Extreme Mandarin

Back II: Back With a Vengeance

2009-06-21T04:26:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to say I'm finally back to posting updates on this blog, after having had a terribly busy May and June with exams and translation work. Blogging, a word whose mere mention evokes images of Cheeto dust being smeared over a Macbook bought on unemployment benefits, is actually pretty hard work, especially when you're a non-native English speaker like me and you have to spend time thinking of trite jokes to spice up your entries.

As always, I welcome any suggestions and requests for material to post here: the best part of blogging is when you find out that there are actually people out there who want to read your stuff, and the encouraging comments from the people who read this blog are what makes me continue doing it. Thank you so much, I'll work hard to provide interesting content to read over the course of this summer.

Game Review: Cave Story (洞窟物語)

2009-06-21T04:23:00.000-07:00

Level: Advanced Beginner/Intermediate
Characters: Simplified/Traditional
Pros:

Wonderfully entertaining game with a simple and compelling storyline.
Perfect for when you don't want to read mountains of text and just want a game to relax with while learning some Chinese in-between.

Cons:

None I can think of.

Where to find it:
Simplified
Traditional

Cave Story, an internet favorite and possibly one of the best (if not the best) freeware games available for the PC, is testament to how far one man's dedication can take him, and should serve as a model project for any wannabe game designer out there. Everything you see and hear in the game was made by Japanese software engineer Daisuke Amaya working on his own over a period of five years, an amazing feat considering the length and polish of the game.

The game is a platformer with exploration elements, illustrated in a cutesy pixel art style reminiscent of 16-bit SNES and Genesis games. You play a young amnesiac robot thrust into a conflict between the peaceful Mimigas and an evil doctor who kidnaps them to perform experiments, without revealing too much I can say that this simple plot outline develops in interesting directions and continually finds new ways to make the gameplay fun and challenging (without getting frustrating).

Enemies drop power-ups when they die, which upgrade the weapon you are holding when you pick them up, up to a maximum of three levels. If you take damage, however, the weapon's level will decrease and you will have to get new power-ups to get it back up again.

Two translations for Chinese are available, for this review I played the Traditional Chinese translation by chowleft, but there is also a Simplified translation available by Hydrowing. I would love to hear some comments about the simplified version, if any of you out there have played it, by all means feel free to leave a comment.

Need some recommendations for linguistics literature

2009-04-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

I'm starting my master's degree in Chinese this fall, and during my preparatory work I've become aware that while my practical Chinese skills are somewhat above average for a graduate student in Chinese, I currently don't have the necessary theoretical foundation to write an academic paper on it.

One of my biggest weaknesses as a linguist is that I hate theory and abstraction. I love learning languages and have a good intuitive grasp of grammar but I hate the work that goes into learning theoretical syntax, morphology, phonetics and all the other shit that's involved in becoming a "real" linguist. However, I need to start learning it at some point and I figure I might as well start sooner than later.

So anyway, if any of you out there have recommendations for readable literature on syntax, phonology or any other field within linguistics, I'd be happy to hear them. If you know of any interesting books about Chinese as a language, that would be great as well.

Fallout 2 (輻射2) - first thoughts

2009-04-17T01:01:00.001-07:00

Character creation screen

I finally got a chance to play Fallout 2 today. In Chinese the game is known by either 輻射2 in the mainland or 異塵余生2 in Taiwan. Since I didn't have time to start a "real" playthrough, I hacked my char and went around to a few places on the world map to get a feel of what this version's like. Thankfully, the game makes taking screenshots a breeze, so I've included a whole bunch of them.

First thing I noticed was that the Chinese version, like the German one (which I've also played, for the same purpose), is heavily censored. The death animations are neutered even with Bloody Mess tagged, and all the real naughty language is "bleeped". However, children are included and killable.

The worst language is censored with bleeps

Second thing that stood out was that even though my version said "繁體版" on it, and the menu artwork was in traditional Chinese, everything else was in simplified. No idea how that happened.

Language-wise, I'd say this is about as intermediate a game as you'll find. Take a look at the character creation screen at the beginning of the post; if you have to look up a lot of the skill, perk or trait names this game should be just about right for you. Hopefully the other screenshots I've included should give you some indicators of what the level is like. As with the other Black Isle games, the voice-overs aren't dubbed.

Even with the censorship, some colorful language is still present

Fallout 2 is notable in that it can be played in a lot of different ways, and is finishable with almost all possible character combinations. One of the more infamous features of the game is that you can play a "stupid character", which is activated whenever your character's Intelligence score is 3 or below. What this means is that your char can only communicate in grunts and the most basic sentences, often making for some funny interaction with NPCs:

However, if you make a stupid character and talk to Torr, the village idiot in Klamath (the first town you come to after leaving your village), you'll find out he and you can actually communicate quite well with each other!

You can find this game on VeryCD, and since it's only one disc it makes for a much faster download than the BG games or Planescape. Great for an intermediate learner who wants to expand his/her vocabulary in erm.. new directions.

Note: after fiddling around with the HTML I finally got the image links working.

Podcast Review - Deutsche Welle (德國之聲)

2009-04-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

Rating: *****
Category: news & politics
Level: advanced
Update frequency: 3-4 times/day
Where to find it: here. Click "RSS Feed" and then Ctrl+C the URL in the address bar. Paste it into iTunes (see under Advanced > Subscribe to Podcast) or another RSS-compatible audio player. Or alternatively, if you use iTunes you can just search for 德国之声.

Deutsche Welle “German Wave” is one of the four big tax-funded international broadcasters (the other three being Voice of America, Radio France International and BBC World Service), and in my opinion the one with the highest quality of reporting. They used to have an obscene amount of broadcasts in different languages, including Norwegian, but due to lack of funding and demand they've been forced to cut most of these over the last decades.

Their Chinese podcast is probably the best news and politics podcast in Mandarin out there. I really cannot overstate how good a deal you're getting here; their podcast has 2-3 hours of original content made available for free every day! It is usually divided into an hour-long program in the morning and then another three of varying lengths in the evening. Each program starts with a 新聞摘要, i.e a short summary of the day's most important news, and then goes on to in-depth stories, interviews and regular features. One of the highlights of the broadcast is 短信平臺, a feature where listeners can send SMS messages to Deutsche Welle and have them read on-air. These can range from hilarious fenqingish rants about how the DW staff are traitors to surprisingly insightful commentary.

The level is pretty advanced – from my own experience, I started listening to it regularly a year ago and even though I'm used to the format and announcers I'll still come across passages once in a while where I struggle to figure out what's being said. I've found it helpful to stay updated on news and current events in general, to avoid any confusion as to what a story is about. Finally, I find the tone of the reporting much more palatable than Voice of America, by which I mean it is critical of the CCP without getting one-sided. I also like that they do not focus excessively on hot-button China issues like Tibet, the 1989 Tian'anmen incident or Taiwan.

There's really not that much negative to say about it, though if I were to point out something, it's that the staff sometimes throw in a large amount of filler to meet the required length of the programs, like long cheesy jingles or random segments about learning German (which are quite funny to me, since I speak the language). Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to Deutsche Welle for providing such a great service but I wouldn't have minded a shorter, tighter podcast.

Note: there are downloadable Mp3s available at the DW site if you are not able to use the RSS feed for some reason.

The Universal Vocabulary Acquisition Method™

2009-04-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

Me and my buds Bernhard Karlgren and Herbert Giles constructing the UVAM

™

It's a story that should be familiar to anyone learning Chinese: one day you're sitting there reading, say, Harry Potter and things are going pretty smoothly when BAM! you're hit in the face with four idioms, two of which you have never seen before and another two you vaguely remember cramming for an exam two years ago. You bravely keep on reading, convinced that what matters is the context and not each individual word, but your valiant effort is doomed to failure as adjectives and verbs pile onto each other and you eventually give up, heading over to Beijing Sounds to read about what a two-year-old child said once while eating some baked buns.

But fear not, help is on the way and it comes in the form of my Universal Vocabulary Acquisition Method™ (UVAM™ for short), which was conjured up in the Forge of Linguistic Excellence, deep underground, along with the ghost of sinologists past.

The UVAM™ is divided into two parts: a technique for short-term vocab acquisition, essentially an efficient way to cram vocab for a specific purpose (such as a test, or a class), and a long-term solution based on flashcards for learning and retaining vocabulary over a longer time period.

Note: I'm really serious about defending my intellectual property rights, for legal inquiries about the UVAM™ you may contact my lawyer Jay Oak.

Things you will need

The central idea behind the UVAM™ is to spread a large amount of vocabulary over a long time period. To achieve this, you will need a spaced repetition program like Anki, and a small notebook, which will serve as your primary buffer. The buffer is where you store vocabulary items you have picked up but haven't gotten around to learning yet. You should also consider investing in Wenlin or another pinyin-based dictionary.

Finding vocabulary

It's crucial that you don't look anything up unless you absolutely need to. If you have a vague idea what a certain word or expression means in context, write it down in your notebook and leave it for later. Using the dictionary interrupts your flow of reading or listening and worst case might eventually lead to compulsive lookup disorder.

As noted above, the notebook serves as your buffer, a temporary storage unit for vocabulary items you have come across while reading or listening. Pick a number of items each day, somewhere between 10-20 should be good, and look these up with a dictionary. Write down their definitions, and then find a usage example using Jukuu or Nciku. Finally, add all these to a flashcard in your SRS program (more on this below). All this should take you about 30 minutes each day. Strike out the items you have finished to help you remember your progress.

