Murray Posted May 20, 2012 at 02:27 AM Report Posted May 20, 2012 at 02:27 AM While I was doing vocab drills today I came across: 泄泻 (xiè xiè) = to have the runs, diarrhea This made me absolutely horrified at first because I started imagining all the times when I first started studying that I must've said "diarrhea" instead of "thank you", when it dawned on me that I've never heard 泄泻 spoken aloud before. When talking about diaherra, Chinese just use 拉肚子. The only example sentences I can find that include 泄泻 sound very technical and apart of medical jargon instead of everyday speech. Any thoughts? Quote
roddy Posted May 28, 2012 at 11:51 AM Author Report Posted May 28, 2012 at 11:51 AM 自缢, zìyì, to hang yourself, from a BBC headline. Quote
renzhe Posted May 28, 2012 at 05:41 PM Report Posted May 28, 2012 at 05:41 PM This made me absolutely horrified at first because I started imagining all the times when I first started studying that I must've said "diarrhea" instead of "thank you", when it dawned on me that I've never heard 泄泻 spoken aloud before. That will teach you the importance of the neutral tone! Quote
Sarevok Posted May 29, 2012 at 09:00 AM Report Posted May 29, 2012 at 09:00 AM Roddy's post made me think of 自刎 zi4wen3, which means to slit your own throat... Quote
anonymoose Posted May 29, 2012 at 10:26 AM Report Posted May 29, 2012 at 10:26 AM Sarevok's post made me think of 自阉 zi4yan1, which means to chop your own nads off... Quote
skylee Posted May 29, 2012 at 12:26 PM Report Posted May 29, 2012 at 12:26 PM I thought I saw 白宮. 1 Quote
xiaocai Posted May 30, 2012 at 01:17 PM Report Posted May 30, 2012 at 01:17 PM 欲练神功，挥刀白宫? I think it would be hard to kidnap the US president than to castrate oneself... Quote
skylee Posted June 1, 2012 at 01:14 PM Report Posted June 1, 2012 at 01:14 PM I am watching a BBC programme called the Diamond Queen, in which a Garter ceremony was shown briefly. According to the subtitles the ceremony (and thus also the medal) is called 嘉德, which I think is a splendid translation. Quote
jbradfor Posted June 2, 2012 at 03:46 PM Report Posted June 2, 2012 at 03:46 PM 彩虹 -- rainbow. I just realized last night I had absolutely no idea what the word for rainbow is. I assumed there'd be a 光 in it, but apparently not. 虹 really surprised me. I would have thought it was some type of 虫. As an aside, I was at the 虹桥 Airport in Shanghai just last month. I must really have not been paying attention, as I read it as "red bridge", not "rainbow bridge". Don't think I'll make that mistake again. As another aside, 虹彩 seems to be "iris" (the part of the eye), at least in Japanese. I only know this because I went to google images to confirm 彩虹, entered it backwards, and rather than pretty pictures of rainbows I saw pictures of eye surgery. I was very surprised! Quote
anonymoose Posted June 2, 2012 at 04:03 PM Report Posted June 2, 2012 at 04:03 PM 叾 A virtual beer to anyone who can guess correctly the pinyin for this character. Quote
imron Posted June 3, 2012 at 01:40 AM Report Posted June 3, 2012 at 01:40 AM I never would have guessed that Quote
heifeng Posted June 6, 2012 at 02:51 AM Report Posted June 6, 2012 at 02:51 AM Not a new word, but it keeps re-appearing in my leisurely newspaper reading (such as here:「裸官」普遍 中共信心大危機) And surprisingly isn't on this lovely forum or thread quite yet....so, there is only one thing to do, add to the random word fun! 裸官 luo3guan1= "Naked official". 'NAKED what?!' you may be asking. Nope, we're not talking Weinergate style 'naked' here . Rather this type of 'Naked official' is described as follows (also reference wikipedia site for an explanation ) Naked official (Chinese: 裸体官员; pinyin: luǒtǐ guānyuán) or (abbreviation; Hanzi: 裸官 Pinyin: luǒ guān) refers to Chinese Communist Party officials who stay in mainland China while their wives and children reside abroad. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has reported that from the beginning of reform and opening in 1978 to 2003 about 4,000 corrupt officials left China, taking at least $50 billion out of the country; often spouses and children went first. The government is setting up stricter monitoring systems to decrease the practice. Quote
skylee Posted June 6, 2012 at 12:14 PM Report Posted June 6, 2012 at 12:14 PM I am watching a Nigel Slater programme and he calls 粉絲 glass noodles. This is new to me, the English term I mean. Quote
jbradfor Posted June 6, 2012 at 01:43 PM Report Posted June 6, 2012 at 01:43 PM Yes, 粉絲 seems to have several common translations. I often seen bean thread or Chinese vermicelli as well. Wikipedia has them listed under Cellophane noodles, which I personally don't recall seeing very often, but that might just be me not paying attention. Back to Chinese, I wasn't aware that it had so many Chinese names. I'm only aware of 粉絲, but they list 冬粉, 細粉, and 線粉 as well. I also always thought they were only made out of mung bean, but wikipedia lists more types of starches as well. Quote
skylee Posted June 11, 2012 at 11:28 PM Report Posted June 11, 2012 at 11:28 PM 被自殺 (bèizìshā) - a death claimed to be a suicide by the authorities Quote
skylee Posted June 20, 2012 at 11:15 AM Report Posted June 20, 2012 at 11:15 AM iBond (aka inflation-linked retail bond) - 通漲掛勾債券 Quote
anonymoose Posted June 20, 2012 at 11:43 AM Report Posted June 20, 2012 at 11:43 AM 灵芝 língzhī ： glossy ganoderma Quote
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