

Wednesday, March 8th, 2006

Mike from Michigan requested the Chinese characters for “T’ai Chi Ch’uan,” which is the old school way to spell the characters below (using the Wade-Giles romanization system)…  it’s similar to how “Peking” is the old school way to spell “Beijing” (where “Beijing” is the more contemporary and accurate spelling using Hanyu Pinyin).

…  where essentially the first character [...]

Mother

Tuesday, March 7th, 2006

I was wondering when someone was going to ask for this!  Neil from the U.K. (!) requested the Chinese translation for “mother.”  Methinks someone’s getting a serious jump on Mother’s Day?…  lol.

…  where essentially the first character means “mother” and the second character means “dear” (again, as in “my dear wife”…  and erhm again, no I’m not married!  haha.).
Want to see [...]

Kaizen

Monday, March 6th, 2006

Cool.  Troy from West Virginia requested the Chinese characters for “kaizen,” which is a popular term used to describe a well-known approach to productivity improvement, and is the Japanese way to pronounce the following characters written in kanji / hanzi.

…  where basically the first character means “to change” or “to transform” and the second character means “good.”  The two words together [...]

What is “Hanyu Pinyin?” (FAQ)

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

There is no true alphabet in written Chinese;  instead a system of characters is used, with each character representing a different word or syllable.
However, Chinese can be written using English letters (called Romanization - conversion to a Roman alphabet).  The most widely accepted system for Mandarin Chinese today is Hanyu Pinyin, used by mainland China.
While [...]

Dream

Sunday, March 5th, 2006

Lesly from California requested the Chinese translation for “dream,” as in “dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions”…  (didn’t know I was that deep, did ya?…  buahaha, I surprise myself sometimes)…  and easy enough…

Want to see this character embroidered on a women’s or unisex t-shirt?  Or on a women’s or unisex tank top?  Click the [...]