If you are listening to a podcast (or watching TV), write down everything you do not immediately understand with pinyin (or zhuyin) in your notebook, and then look it up with Wenlin, Nciku or another pinyin-searchable dictionary.

Short-term

Often, you will find yourself needing to learn a certain amount of vocab for a specific purpose, such as a test or maybe an interpreting gig. For short-term cramming purposes you might use a normal flashcard program (or the cramming function in Anki), or the UVAM™ method which is more work-intensive but also much more effective.

The short-term method described here is based on the principle of memory strength, i.e that your lexicon, the place in your brain where all non-grammatical information is stored, has a certain amount of words and expressions which you are more or less efficiently able to recall based on how many times you have done so.

Say you want to cram the five words below. Using the UVAM™ method, you do this by first writing plunder on a piece of paper; the definition in English (or in my case, Norwegian) is the hint you will use to recall the information later on. Then, while making sure not to look at the Chinese expression, say “sōuguā” to yourself while looking at plunder to start forming the association.

搜刮 sōuguā - plunder
幾可亂真 jǐkěluànzhēn – good enough to pass for genuine
兀鷹 wùyīng - vulture
詭譎 guǐjué – cunning, treacherous (wr.)
兩全其美 liǎngquánqíměi – satisfy both sides

Repeat this for the second item, writing the English definition below plunder, ending up with something like this:

plunder
good enough to pass for genuine

Now, say “jǐkěluànzhēn” and “sōuguā” to yourself, while again taking care not to look at the Chinese expressions. Now do the same for 兀鷹, 詭譎 and 兩全其美, each time repeating the items preceding them. Finally, write the answers out by hand next to the definition to test yourself. If you don't feel familiar enough with a certain character to write it by hand, try “writing” it in your head each time you repeat an item, until you feel comfortable enough to do it by hand.

plunder 搜刮
good enough to pass for genuine 幾可亂真
vulture 兀鷹
treacherous 詭譎
satisfy both sides 兩全其美

The method works better the more items you do with each session (100 or so seems to be ideal). A session ends when you do the test at the end. Do the items in blocks of five, going through the four preceding items with each new one, until you get to the bottom of the page. When you do, repeat all items on that page and start over on a new page. Doing more items also gets around a design flaw with the method; that the last items will always get repeated less than the first.

There are several advantages to cramming like this: first of all you are forced to retain the information longer and recall it many more times than you would with flashcards (strengthening the memory imprint). It also helps you learn how to write characters since the answers are written by hand. If you do it correctly, it should enable almost instant recall of most of the items you do in a session for days, if not weeks afterwards.

Long-term

The key to successfully retaining information over a long time period, however, is to use a Spaced Repetition System, which is a flashcard application that automatically schedules cards you have answered to a later point in time based on how well you are able to answer them. In my opinion the best program available for this is Anki, but another program I have heard good things about is Mnenosyne. Both of these are available as free downloads.

When building a deck of flashcards, you first have to decide on a model, i.e what information is to be contained within each fact, the database entry which you use to make different cards. Some people prefer to have simple entries with only expressions (what you want to learn in your target language) and definitions (its equivalent in your native tongue). In Anki, you change a model by first going into Settings > Deck Properties, choosing a model from the list and then clicking “Edit”.

You can choose to have only production cards, “production” here meaning the recall of an expression using the definition as your clue, or you can also make recognition cards where you recall the definition based on the expression. The expressions/definitions can be as short as a character or as long as several sentences.

I suggest a hybrid word/sentence model, which contains the expression, definition, pronunciation and an example sentence in Chinese and your native language to add context. For example, my facts look like this (I've changed the entries in Norwegian to English for my non-Norwegian readers, which is probably all of you):

Next you choose a setup for your production and/or recognition cards. In Anki you do this by selecting the “Card Templates” flag in the same window as where you edit your model. My production cards are set up like this:

Question:
Definition
Example sentence (Norwegian)

Answer:
Expression
Example sentence (Chinese)
Pronunciation

For typing in the answer (see under “options” in the same window) I have the cards set to compare with field “Expression”. The recognition cards, on the other hand, are set up like this, with the type-in box being set to “Example sentence (Chinese)”, to avoid going through the cards too quickly:

Question:
Expression
Example sentence (Chinese)

Answer:
Pronunciation
Definition
Example sentence (Norwegian)

Starting out:

Once you have your deck properly set up, you start to add facts. As noted earlier in the post, my example sentences are mostly mined from Jukuu and Nciku. My suggestion is you use Jukuu for idioms and expressions, and Nciku for everything else.

Once you have made a few cards, you can start out reviewing. Under the Settings > Study Options menu you can choose the number of new cards to review each day, I suggest about 20-30 a day to start out. If you have set everything up as I said, you should get a textbox prompting you to write in the answer. Your production cards should look like this*:

And this is what the recognition cards should look like:

*custom fonts and colors can be set under Settings > Fonts & Colors

Combining the short- and long-term methods

The UVAM™ really starts to shine once you combine the long- and short-term techniques. Cram the words you add to your Anki deck each day to get familiar with them, and let the information consolidate itself by repeating it over weeks and months using the SRS program. For typing pīnyīn I recommend Imron's excellent Pīnyīnput.

Personally, I've had great experiences using these two methods, and I'm happy to finally be sharing them with the Blogosphere™. If you decide to try it out, let me know what you think about the UVAM™ by leaving me a comment!

Game review - Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn (博德之門：安姆的陰影)

2009-04-13T01:08:00.000-07:00

Level: advanced intermediate
Characters: simplified

Pros:

wonderfully written game with well-done NPC exchanges
riddles provide some light challenge
very long and involved game with over 100 hours of playtime

Cons:

text can be sparse at times
frustrating combat if you're not familiar with D&D

Where to find it: VeryCD (eMule)

The original Baldur's Gate was a nerd's wet dream, a huge RPG made by a bunch of D&D-obsessed dungeon masters moonlighting as designers, packed with spells, monsters and high fantasy chatter. The sequel took everything good about the original and made it ten times better, giving the player not only enormous freedom in how to approach the game but also a smorgasbord of interesting and well-written characters to interact with. It is the best game I've ever played and probably set my standards unrealistically high for other RPGs.

The Chinese version of Shadows of Amn was done by Taiwanese company Interwise (英特衛 Yīngtèwèi), which also did the localization work for Planescape. Voices aren't dubbed but almost all of the in-game text is translated, including menus, item descriptions and spell descriptions. It's for the most part a solid translation, with a few mistakes here and there which you pick up if you compare the English voice-over to the Chinese translation.

The absolute highlight of the game is the interaction you have with your companions and NPCs. In the game, you can choose from 16 different party members that span the various alignments, classes and races available in the D&D universe. These aren't your usual RPG cardboard cutouts; they are three-dimensional characters with personality flaws and problems of their own, and will frequently argue amongst themselves if they are of opposing alignment or interests. Playing as a male character, you also have the option to start a relationship with one of three female NPCs. These exchanges were very well done in the Chinese version, and I frequently found myself going “oh, so that's how you say that”. I strongly recommend taking Viconia, the evil cleric, with you for some hilariously catty exchanges between her and the other party members.

Another feature of SoA that makes it a good choice for someone learning Chinese is the inclusion of riddles throughout the game. These riddles are not difficult (I don't think I ever missed one back when I first played the English version), but for a Chinese learner they present enough of a challenge to make things interesting. Most of them appear in dialogues where you get several different responses to choose from and need to pick the correct one. Another type of puzzle requires you to place a number of items in a certain sequence to get a reward. Below is one of a series of riddles you encounter about midway through the game:

走動的時候忽而在你身前，忽而在你身後。即使你穿著最黑色的衣服它們還是比你黑。他們一直都在逃避光線，但是沒了太陽也就沒了它們。
烏鴉
善心
鬼魂
麥子
愛人
星星
影子
柳枝

SoA, like its predecessor, is based on the old 2^nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, which can be quite complex and unforgiving for a beginner: you will die within minutes if you don't know what you're doing. If you find it hard to get into the game, Gamebanshee has an excellent guide up which provides strategies for difficult battles and many other useful bits of information. If you're feeling adventurous, you might head over to its Chinese counterpart.

This was my third playthrough of BG2 and a very enjoyable one at that. I was already familiar with the story and the game mechanics and could focus on the Chinese without getting stuck anywhere because of a tough battle or a bad spell choice. There's only one bad thing I have to say about it: I now have to keep myself from not starting a new game with a different party make-up!

Samples:

Unfortunately, I was not able to take in-game screenshots, printscreen+c/p netted only a black screen. If any of you out there know what might be causing this, please tell me.

