Funny what doesn't come in useful

[Guest tigronne]

Help !

For the first time in ages, I've landed a job where i get to practice a bit of Chinese. Unfortunately, I need some vocab that I never learnt. What are the colloquial terms for the following words ( and how I wish we'd done something else besides revolutionary rhetoric, legal documents and camel xiangzi- great as he is- at college).

escalator

wheelchair/wheelchair access

information desk

'pass' as in travel pass

valid/invalid

cheers

[skylee]

escalator -電梯 (dian4 ti1, electric ladder)

wheelchair - 輪椅 (lun2 yi3); access - 通道 (tong1 dao4)

information desk - 詢問處 (xun2 wen4 chu4)

pass as in travel pass - 証 (zheng4) or 通行証 (tong1 xing2 zheng4)

valid/invalid - 有/無效 (you3 / wu2 xiao4)

And ... would you consider buying a dictionary?

[Guest tigronne]

In the message I posted it says 'colloquial' chinese. I thought this would explain why I didn't use my dictionary, but it obviously wasn't clear enough.

Anyway, thanks for the vocab, I'll use it tomorrow and see if it works

[Guest Anonymous]

The translations provided by skylee are pretty standard. I believe there's only one way to say escalator or wheelchair...

[smithsgj]

dianti means lift, primarily. So a sign directing you to the dianti would be useless if you were in a lunyi! Use fushou dianti!

Where on earth are you working OP? China must be moving on!

Camel xiangzi? Do I detect a Leeds graduate?

[skylee]

No, both dianti and fushou dianti mean escalator. Elevator or lift is shengjiangji (升降機).

[Guest Anonymous]

No, both dianti and fushou dianti mean escalator. Elevator or lift is shengjiangji (升降機).

In Taiwan (and probably Hong Kong), dianti does indeed mean elevator while shoufuti is escalator.

[skylee]

In Hong Kong, elevator/lift is called "車立" (now this is ONE Cantonese character), pronounced "lip", a transliteration of "lift".

Some people do call it "dianti", though I find this inaccurate. Personally I prefer calling it "shengjiangji" or "lip" to "dianti".

[beijingbooty]

Modern Beijingese use "futi" to express elevator.

It is fairly modern term for bejing people. In the past they only used Dianti.

[Guest Anonymous]

In Hong Kong' date=' elevator/lift is called "??" (now this is ONE Cantonese character), pronounced "lip", a transliteration of "lift".

Some people do call it "dianti", though I find this inaccurate. Personally I prefer calling it "shengjiangji" or "lip" to "dianti".[/quote']

It's true that calling elevator/lift "dianti" isn't the most logical. After all, an elevator/lift isn't an "electrical ladder". "Shengjiangji" should be the most logical word for elevator/lift. However, in reality, "dianti" is generally used for elevator/lift.

[smithsgj]

Modern Beijingese use "futi" to express elevator.

It is fairly modern term for bejing people. In the past they only used Dianti.

To express elevator or escalator?

Anyway it seems to me a bit daft to put "dianti" on a sign pointing to an escalator when at least some people think this Chinese word means lift! Surely everyone agrees on that?

The discussion is not helped any by the inexplicable decision of the Americans to replace a perfectly good, unambiguous, one-syllable English word, lift, with a four-syllable neologism that sounds confusingly similar to escalator.