a Taiwanese letter

[alekk]

Hi all,

I just came back from a 3 months long stay in Taiwan, and a friend gave me a letter at the airport, but he wrote it in chinese(traditional). Unfortunately he did not translate it to me .. Could anyone help me ?

many Thanx,

Alekk

[muyongshi]

Hi! Alex?? (literally ai li ke si)

Time has gone by really fast, (I) still remember the first day's [lit. sight or scenery] when I greeted you at the airport and now at the same place sending you off from taiwan. Were your two months of travel good? I hope you liked it here. This period of time I did not think of you as a foreigner but as a friend as we went (lists all the places you went and things you did) together. I also hope that you will like (confirmation on this part please... looks like 会喜欢 to me) and remember me your friend!

If you have a chance come to Taiwan again and I (will) go to France to see you, I want to ski (snow ski)!

[tuxoar]

Here is a rough translation.... I didn't bother translating the place names, I figure you should know them. And there is some sport that I couldn't figure out.. It's a start anyway!

=====

Hi, Dearest Alex!

Time really flies! I still remember the first time I came to the airport to pick you but, but now it's time to send you back home again. Where the past 2 months of traveling enjoyable? I hope you like this place! During our time together I took you as a good friend, not just a "foreigner". We went to so many places, Fu Sheng, Kunting, Ba Xian Amusement Park, KTV, some sport?,night clubs, motorcylcing, etc,etc. I also hope you will like and always remember me!

Hope you can come back to Taiwan! I really want to go to France and see you, I wanna ski!

Ken

[tuxoar]

a testament to how efficient this board is, 2 translations both posted within one minute of each other, lol

good work!

[wontonsoup]

in taiwan, they write with traditional chinese, why did this guy write 机, instead of 機?

[muyongshi]

Ha! Didn't even notice....

[mi3gai4rui4]

I've been told some simplified chinese characters actually existed first as written shorthand, because a lot of common characters (like 机）are very complicated in traditional. I would think, though that in letter writing one would be formal and use the complicated version, but I guess not.

[in_lab]

KTV, some sport?,night clubs, motorcylcing,

singing, pool, night clubs, ferris wheel

[semantic nuance]

in taiwan, they write with traditional chinese, why did this guy write 机, instead of 機?

Out of laziness. Too many strokes to write 機. There are a few simplified words used instead of traditional Chinese characters, like 國(国), 會(会), 靈(灵), 豐(丰), 體(体), etc.

Hope it helps!

[Lu]

He also seems to write 'R且' for 而且. I might be seeing that wrong, would be a really interesting abbreviation, never seen that before!

[semantic nuance]

He also seems to write 'R且' for 而且. I might be seeing that wrong, would be a really interesting abbreviation, never seen that before!

Iit never comes to me that I can use R for 而. It sounds neat and concise!

However, it's not R he writes. It's the right part of 歡.

[Lu]

You're right, I did see it wrong then. I kind of expected that :-)

[gato]

Is "老外“ miswritten as “若外” in the letter？

[gougou]

Is "老外“ miswritten as “若外” in the letter？

That's what I thought when I first looked at it, too. But if you look closely, you will see that it's only the two bottom strokes meeting where they shouldn't.

[muyongshi]

This is fun...people need to post more letters with poor handwriting so we can all do this again!

[Lu]

Don't know what your standards are, but I don't consider that bad handwriting at all. We're only misreading it because we're a bunch of foreigners not used to Chinese handwriting.

But it was nice picking it apart all the same :-)

[gougou]

I would imagine that that is not his actual handwriting though. This looks as if he slowed down because the addressee was a foreign friend (for once this word makes sense).

[skylee]

The handwriting is very good.

Regarding 'R且' , I have seen 'G肉三明治' in Taipei and I liked it a lot.

[cdn_in_bj]

I would imagine that that is not his actual handwriting though. This looks as if he slowed down because the addressee was a foreign friend (for once this word makes sense).

I agree. I think he purposely made it easy to read - it looks like it was written by a child.

[skylee]

it looks like it was written by a child

I don't think so. But it doesn't matter.