Exposition: Chapter 4 (spoilers)

Aran Lindvail果然信守了他的諾言，就和浮夸的Saemon Havarian安站在船舵旁，揚帆航行在海上。旅程一路平安，就算有其他同樣航道的船只，它們一定也是保持在相當的距離。船只航行地相當快，很快海平線上便出現了陸地的蹤跡。那里或許會是不錯的地方，然而它的頂上卻籠罩著一股陰影。監禁所，禁魔監獄，就矗立在懸崖邊上

Dialogue: Ribald Barterman

我叫莉博德博特門。是冒險者市場的店主。這裡是費倫世界最佳的采購地點，店裡的貨色最齊全，價格最低，而且絕對公平誠實，童叟無欺。
謝了，我們只是隨便看看。
嗯，我們對某些貨品很感興趣。
等一下再說吧，這個地方實在太大了，不能馬上做決定。
如果你不介意的話，我是否能問一些問題？
這裡簡直像個垃圾場。要我從這裡拖什么東西出去，恐怕你要付錢給我才行。

Weapon description: Elven Courtbow

長弓+3：精靈王庭

這把弓比較像是藝術作品，而不像武器; 打磨光滑的木頭上滿是精致的雕工，弓弦則發出金黃色的光芒，拉開時就像在歌唱一樣。這是精靈宮廷的儀式弓，已有數千年之久，不過在精靈看來，也不過是一輩的事。每隔50年左右，就會把它賜給大功績的人，接受者則選擇下一位得到它的人。兩百年前，一個叫銀彭的人類救了一個精靈王子，獲得這把弓當作禮物。他帶著弓前往博德之門，後來就遺失了。

How to talk like a villain in Chinese #2 - Threats

2009-04-03T05:53:00.001-07:00

Uguu...

In part 2 (part 1 can be found here) of this series, we will look at threats (恐嚇 kǒnghè). As with the D&D post, I recommend some good background music to set the mood.

The threat consists of two parts, conditions and consequences.

Conditions (條件)
The condition is what the bad guy (壞人huàirén) asks for in return for sparing your life. Chances are this involves some form of kneeling, or giving him a VIO (Very Important Object).

把錢給我 Give me the money

趕快給我…

跪下 Kneel before me (at once)
投降 Surrender to me (at once)

把…交給我 Hand … to me

卷軸 juànzhóu - the scroll
戒指 jièzhǐ - the ring
匕首 bǐshǒu - the dagger

This is usually followed by:

否則 fǒuzé - otherwise...

Consequences (後果)
The consequence is what will (ostensibly) follow if the condition is not met. It most likely involves some form of corporal punishment that will result in the death of the person who is threatened. A weapon might be used to emphasize the threat:

你會死在我的…之下you will fall beneath my…

劍 jiàn - sword
斧 fǔ - axe
戟 jǐ - halberd

He might be more to the point...

后果會十分严重 The consequences will be dire
你們會付出代價 You will suffer

Or put it more bluntly;

我會讓你小命都不保 I will slay you
我（很樂意）把你的頭劈兩半 I’ll (gladly) split your head in half
我（很樂意）用我的魔法将你碎石万段 I’ll (gladly) use my magic powers to crush you into a million pieces

Making the threat:

Using the names we learned in Part 1 and the items above, constructing a threat is easy as pie; just combine some names, a condition and a consequence, and you’re set:

你們這群傻瓜到了無路可逃的地步！趕快把匕首交給我，否則我很樂意用我的斧頭把你們的頭劈兩半！You fools have nowhere to run! Give me the dagger at once, or I’ll gladly split your heads in half with my axe!

混蛋！趕快把錢給我，否則我保證後果會十分嚴重… Scoundrels! Give me the money immediately, or the consequences will be dire, I promise you.

可惡的蛆蟲，給我跪下，否則你們會死在我劍之下。我會很樂意地結束你們可憐的生命！Damn maggots, kneel before me or you will fall beneath my blade... I will gladly end your pitiful lives!

And that's it! Happy easter everyone!

So many words #017 - Madoff

2009-03-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

I have become death, destroyer of pension funds

By far the most gratifying scandal to watch in the financial crisis so far has been the downfall of Wall Street legend and Level 18 Financial Illusionist Bernie Madoff (伯納德 ∙ 馬多夫 Bónàdé ∙ Mǎduōfū). The scale of his fraud (騙局 piànjú) was simply so immense that it took on almost biblical proportions, the investment guru himself acting as the first horseman of the financial apocalypse, a locust plague on the sheltered elites of Aspen, Colorado.

On the outside, Madoff ran (經營 jīngyíng) a hugely successful hedge fund (對沖基金 duìchōng jījīn), i.e. an unregulated financial institution. Madoff offered some of the highest returns (報酬 bàochōu) in the business, effectively doubling his clients' money every four or five years. Having your money invested in Madoff was a badge of honor among the rich in America, a way of showing that you were one of the chosen ones, an elite among the elites. And maybe the rest of us can take comfort that even these people, the bald and successful, failed their saving throw against greed magic and forgot one of the most basic lessons of capitalist society:

如果一件事情好到不象是真的，多半不是真的 if something sounds too good be true, it probably is

What Madoff had actually done to get these fantastic returns was to run what is known as a Ponzi scheme (龐茲騙局 pángzī piànjú), a classic fraud where the investments of new participants are used to pay out returns to those higher up the chain. The Chinese Wikipedia gives a good summary of how the scheme works:

參與者要先付一筆錢作為入會代價，而所賺的錢是來自其他新加入的參加者，而非公司本身透過業務所賺的錢。投資者通過吸引新投資者加入付錢，以支付上線投資者。 New participants [in the scheme] need to pay an initial entry fee, which is also the only source of revenue in the enterprise. The investor pays those higher up the chain by attracting new investors and getting new entry fees from them.

But this cannot go on forever:

但隨著更多人加入，資金流入不足，騙局泡沫爆破時，最下線的投資者便蒙受金錢損失 But as more people get involved, the incoming capital flow is not big enough to sustain the scheme. The bubble bursts, and the investors lower down the chain lose money.

In Madoff's case, his financial trickery was so clever that the scheme could theoretically have operated until his death before it would have run out of money. However, when the financial crisis arrived, the withdrawals became too many to service and he had to admit to the fraud, leaving his investors with huge losses and damaged egos, and the rest of us with glorious schadenfreude (幸災樂禍 xìngzāilèhuò).

In Taiwan and the mainland, ponzi schemes are known as 老鼠會 lǎoshǔhuì, "mouse meetings", and have become increasingly popular in the new climate of fast growth and materialism in China. The name is a play on the fast recruiting rate often seen in these scams (which is necessary to keep the scheme going). Here's how my girlfriend explained it:

[her] 說:
因為　他是　一個人拉很多會員
[her] 說:
每個會員　再拉很多人進來
[her] 說:
就像　老鼠一樣　很會生
[her] 說:
生ｂａｂｙ

Both ponzi schemes and mouse parties are collocated with 加入 jiārù to join, same as for any organization.

Idioms #012 - 東施效顰

2009-03-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

Hey, if it worked on Bu$h...

東施效顰 Dōng Shī xiào pín - make a bad imitation of smbd.

Usage: 一個東施效顰歐巴馬說“是的，我們辦得到”的政治人物 A politician that says "yes we can" in a poor imitation of Obama.

Xi Shi (西施 Xī Shī) was one of the four legendary beauties of Chinese history, who, in accordance with the beauty standards of the time, was so sickly and weak that activity more strenous than lifting a teacup would lead to her instant death. As the Zhuangzi tells us, one day Xi Shi had come down with an illness and due to the pain, was holding her hand over her heart and frowning with her eyebrows (顰). This was immediately celebrated by the court as a wondrous display of female beauty.

An extremely ugly (and fat) woman observed this and mistakenly believed that she too could be beautiful if she just imitated the sickly gracefulness of the diseased Xi Shi. She was sorely mistaken; the villagers all recoiled at her sight, the noblemen even refusing to go outside due to the presence of this ugly wretch frowning and clutching her breast in the street. Later this woman became known as 東施 Dōng Shī.

東施效顰 means to imitate somebody (especially someone famous or very talented) without having the requisite skills, gravitas or natural endowments to do so. A scrawny nerd flexing his muscles and believing he looks like a pro wrestler is 東施效顰, as is the guy who tries to do the deep movie trailer voice and ends up sounding like he has a sore throat. Or, to take a more recent example, a certain shoe-throwing German student.

Characters #02 - 糶

2009-03-25T01:11:00.000-07:00

糶 tiào - sell grain. What at first glance looks like the stereotypical nightmare traditional character (like 鬱 or 鹽), makes perfect sense when one looks at the components on the left, 出 chū, and 米 mǐ rice.

In the simplified version of the character the phonetic radical, 翟 dí, was left out. Since the modern pronunciation isn't anything like dí, the phonetic is superfluous and was thus cut for a good reason.

However, 糶 is also coupled with the character 糴 dí which means to buy grain. 入 is substituted for 出, reversing the semantic meaning (i.e. the grain is going in instead of out). As you can see, the pronunciation of this character corresponds with the phonetic, but in the simplified character 籴, 翟 has also been cut, presumably to maintain consistency between the two characters.

These two characters feature in the concepts 平糶 and 平糴. 平糶 refers to government buying grain at an inflated price and selling it at a low price in order to stabilize the market price. 平糴, on the other hand, was a policy where the government bought grain at market price in years with a good harvest and then stockpiled it in granaries for use during famines et.c.

So many words #016 - Dungeons & Dragons (Part 2)

2009-03-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

This could have been me if I hadn't discovered D&D

This took a good while longer than I originally anticipated, but picking up where I left off last week, here's part 2 of Dungeons & Dragons (龍與地下城 Lóng yǔ Dìxiàchéng) in Chinese。

Playing Baldur's Gate 2 in Chinese has been a blast so far. My favorite part is seeing the cheesy high fantasy chatter (準備納命!) translated into Chinese. I'm slowly preparing a new instalment of "How to talk like a Villain in Chinese" based on the stuff I've jotted down so far.

