Loan words you don't like in Chinese

[tooironic]

The other day my lecturer at Xiamen Uni was talking about how during China's opening up to the outside world, scholars had mountains of new words and concepts (mostly Western) that they had to find Chinese translations for.

 

She mentioned that she is not a big fan of some of them. The example she gave was the translation of the Christian concept of sin as 罪 (as in 罪恶) which may not be easily accepted by Chinese as it gives a connotation of criminal wrongdoing (犯罪行为), while the original concept only implies an immoral act. In her opinion, it would have been better had they chosen to translate it as 业力. (This is a new word to me, don't ask me to explain its exact meaning.)

 

So that comes to the topic of this thread... Are there any words you've come across in Chinese that have been translated from English or other Western languages that you think are a bit strange or you don't particularly like?

 

My contribution: the translation of "menu" in the context of computing as 菜单 has always struck me as a bit odd. But I can't for the life of my offer a better translation off the top of my head...

[Kenny同志]

選項單 may work for menu.

[anonymoose]

What's wrong with 菜单? Isn't that just "food list" which essentially a menu is?

[Guest realmayo]

yes, if English speakers can use the word without thinking 'restaurant' then can't Chinese people? Only reason I can think is that the Chinese word is rather building-block specific in that it calls attention to the food bit.

[Shelley]

I think it was menu as in a computer menu which is not a list of food.

 

It comes from the French and Latin and meant detailed list.

 

But now it is accepted meaning is food list, we have made the leap from food list to computer list of commands so it is not unreasonable to think it could happen in Chinese.

 

But as a new word could be created with a more precise meaning i think the opportunity to do so should be taken.

 

Because Chinese lets you take 2 or 3 characters and create a concept it shouldn't be too difficult too come up with a specific new word for all things that have been given Loan words.

 

A couple of my favorite new words for things are Electric Brain for computer and electric shadows for films.

 

Some loan words are specifically chosen to sound the same and mean something similar the best one that springs to mind is coca-cola.

[anonymoose]

Even so, I don't see the problem. We say "mouse" without thinking of the animal. And I'm not sure what it's called in English (router?) that is called a 猫 in Chinese.

[Shelley]

I think a mouse is a human interface device or a pointing device.

 

And I agree we can so why not other languages, I just thought it would nice/fun to devise words to mean the same but are original as it were.

[li3wei1]

We call it a mouse because it looks like a mouse, especially the ones that still have cords attaching them to the computer. So we are sort of thinking about 'mouse' when we say 'mouse'.

 

鸡尾酒 bothers me. It sounds like a kind of alcohol brewed from the parts of a chicken even the Chinese wouldn't eat.

[Demonic_Duck]

What would be wrong with “孽” for sin? I assume it's originally from Buddhism, so it's already a religious concept, and it seems the meaning is pretty close (just in the context of a different religion).

[Lu]

Someone recently told me about 是时候 meaning 'it's time'. That would be something I would never use. I would immediately reject it as 'not Chinese' (and use 时间到了 or something instead). But apparently Chinese people are starting to use it.

[Kobo-Daishi]

沙龍(沙龙) or "sand dragon".

 

Kobo.

[Divato]

业力 is obviously not the exact word for sin.

It's about the consequences of the good and bad things you did affect the future of you, like a karma.

@Demonic_Duck is right.

罪孽 should be better word for sin. It's the wrongdoing that brings retribution.

[Kenny同志]

Someone recently told me about 是时候 meaning 'it's time'. That would be something I would never use. I would immediately reject it as 'not Chinese' (and use 时间到了 or something instead).

 

No, it's authentic Chinese. Common expressions include 是時候了, 現在還不是時候 and 現在正是時候.

 

Take a look at this:

 

http://ccl.pku.edu.cn:8080/ccl_corpus/search?q=%E6%98%AF%E6%97%B6%E5%80%99%E4%BA%86&start=0&num=50&index=FullIndex&outputFormat=HTML&encoding=UTF-8&maxLeftLength=30&maxRightLength=30&orderStyle=score&LastQuery=&dir=gudai&scopestr=

 

Or you can click: http://ccl.pku.edu.cn:8080/ccl_corpus/, enter "是時候了(in Simplified script)", tick 古代漢語 and then hit the search button.

[daofeishi]

Languages borrow from each other, and that's just a fact that will be true as long as humans have language, so I'm not sure if I have a good reason to complain. Anyway, I still don't like homophone translations that don't give any information about what the object is, like 引擎 in 搜索引擎, 麦克风, 逻辑, 克隆, 摩托 or 拓扑 in 拓扑学/网络拓扑. I'm not sure what I'd suggest replacing them with. 

 

And I'm not sure what it's called in English (router?) that is called a 猫 in Chinese.

 

That would be a modem, nowadays usually a DSL modem or cable modem. Routers are generally called 路由器. 

[MPhillips]

人氣 (from Japanese)

[Kenny同志]

Anyway, I still don't like homophone translations that don't give any information about what the object is, like 引擎 in 搜索引擎, 麦克风, 逻辑, 克隆, 摩托 or 拓扑 in 拓扑学/网络拓扑.

 

Same here, 稻飛虱.

[daofeishi]

I'm glad we're on the same page, 肯捏同志 

[tooironic]

Well, we call a computer mouse a 鼠标 not a 老鼠, so I think that's a bit different.

 

And, yes, 猫 means modem not router, which is 路由器. I imagine it's called 猫 is because it sounds similar to the sound of the word modem.

[Kenny同志]

I'm glad we're on the same page, 肯捏同志  

 

Call me 可立.

[tysond]

I learned this a while ago, but my mind still boggles the word for logic is imported.   And humor.  And romance.

 

This is why studying Chinese is fascinating.