Weapons (武器 wǔqì):

In D&D, weapons are divided into two basic categories: melee (近戰武器 jìnzhàn wǔqì) and ranged (遠程武器 yuǎnchéng wǔqì). Melee weapons are then further divided in three types depending on what kind of damage they do, they are slashing (揮砍 huīkǎn), crushing (粉碎) and piercing (穿刺 chuāncì).

The weapon names themselves are pretty dull and unremarkable with most of them being literal translations like 長劍 chángjiàn longsword, 短弓 duǎngōng shortbow, perhaps the most egregious example being 十字弓 shízìgōng crossbow, so I won't go any further into them here.

Damage (傷害 shānghài)

Hitpoints are known as 生命點 shēngmìngdiǎn, i.e. "life points". IMO Another case of the Chinese translation being superior to the English original, "hit points" sounds like the amount of points you have available to hit something.

Hitting a target is represented by the verb 命中 mìngzhòng. As you might already be aware, 中 has two pronunciations associated with it, zhōng and zhòng, the former a location expression meaning middle and the latter a verb that means to hit or to be hit. There are several other characters with multiple pronunciations that contain a similar pattern of being a verb in fourth tone, like the 和 hè in 和詩 hèshī compose a poem in reply. 中 is a commonly used verb, by itself it is collocated with such words as 埋伏 máifu ambush:

我們中了埋伏. We have gone into an ambush.

As a verbal complement it is collocated with verbs like 打 dǎ or 射 shè (see my earlier post on guns).

To cause damage is represented by the VO construction 造成傷害 zàochéng shānghài. If you hit the target you will most likely cause 1 or more points (點 diǎn) of damage. This is then united with the coverb 對 for something like this:

你打中了，對半獸人造成七點傷害 You hit, and damage the half-orc for 7 hitpoints

In D&D, a critical hit or a critical failure is when you roll a 20 or a 1, respectively. Critical hits might double or even triple the damage, critical failures makes you lose a turn or drop your weapon or something similar. In Chinese, critical hit has been translated with 致命一擊, which exists as a set phrase in Chinese already and Wenlin translates with deathblow. Critical failure has been translated fairly literally with 嚴重失誤, i.e. "serious failure".

致命一擊 zhìmìng yī jí - critical hit.
嚴重失誤 yánzhòng shīwù - critical miss.

Magic (魔法)

A spellcaster is known as 施法者 shīfǎzhě, spellcasting is known as 施法. The various spells are collocated with 施展 shīzhǎn, or more colloquially 用 yòng to use or 打 dǎ. As with damage, the coverb 對 is used to indicate what the spell is targeted against.

我對狗頭人施展律令：沉睡 I cast power word: sleep on the kobold

The spells themselves are known as 法術 fǎshù, and are divided into a variety of different schools (系 xì). The noun for a mage (法師 fǎshī) who specializes in one of these schools can be formed easily by substituting a 師 for the 系. An illusionist would then be 幻術師 and a necromancer 死靈師 et.c. The eight schools available are as follows:

護法系 hùfǎxì - Abjuration
咒法系 zhòufǎxì - Conjuration
預言系 yùyánxì - Divination
附魔系 fùmóxì - Enchantment
幻術系 huànshùxì - Illusion
塑能系 sùnéngxì - -Evocation
死靈系 sǐlíngxì - Necromancy
煉金系 liànjīnxì - Transmutation

All player characters and enemies have a certain rate of resistance (豁免率 huòmiǎnlǜ) to magic, and to see if a spell is successfully resisted, a saving throw (豁免率檢定 huòmiǎnlǜ jiǎndìng) will have to be made. Finally, here's a list of some common spells to give you an indication of how they are translated in Chinese (very literally in many cases).

閃電術 shǎndiànshù - lightning bolt
小火球 xiǎohuǒqiú - fireball
魔法飛彈 mófǎ fēidàn - magic missile
明了陣營 míngliǎo zhènyíng - detect alignment
治療中等傷害 zhìliáo zhōngděng shānghài - cure medium wounds

Experience (經驗)

Finally, we come to the lifeblood of any RPG, experience points (經驗值 jīngyànzhí or 經驗點 jīngyàndiǎn, depending on which game you're playing). Experience points are collocated with 獲得 huòdé to obtain. When the character gets enough of these, he/she will 提升等級 level up. Thus, a plausible situation might look like this:

艾古爾獲得1000經驗值而提升等級 Aighor gets 1000XP and levels up

And that's it for D&D in Chinese! I originally wrote some snark for this but it seemed a bit out of place so I left it out. There'll be more than enough of that in my upcoming post about Bernie Madoff.

What I've learned after two months of blogging

2009-03-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

So my blog has been going for two months now and hasn't died yet, which is a good sign. It's certainly a big step up from my last two blogs, one of which died within two days, the other perishing in its embryonic stage, beginning and ending with its first post.

One of the smartest things I did right from the start was to decide on a number of things I wouldn't be writing about, and try to limit the scope of the blog.

OTOH, one of the dumbest things I did was tricking myself into thinking that I could write interesting, useful content about four different languages. This only resulted in watered-down, boring content. I thus ended up making a decision to write only about Chinese. The blog is now starting to get focus. Focus is good. In the blogosphere, "Bangladesh Textile Industry Watch" beats "my random musings about politics, food and life in general" any day. The general gets lost in the shuffle while the specific stands out.

The blog in its current state is not finished, it will most likely go through some more changes before I'm happy with it. My goal is to find an even smaller niche for it and then settle into posting an update once a week. Until then, the content is not going to be uniform in quality or character, but I will do my best to ensure that it is always interesting. Thanks to anyone who's reading so far, if there's anything you like or dislike, feel free to point it out.

Yersi

So many words #015 - Dungeons & Dragons (Part 1)

2009-03-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

*insert virginity joke here*

In celebration of my finally getting to play Baldur's Gate 2 in Chinese, this two-part instalment of "So many words" is about Dungeons & Dragons, or 龍與地下城 Lóng yǔ Dìxiàchéng as it is known in Chinese. I'd strongly recommend putting on some suitably epic background music while you read this. Oh, and if you don't recognize the creature in the illustration above, that's a beholder (眼魔 yǎnmó), one of the signature monsters of the D&D series.

Back before it appeared in its current streamlined, professional incarnation, D&D was a sluggish, infernally complex game where even the smallest of skirmishes could take hours to finish. Rolling the dice (擲骰子 zhì shǎizi) was only a quarter of the battle; something reasonably simple, like calculating the effect of a spell, could easily take 5 minutes or more. Yet there was a certain magic to these arcane and inefficient rules that the 3rd Edition failed to capture. Somehow the clunkiness made the game feel grander than it really was, less rooted in the real world, like a dusty old tome.

Since there's a lot to cover on this topic, I've split it into two parts: in the first I will cover the basic building blocks of a character (人物 rénwù): Race, Class, Alignment and Abilities. In the second I'll deal with whatever I couldn't fit into the first part.

Races (種族 zhǒngzú):

As pointed out in the dissertation "Race in Dungeons & Dragons" (highly recommended read), D&D is actually a pretty racist game, with orcs as stand-ins for blacks, elves as asians and of course the conspicuously caucasian humans as the "natural-born leaders". Their respective translations in Chinese aren't all that interesting, but here they are anyway:

人類 rénlèi - humans. Same as humanity.
精靈 jīnglíng - elves. These elves are of the pointy-eared variety but the translation sounds closer to something like pixie or fairy.
侏儒 zhūrú - gnomes. See also: 侏儒癥 zhūrúzhèng dwarfism. 侏儒 is also used for real-life dwarves or those afflicted with dwarfism.
半身人 bànshēnrén - halflings. Literal translation or something approximating it. Note that Hobbits, on the other hand, are known 哈比人 hābǐrén in Taiwan or 霍比特人 in the mainland (thanks to linguanima for pointing this out).
矮人 ǎirén - dwarves. Can also be used for real-life dwarves or short people.
半獸人 bànshòurén - half-orcs. The same word is used for orc.

Classes (職業 zhíyè):

"Class" has been translated as "profession", which actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. An adventurer does have dungeon-crawling as his primary source of income, and for this purpose he uses skills he has honed over a long time-period. So I'd say 職業 is a pretty good translation here.

戰士 zhànshì - Fighter. Includes such sub-classes as 狂戰士 kuángzhànshì berserker and 劍聖 jiànshèng sword saint.
牧師 mùshī - Cleric. This is the same term as the one that's used for protestant priests. Catholic priests are known as 神父 shénfù or 司鐸 sīduó.
法師 fǎshī - Mage. When you see 法 fǎ you might form associations to France or law but in many contexts it is also used for skills or magic powers. In D&D, the act of casting a spell is called 施法 shīfǎ.
盜賊 dàozéi - Rogue.
吟游詩人 yínyóushīrén - Bard. Same as troubadour or minstrel. 吟 means to chant or recite a poem.
術士 shùshì - Sorcerer. Good example of a translation combining the semantic meaning and the phonetic pronunciation of the original word. 術士 is traditionally used for daoist magicians and Confucian scholars.

Alignments (陣營 zhènyíng):

The Chinese translation has an interesting approach. 陣營, which should be familiar to anyone who's followed an election in Chinese media, is often used for the political camp somebody belongs to (like 歐巴馬陣營 or 麥侃陣營). Where the choice of the term alignment suggests that characters in the D&D world inhabit an arbitrary point in the spectrum between good/evil and lawfulness/chaos, 陣營 implies that there are a handful of clearly defined ideological camps or cliques that people can belong to. You know, much like how alignments actually work in D&D. So in this case I'd say the Chinese translation is superior to the English original.

There are 9 possible alignments in D&D, formed from 3 possible choices on the ethical and moral side. The ethical alignment comes before the moral, so a player character that is lawful and evil is known as Lawful Evil 守序邪惡. Someone who has "neutral" as both his ethical and moral alignment is 絕對中立 juéduì zhōnglì, or True Neutral.

Moral

善良 shànliáng - Good
中立 zhōnglì - Neutral
邪惡 xié'è - Evil

Ethical

守序 shǒuxù - Lawful
中立 zhōnglì - Neutral
叛逆 pànnì - Chaotic

Abilities:

智力 and 智能 are two interesting translations that deserve a closer look. In D&D intelligence is basically your IQ or your problem-solving ability, whereas Wisdom is your ability to make good judgments. From the Chinese translations my impression would be that intelligence is your raw intellectual power (innate) and wisdom your intellectual ability (learned). It would be interesting to ask a Chinese D&D player about these two concepts and see if his understanding of them was different from a western D&D player.

力量 lìliàng - Strength.
敏捷 mínjié - Dexterity.
體質 tǐzhí - Constitution.
智力 zhìlì - Intelligence.
智能 zhìnéng - Wisdom.
魅力 mèilì - Charisma.

In Part 2 ~~tomorrow~~ we'll look at things like spellcasting, magic resistance and critical hits/failures. If there is anything you'd like to see translated, leave a comment and I'll do my best to include it.

New name, new design

2009-03-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

It took me a few hours but some necessary changes have been made to the blog: I've now changed the blog's name to Extreme Mandarin, stripped the design down, changed the language to English and made a logo. So far I'm pleased with the outcome, hope you all like it!

Characters #01 - 彘

2009-03-16T03:07:00.000-07:00

彘 zhì means pig or boar, and is rather obscure compared to the more commonly known synonyms 豬 zhū and 豕 shǐ. Broken down to its individual components, the character consists of the component 彑 jì pig nose (which also features in the characters 彙 huì, 彝 yí and 緣 yuán) and the phonetic radical 矢 shǐ squished in-between 比 bǐ. The character is intended to look like a pig.

The character features in a number of different words and contexts, most notably in the personal name of Emperor Wu of Han (劉彘), and in 人彘, the cruel form of torture invented by Empress Lü Zhi (呂雉) to punish Consort Qi after the death of Emperor Gaozu. Lü Zhi was reportedly so jealous of Gaozu's affection for Qi that she after his death not only blinded and deafened Consort Qi, but also cut her legs and arms down to stumps and removed her nose so that she would look like a pig.

彘 is also used in the idiom 狗彘不如 gǒuzhìbùrú more despicable than a dog or a swine, which originates from the novel 飛龍全傳 "Complete Records of the Flying Dragon" by Qing-dynasty author Wu Xuan.

Idioms #011 - 火中取栗

2009-03-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

so you see, the cat here is a US soldier...

火中取栗 huǒzhōngqǔlì - to be a cat's-paw

火 huǒ - fire

中 zhōng - middle

取 qǔ - get

栗 lì - chestnut

Usage example: 我不愿意替你們火中取栗! I'm not willing to be your cat's-paw!

This idiom has an interesting source: a fable by 17th century French poet Jean de la Fontaine. In the fable, a cat and a monkey are living together in a house. One day, they notice some chestnuts roasting in the fireplace. By flattering her, the monkey manages to convince the cat to get the chestnuts out of the fireplace so they can "eat them together". Every time the cat gets a chestnut out of the fireplace, she singes her paw, and when she gets to the last one, the hair on her paw has all but completely been burned away.

The cat turns around only to find that the monkey has eaten all the chestnuts. When the owner comes home, she is greeted with the sight of an empty fireplace, the cat lying in front of it with a burnt, hairless paw. Hence the expression "cat's-paw" in English for somebody who is being duped or used by others. That is also the most common translation for this idiom in Chinese-English dictionaries.

Note: since I don't want to limit the entries in this series to only 成語 (meaning strict four-character idioms, mostly from pre-Han), I am changing the title of it to "Idioms".

So many words #014 - Conspiracy theories

2009-03-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

This is what Alan Greenspan looks like when he is not busy deceiving the sheeple

Though not particular to America, conspiracy theories (陰謀論 yīnmóulùn) are in essence something truly American; a thorough rejection of established concensus and a vigorous, slightly misguided defense of the rights of the individual. And in this age of science and reason, they seem only to be growing more popular than ever.

Note that members of conspiracy subcultures generally refer to those outside their community as "sheeple", a fiendishly clever portmanteu of "sheep" and "people". For this word I have coined the neologism 羊民 yángmín, which corresponds nicely to the original English word.

How to make your own RANT in Chinese

Those familiar with conspiracy theories will be aware that they usually come in the form of inspired rants, which I in this lesson I will teach you how to construct in Chinese. Our first rants will be simple, consisting of only Antagonists and Alleged crimes. Potential future installments will cover more complex conspiracies. Finally we will look at some Proposed solutions to the predicaments facing our troubled planet.

Antagonists:

猶太人 yóutàirén - jews.
美國政府 Měiguó zhèngfǔ - the American Government.
爬蟲人 páchóngrén - reptilian. A common theory among conspiracy theorists, popularized by luminaries like David Icke, is that the world's financial and political elite are actually a race of ancient reptiles disguised as humans. Most likely this is just a semi-clever way to say J-E-W-S without getting thrown in jail.
共濟會 gòngjìhuì - the Freemasons.
光照派 guāngzhàopài - the Illuminati.
小灰人 xiǎohuīrén - the Grays.
聯儲局 liánchǔjú - the Federal Reserve. Responsible for the issuing of fiat money, the source of all evil (see below).

Alleged crimes:

Put fluoride in the water supply: ∼ 在水的供應中添加氟化物. Many cities add fluoride to their water supplies in order to prevent tooth decay in the population. What you may not know is that this is actually a way for the government to weaken your mind so that you will be more susceptible to the mind control rays emitted by HAARP stations.
Sprayed chemtrails: ∼ 在 ∼ 噴了毒雲. This is a common conspiracy theory which says that condensation trails left by airplanes are actually poisonous gases being released to weaken the immune system of the population and facilitate a massive depopulation of the planet. Since no official term seems to exist for this I have coined the term 毒雲 dúyún from 毒 dú poison and 飛機雲 fēijīyún - condensation trail.
Issued fiat money: ∼ 發行了不兌現紙幣. Fiat money is money that is not backed by gold but rather by the government's promise that it will accept it as legal tender for payments of taxes. Detractors contend that this allows a shadowy banking elite, that may or may not be J-E-W-S (or reptiles disguised as jews, see above) to rule the world through control of the money supply.

Constructing a rant:

Central to the idea of the conspiracy is the cover-up. In the basic construction we will use in this lesson, one Alleged crime will have been used to cover up another. 以 yǐ at the start of a subordinate clause means in order to, and the construction 掩蓋…的真實 cover up the truth of smth will be used after that. A basic rant then looks something like this.

猶太人與美國政府在發行不兌現紙幣，以掩蓋政府在水供應中添加氟化物的真實

Jews and the American government are issuing Fiat Money in order to cover up the truth that the government is adding fluoride to the water supply.

The rant can be expanded by adding additional Antagonists or Alleged crimes.

小灰人，共濟會，猶太人和美國政府在堪薩斯州噴了毒雲，以掩蓋聯儲局在發行不兌現紙幣的真實

Grays, freemasons, jews and the government sprayed Chemtrails in Kansas in order to cover up the truth that the Federal Reserve is issuing Fiat Money.

Now try making your own!

Solutions:

Finally we will cover three commonly mentioned solutions to these problems:

膠態微粒銀 jiāotài wēilìyín - colloidal silver. Popular home remedy in the conspiracy subculture. Only known cure for diseases caused by chemtrails. Side-effects may include argyria, a form of silver poisoning that turns the user's skin blue.
金本位制 jīnběn wèizhì - the gold standard . Omnibus solution for any problem ailing the planet, the gold standard will deprive the evil banking elite of its power to control the world through the issuing of fiat money (which is also known as 法定貨幣 fǎdìng huòbì) and usher in a new era of free banking which will of course be completely problemfree.
使大麻合法化 shǐ dàmá héfǎhuà - legalizing marijuana. Because after overthrowing the banking elite, nothing is better than toking up with some grass you just bought with your gold dublons.

Playing games in Chinese - a good way to study?

2009-03-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

To be honest, studying Chinese is possibly the only way I could justify playing something like this.

The short answer is yes. But how good it is depends on the game.

Having played a variety of RPGs throughout the last weeks, from Chrono Trigger, Sword of Xuanyuan and Planescape: Torment in Chinese, I've come to the conclusion that games are a favorable alternative to books in building reading comprehension skills. In the Japanese-learning community, being able to play games that haven't been translated to English has always been a big motivational factor, but for some reason this doesn't seem to have catched on with people who are learning Chinese. One reason may be the relative dearth of natively produced quality titles, but Chinese learners in general seem less interested in pop culture and more into political or historical material. They may be doing themselves a disservice.

Games have several things going for them that should be interesting for anyone who is seriously learning Chinese:

Brevity

Dialogue in RPGs usually consists of short and concise bits of text delivered in sequence. Older games tend to have more descriptions and exposition, less than a novel but more than a comic would have. The brevity stops you from feeling overwhelmed and lets you focus on dissecting one or two sentences at a time. There is also a certain feeling of accomplishment that comes with figuring out a short bit of text you have been struggling with.

Repetition

Games inevitably contain a large amount of repetition, whether it's in descriptions or dialogue. This is actually a very good thing, since seeing something repeatedly strengthens your memory imprint of it in your mental lexicon.

Interactivity

Black Isle, a division of Interplay that went bust back in 2003, produced a string of fantastic CRPGs from 1997 until 2001 that combined pre-rendered isometric graphics with strong plots and gameplay. These games were different from linear console titles like Final Fantasy; in these games saying the wrong thing could get you killed and a high intelligence allowed you to talk your way out of almost anything. It's exactly this quality that makes these games perfect for learning a foreign language. The possibility of angering the person you are talking to and the presence of clues inside the dialog forces you to pay more attention to it.

Though the degree of interactivity varies from game to game, there is always a quality inherent in games where you are making active choices using the language as a tool, as opposed to just passively absorbing. That is a huge step up from reading a book.

Immersion

Games have an audio-visual component to them that creates strong associations and helps you remember words and phrases. In Planescape: Torment, you start out in the Mortuary, a place for disposal of dead bodies where reanimated corpses are used as slave labor. The design is striking; cold gray metal set against moss, rust and crimson red, bodies lying on stone slabs everywhere while lifeless corpses shuffle through the rooms, performing their programmed duties. Through examining your surroundings, you learn the language of death, with its rotting flesh, creaking joints and the bitter smell of chemicals burning through your nostrils. The alien sound of unidentifiable wind instruments drones in the background, pausing only to give way to the clanking of hammers and whispered voices.

This is a feeling that books or comics cannot recreate, an audio-visual experience that ties up with the words and leaves you with a lasting impression of not only the semantic meaning but also the visceral reality of the word's sphere of existence.

What games do you recommend?

I have made a small selection below, sorted after difficulty level from easiest to hardest:

Chrono Trigger (時空之旅)

Level: lower intermediate

Characters: simplified

One-line summary: Back to the Future meets Secret of Mana.

Where to get it: here. Go down to where it says "下載地址", and make sure you are using IE because otherwise the links won't work. You'll need Winrar to unpack the file, the password for the archive is "www.58840.com". Finally use ZSNES or another SNES emulator to open the .smc file.

Chrono Trigger is a classic RPG for the SNES that still holds up pretty well today. It is admittedly a game made for 12-year-olds but if you read at the level of a 12-year-old that shouldn't be a problem for you. As the name might suggest, Chrono Trigger features travel through various time periods, which also means that it covers a wide variety of different vocabulary items from guilloutines to hover cars. This is the game I would recommend to people if I were to choose just one, the sheer breadth of the game ensures that there's something in there for everyone regardless of level.

The only catch is that the people who did the fan translation for this have left much of the game untranslated (presumably because of technical issues): menus and names are all in hiragana/katakana. It shouldn't affect your ability to play the game but it might lead to some confusion in the beginning.

Planescape: Torment (異域鎮魂曲)

Level: advanced intermediate

Characters: traditional

One-line summary: Descartes with battle-axes.

Where to get it: VeryCD. You will need eMule to download it and it takes a few days. Be patient: it's worth it.

This is a cult CRPG based on the old AD&D rules. It was released back in 1999 to little fanfare and disappointing sales numbers. Later it started attracting a large following on the internet for its dark and pseudo-philosophical storyline. Unlike Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, which focus more on combat, PST is all about detailed descriptions and conversations that can stretch to 10-15 minutes, and sometimes contain some fairly deep (for a game) insights into the nature of life and the universe.

Good or bad, the translation by the team responsible for the Chinese localization takes few liberties with the original material and mostly follows the English original line by line. The dialog is complex but written in a relatively simple style, which makes the enormous volume of text in the game easier to handle.

Sword of Xuanyuan 5: Clouds of Han (軒轅劍5代 - 外傳：漢之雲)

Level: upper advanced

Characters: traditional

One-line summary: basically a remake of Final Fantasy X set in Ancient China

Where to get it: here (you will need Bittorrent).

This game is part of a long-running RPG-series produced by Taiwanese company Softstar. All titles in the Sword of Xuanyuan series draw inspiration from Chinese history and mythology, and the story in this installment takes place during the Three Kingdoms period. You play Yan Feng, leader of a band of elite soldiers working for Zhuge Liang during the fourth and last of his failed Northern Expeditions.

Clouds of Han is not for beginners; the dialogue is written exclusively in an ornate, semi-literary style full of idioms and complex constructions. You will need at least a basic foundation in Classical Chinese and Chinese history to get anything out of this. If you have the necessary chops though, the game is a decent Final Fantasy clone with some beautifully designed locations and menus.

How to talk like a villain in Chinese #1 - Call thy enemy (names)

2009-03-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

*golf clap*

If there's one thing playing Chinese games has taught me, it's that villains stay the same wherever you are. Sure, they might be condemning you to one of the 18 layers of Buddhist hell instead of just plain hell but the pragmatic meaning comes across with equal force: sometimes you just need some meaningless bluster to get the player pumped for 10 minutes of almost (but not quite) dying. But I digress. In this first instalment of a 5-part series we will cover the essential nouns of villainous chatter; the derogatory definitions given out to the heroes.

The Villain operates with only two types of names for his enemies, the ones he uses before his fiendish plot has been foiled and the ones he uses after. I have compiled a temporary list below, subject to revisions and additions as I find them. You are of course welcome to suggest your own.

Pre-foil

蛆蟲 qūchóng - maggot

傻瓜 shǎguā - fool

害蟲 hàichóng - vermin

蟲豸 chóngzhì - worm

Post-foil

混帳 hùnzhàng - scoundrel

混蛋 hùndàn - bastard

窩囊廢 wōnangfèi - worthless wretch

Notice that pre- and post-foil can be used interchangeably if the situation requires it. For example, it's entirely possible to imagine a sentence like “愚蠢的傻瓜… 你們只不過是一群混蛋” "stupid fools... you are nothing but a bunch of scoundrels".

Last but not least, derogatory names might be modified by a suitably offensive adjective. These will be covered in a future article but for now knowing 愚蠢 yúchǔn foolish and 可惡 kěwù will suffice. 可惡 is especially useful, since it can mean everything from "damn", "wretched" to "abominable", perfect for villains who have been foiled or are just about to be:

“我的計劃…怎會被你們這些可惡的狗打敗？我會殺光你們！！“how could my plan... be defeated by you wretched dogs? I will slay you all!!".

Idioms #010 - 殃及池魚

2009-03-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

They just happened to be in the moat when the city started burning

城門失火，殃及池魚 chéngménshīhuǒ, yāngjíchíyú - bring disaster to innocent people

Many 成語 come in pairs, knowing both can make the difference between sounding educated and just enthusiastic. The literal meaning of these two together is that when the city gates are on fire, the fish in the moat are harmed as well.

The saying originates from a story about a city in the Spring and Autumn period. A fire came out of control and the inhabitants had no choice other than to extinguish it using the water in the moat surrounding the city. When they succeeded in putting out the fire, the moat was dried up and the fish were left flopping around in the remaining mud pits until they died a few days later.

Celebrating infinity once more

2009-03-10T06:50:00.001-07:00

My Anki deck keeps growing ever steadily, today it reached 3000 words and #3000 is 探子 tànzi scout. I'm currently playing a Chinese RPG called 漢之雲 "Clouds of Han", which is based loosely on Romance of the Three Kingdoms and hence features a plethora of war and strategy-related vocabulary. Words like 前後夾擊 qiánhòujiájī pincer attack and 都督 dūdu army commander might not seem like necessary words to learn but I have a hunch they will pop up in analogies.

So many words #013 - Auctions

2009-02-24T01:45:00.000-08:00

For €15,000,000, they could be yours

Auctions have been a hot topic this week, since Christie's unwisely decided to brave the flames of valiant Chinese netizens (網民) and auction off two pieces from Yves Saint-Laurent's collection, pieces that just happened to be ripped out of a fountain in the Summer Palace. Bad idea! Christie's was now able to sell the pieces for 20,000 times their original estimated value, no doubt causing fits of laughing and crying all the way to the bank for all parties involved.

The auction as a concept is called 拍賣 pāimài in Chinese, while the actual auction is called 拍賣會 pāimàihuì. In an auction the moderator uses a mallet 錘兒 chuír, to 落錘 luò chuí drop the hammer, when the final bid has been made. The bidder, on the other hand will 舉牌 jǔpái raise a sign to show that he is making a bid.

Auctions operate with several types of prices:

參考價 cānkǎojià - estimated price. The price in the catalog 圖錄 túlù.
成交價 chéngjiāojià - final price. The end result of the auction.
拍賣底價 pāimàidǐjià - lowest price. The lowest price the auctioneer is willing to accept.

Four parties are involved in an auction, they are:

拍賣人 pāimàirén - the auctioneer. The person or company entrusted with performing the actual action.
委托人 wěituōrén - the commissioner. The person who is entrusting the auctioneer with auctioning off an item.
競買人 jìngmǎirén - the bidder. The person who is making a bid.
買受人 mǎishòurén - the winner. The person who makes the winning bid

As with all forms of trade one can also use 買方 mǎifāng buyer and 賣方 màifāng seller with auctions. The auctioneer will usually charge a 傭金 yòngjīn commission from the commissioner.

And finally, here's some useful not-so-auction-related vocabulary:

煙幕 yānmù - smokescreen.

冤大頭 yuāndàtóu - squanderer. Someone who spends more money than necessary on smth.

哄抬物價 hōngtáiwùjià - drive up prices.

囤積居奇 túnjījūqí - hoard smth. to increase the price.

廢銅爛鐵 fèitónglàntiě - useless scrap metal. Can still get you millions of euros if you play your cards right.

We need five ways to say koala bear

2009-02-23T14:32:00.000-08:00

leave no leaf behind

The case of the Koala illustrates better than any rant or statistic the excesses of Chinese vocabulary: this animal, of which none has ever set paw in China outside a zoo, has no less than five different names in Chinese. As far as I've understood the different names are used in different regions:

樹袋熊 shùdàixióng - ???

無尾熊 wúwěixióng - Taiwan

考拉熊 kǎolāxióng - or just 考拉, used in the PRC

樹熊 shùxióng - HK

What's fascinating is how the different names stress different things about the koala: it's habitat, its kinship with the wombat (袋熊), its original name in Dharug or its tail-less physical appearance. English seems almost lexically impoverished in comparison, but then again, maybe we should be thankful for that.

So many words #012 - Dogs

2009-02-23T07:06:00.000-08:00

Good dogs.

Dogs are by far the most popular pet in China and Taiwan. Chinese prefer smaller breeds, for several reasons: small dogs cost less to feed, are better suited to living in cramped apartments and don't need to be taken out for a walk all that often (Chinese work a lot so this is a good thing).

Edit: my friend André points out that it's illegal to own a dog taller than 40cm within ring 4 in Beijing. I guess you really do learn something new every day.

Male dogs are called 公狗 gōnggǒu, female dogs 母狗 mǔgǒu. This is a pattern that repeats with most domesticated animals, see for example 母豬 sow, or 公雞 rooster. Puppies and small dogs are called 小狗 xiǎogǒu, or more colloquially, 狗狗 gǒugou. The measure word for dogs is 只 or 條, the latter usually used for small and long dogs..

Owning a dog has three common verbs associated with it, 養 raise/maintain，遛 walk and 喂 feed. The sentence below incorporates all three:

養狗很麻煩，每天都要去遛它三次，喂它兩次。Owning a dog is a lot of bother, you have to take it out for a walk three times and feed it twice every day.

The fur of a dog is called 皮毛 pímáo. The various types of fur are too numerous to list here, but the Wikipedia article gives a comprehensive list of ear types and fur types. Dog nouns are usually formed with 犬 as a suffix, 狗 being used less often. Here is a small sample:

獵犬 lièquǎn - hunting dog.

臘腸狗 làchánggǒu - "sausage dog", aka dachshund.

哈巴狗 hābagǒu - pekingese. Also means sycophant when used about people.

導盲犬 dǎomángquǎn - guide dog.

雪橇犬 xuěqiāoquǎn - sled dog.

Celebrating infinity

2009-02-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

My anki deck is still growing by an average of 30-40 new words a day, and today it broke 2500 words. I'm entering all new words with usage examples and pinyin, so it takes quite a bit of time.

Number 2500 is a reflexive verb, 恨不得 hènbude anxious to do smth. Translates to "I can't wait to" or "I want" in English, among other things.

我恨不得親你一下 I really want to kiss you,

Idioms #009 - 魑魅魍魎

2009-02-22T02:25:00.000-08:00

魑魅魍魎 chīmèiwǎngliǎng - ghosts and demons

This is a beautiful 成語 with dubious utility value and a rich background story. The expression consists of two parts, 魑魅 meaning mountain demons and 魍魎 meaning water demons, together they represent a motley assortment of goblins, devils and ghosts.

According to legend the Yellow Emperor did battle with the war deity Chi You (蚩尤), one of the descendants of the Yan Emperor. Chi You gathered the demons of the swamps, forests and mountains to serve as his army, and employed sorcery (most notably a poisonous mist) against the forces of the Yellow Emperor. Using a magical compass, the Yellow Emperor found his way out of the mist and Chi You was defeated.

魑魅魍魎 is notable for its many variations, the 魑 being written as both 螭 and 彲 and 魍魎 as 罔兩, 方良 and 蛧蜽.

Shanghai Daily Buzzwords

2009-02-21T13:49:00.000-08:00

Sifting through the various Chinese learning blogs out there, I found this gem, a blog with a weekly update for almost four years now, based on a column in Shanghai Daily. It covers various buzzwords in Chinese society and media. Here's an example from the most recent entry:

哈中族 (ha1 zhong1 zu2)
chinophile
More and more people in the world are showing an interest in Chinese elements, as seen in frequent scenes featuring items of Chinese culture like chopsticks, kung fu and qipao in foreign movies.

I think that's meant to be sinophile, but still, an amazing resource that I'll no doubt be using a lot this year.

So many words #011 - Guns

2009-02-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

Chinese is a vast language with a near-unlimited amount of words to learn. This short introduction to guns and gun-related vocabulary shows the variety of expressions that can exist just within a relatively narrow topic.

There are two verbs commonly associated with firing guns, 開 kāi and 射 shè. The former refers to the verb-object construction 開火, "open fire", a literal translation of the English equivalent, while 射 just means to shoot. Another useful verb is 拔 bá, which means to draw and can be used with handguns or rifles. Below is a usage example which incorporates these three verbs:

警察把手槍拔出來開火，對/向匪首射三次。The policeman drew his handgun and opened fire, firing three shots towards the bandit leader.

Note that in the last clause 向 and 對 can be used interchangeably in the sense of towards, 向 being the more formal of the two. 把 and 將 in the first clause share a similar relationship. 開 can also be used in place of 射 in the second clause. Furthermore, when a bullet has been fired, it either 打中 hit or 沒打中 missed, and if it hit 射 can then be used with the complement 傷, e.g 被射傷了 to get wounded by gunfire.

他曾經被射傷過：在一場槍戰中，一顆子彈打中了他的胸膛，穿透了肺臟。He had been wounded by gunfire once before; during a gunbattle, a bullet struck him in the chest and penetrated his lung.

A wound inflicted by a gun is called a 槍傷. This is actually an anomaly; in general, wound nouns are formed by adding the suffix 傷 to the action verb associated with the thing that caused the wound. Examples of this include 砍傷 gash, and 炸傷 explosive injury. All types of wounds are collocated with 受 to suffer:

50 Cent受過七次槍傷。50 Cent has been wounded by gunfire seven times.

Guns have a whole range of measure words associated with them, usually related to the shape of the gun but not at all consistent across the various types:

步槍 bùqiāng - rifle. The measure word for rifles is 桿 gǎn, which is commonly used for things with shafts.

子彈 zǐdàn - bullet. Like most small round things, bullets use the measure 顆.

防彈衣 fángdànyī - bulletproof vest. Similar to most items of clothing, the measure word for bulletproof vests is 件.

獵槍 lièqiāng - shotgun. Also called 霰彈槍. Measure word is 把. Shotgun shells are called 霰彈 and measured with 發.

機關槍 jīguānqiāng - machinegun. Interestingly, the measure is 挺, which as a measure word is associated exclusively with machineguns.

So many words #010 - 賊

2009-02-20T00:29:00.000-08:00

賊 zéi translates to thief, but in context it might take on different meanings, including traitor, rapist and, interestingly, squid! In general though, if you're called something with 賊 in it, chances are it's something nasty.

烏賊 wūzéi - cuttlefish. The cuttlefish is a type of squid that can change the color of its skin like a chameleon. In Taiwanese politics, 烏賊 is used to refer to opportunists who change their political colors whenever convenience demands it.

小毛賊 xiǎomáozéi - petty thief. 毛 is a character with many different meanings, one could imagine that the 毛 here referred to the money unit, but seeing as 毛 can also mean small or insignificant, a more likely explanation is that 小毛 together mean petty.

賣國賊 màiguózéi - traitor. Relatively straightforward. A word you will hear in Taiwan a lot these days, usually in sentences like 馬英九，這個賣國賊，暗渡陳倉地把臺灣賣給共匪！That traitor Ma Ying-jeou, he is secretly giving up Taiwan to the communist bandits!

采花賊 cǎihuāzéi - rapist. Sometimes I just don't know what to make of Chinese words. The verb-object structure 采花 means to pluck flowers, but also to forcibly enter a house and commit rape. A reasonable explanation would be that flowers here are used as a euphemism for female sexuality or lecherousness, other words like 花花公子 playboy, or 百合花 pure maiden would seem to support this.

誤上賊船 wùshàngzéichuán - to board a pirate ship by mistake. Not as stupid as it might sound from my English translation, this idiom is really just a fancy way to say 上當. When you 誤誤上一個人的賊船, e.g. board somebody's pirate ship by mistake, you are unknowingly heading into a situation where you're going to be swindled or cheated.

So many words #009 - Disaster!

2009-02-18T01:03:00.000-08:00

Every self-respecting Chinese student knows 地震 by now but that doesn't mean you're fully equipped to describe the apocalypse of collapsing infrastructure and global warming-induced disasters that we'll see in the coming years. Here's a start:

坍塌 tāntā - collapse. Collocated with bridges, stadiums and other large structures. Compare and contrast with 崩潰 which is usually collocated with larger, more abstract entities, like countries and economies.

塌方 tāfāng - landslide. Also means cave-in.

雪崩 xuěbēng - avalanche.

潰壩 kuìbà - dam breach.

搶險 qiǎngxiǎn - rush to the rescue. But alas, it's all for naught.

Idioms #008 - 姹紫嫣紅

2009-02-17T12:12:00.000-08:00

姹紫嫣紅 chàzǐyānhóng - beautiful flowers.

One of those seemingly useless phrases that I'm sure will eventually pop up on some sign I see a few years from now on. This 成語 originates from "The Peony Pavillion" by Ming-era playwright Tang Xianzu, and is found in the following passage.

原來姹紫嫣紅開遍，似這般都付與斷井頹垣

Luxuriant flowers have bloomed all around the dilapidated well and wall.

So many words #008 - Cash (stimulus edition)

2009-02-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

Theme for today's entry is cash.

倒貼 dàotiē - pay money to give smth. to someone. 這東西倒貼給我，我也不要! "I wouldn't take this stuff even if you paid me!". Useful for when your friendly local broker tries to pawn off some Mortgage-Backed Securities on you.

貼錢 tiēqián - pay out of your own pocket. Used with rebate/stimulus checks, since most of those being issued in various countries require you to pay a certain amount of the price of the item yourself (to prevent fraud).

發跡 fājì - to get money and fame. Something that won't be happening to finance majors anytime soon.

消費卷 xiāofèijuàn - stimulus check, m. word 張. Collocated with the verb 兌現 duìxiàn, which means to cash.

冤枉錢 yuānwangqián - wasted money. What the stimulus checks will ultimately end up being.

Idioms #007 - 積沙成塔

2009-01-29T00:15:00.000-08:00

積沙成塔 jīshāchéngtǎ - all great things have humble beginnings

積 jī - accumulate

沙 shā - sand

成 chéng - become

塔 tǎ - tower

To celebrate the fact that my Anki deck has now passed 2000 words, here's a nice 成語, "a great tower begins with the first grain of sand". As I wrote in an earlier post, I'm currently adding new words at a rate of 64 a day, or 1921 a month. This means that I will most likely have a deck of over 10 000 words by the year's end. A nice tower, indeed.

So many words #007

2009-01-28T02:01:00.000-08:00

One popular misconception is that Eskimos have 200 (or 300, or 400, the sky's the limit when you're making stuff up) words for snow. Eskimos actually don't have all that many words for snow, but their language, which is agglutinative, can build a near-infinite number of compounds that describe different kinds of snow. Us linguists can only hope that the old chestnut about eskimos and snow will be replaced by a more suitable example, like the hundred or so euphemisms for dying in Chinese.

A language which does have a lot of words for snow is Norwegian. One look out my window today would tell you why. Words like kram snø, skare, driv, pudder, slaps, sludd, hagl are all examples of words that describe snow with different kinds of consistency, and often don't have a good English equivalent.

鏟雪 chǎnxuě - to shovel snow. Used in the word 鏟雪車 chǎnxuěchē, snowplow.

雪車 xuěchē - snowmobile. Measure word is 部 or 輛, I'm not entirely sure which one it is.

滑雪板 huáxuěbǎn - sled.

雪球 xuěqiú - snowball.

冰雪聰明 bīngxuěcōngmíng - cooly intelligent. Used to describe (what else?) smart women.

So many words #006

2009-01-25T00:47:00.000-08:00

Many of the pioneer sinologists were Christian missionaries, and courtesy of the Wikipedia article about Matteo Ricci, aka 利瑪竇 Lì Mǎdòu, here are some useful words about Christianity.

主禱文 Zhǔdǎowén - The Lord's Prayer

聖母 shèngmǔ - the Virgin Mary

十誡 shíjiè - the ten commandments

聖經 shèngjīng - the Bible

司鐸 sīduó - catholic priest

Idioms #006 - 蜻蜓點水

2009-01-23T23:05:00.001-08:00

蜻蜓點水 qīngtíngdiǎnshuǐ -to just know or do smth. superficially

蜻蜓 qīngtíng - dragonfly

點水 diǎnshuǐ - dip water

Dragonflies live near ponds and swamps, laying their eggs just underneath the water surface. When they fly around they will sometimes land lightly on the surface of the water, hence giving rise to this idiom.

So many words #005

2009-01-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

打雞血 dǎ jīxuè refers to a medical treatment popular during the Cultural Revolution, at one point being used to cure every imaginable disease from hemophlegia, infertility to hemorrhoids. The treatment consisted of injecting the patient with one liter of chicken blood every week for 10 weeks.

Thanks to the very helpful and informative Wikipedia article on the subject I have now expanded my disease-related vocabulary.

痘瘡 dòuchuāng - smallpox. Also called 天花 or 牛痘 for cow's smallpox.

痔瘡 zhìchuāng - hemorrhoids. When you've seen 瘡 a few times, associations start to form. Yeech.

半癱 bàntān - hemophlegia, the condition of having half your body paralyzed, usually after a stroke. Also called 半身不遂 bànshēnbùsuì, more colloquially.

牛皮癬 niúpíxuǎn - psoriasis. Again, associations form quickly upon seeing the characters that make up this word. Like in English diseases have several names (compare/contrast tuberculosis and consumption), in this case the second name is 銀屑病 yínxièbìng, which directly translated means "silver flake disease". I don't think a more suitable name could have been found.

腳氣 jiǎoqì - athlete's foot. One can almost smell the noxious fumes emanating from the foot.

So many words #004

2009-01-22T03:00:00.000-08:00

祝愿 zhùyuàn - to wish. Different in usage from the more common 希望 "to hope", this word is used when one wants to wish somebody luck or success.

盛會 shènghuì - a grand gathering. Picked up while listening to Deutsche Welle's excellent Mandarin podcast, used in reference to Obama's inauguration ceremony.

成風 chéngfēng - to become common practice. Used in compounds like 貪污成風 "corruption becomes common practice".

齲齒 qǔchǐ - rotten tooth, caries. There are a conspicuous number of words for decayed teeth in Chinese, off the top of my head I can list 蛀牙, 蟲牙 as well as 齲齒. Chinese people tend to have bad dental hygiene so this should come as no wonder.

宮娥 gōng'é - palace maid. One of the numerous words relating to the Emperor's court. This is a field I thankfully have not looked too much into, I'm sure that when I start researching it seriously I will have a vocabulary into the hundreds about clothes, paraphernalia and courtesy words.

Idioms #005 - 國家興亡，匹夫有責#

2009-01-22T02:49:00.000-08:00

國家興亡，匹夫有責 guójiāxīngwáng, pǐfūyǒuzé - each man bears responsibility for the fate of the nation.

Again, not strictly a 成語, this is a quotation from the 日知錄 rìzhīlù "Record of the Sun's Knowledge" by the late Ming/early Qing-period writer Gu Yanwu (顧炎武). It is similar in meaning, if not in usage, to the English "now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country", a common phrase used to test typewriters back in the day.

So many words #003

2009-01-21T00:22:00.000-08:00

陰霾 yīnmái - dark fog. 霾 is a beautiful character with a somewhat rare combination of components: 雨, 豸, 里. From the components one can imagine the mythical beast 豸 zhì, roaring in the distance on a rainy, foggy night.

斑斕 bānlán - gorgeous. The first character, 斑 bān, is fairly common and appears among other things in 雀斑 quèbān, "freckles", but the second, 斕 lán, seems to appear only in this word. Many rare characters like this can be found in descriptive words.

瑪瑙 mǎnǎo - agate.

橢圓 tuǒyuán - elliptical. Notable in that it uses 隋 as a component in a normal 形聲, as far as I know the only character in common use that does this.

饕餮 tāotiè - mythical beast (or a gluttonous lazy person). These two extremely rare characters are used in a common test of literacy given to native Chinese. Those that are able to recognize these are given a rank of 8, which is the highest attainable on the test. 餮 tiè "glutton" is an interesting character: it consists of the phonetic 殄 tiǎn "destroy" and 食 shí "food". So a glutton is somebody who destroys food. Very nice.

Idioms #004 - 紅顏薄命

2009-01-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

紅顏薄命 hóngyánbómìng - tragic is the fate of a beautiful woman

紅 hóng - red

顏 yán - face

薄 bó - thin, shallow

命 mìng - fate

紅顏 describes the powdered and rouged face of the court beauty, 薄命 means "to have bad luck" or "to be short-lived". This saying originates from a 曲 qǔ named 鴛鴦被 "bedding for the newly-weds" by an anonymous author from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

We like to believe in the idea of cosmic fairness: for the beautiful woman with the red cheeks in this idiom, the attention lavished on her by her suitors is just the calm before the storm. More recently, the modern-day archetypes of the genius that slowly goes insane or the washed-up former athlete give us some comfort in that at least the success and happiness of those more blessed than us is a temporary, fleeting thing.

So many words #002

2009-01-19T22:21:00.000-08:00

惠恤 huìxù means to care for the poor and disadvantaged. It's a compound of two different words with similar meaning: 施惠 and 恤民.

憔悴 qiáocuì means "haggard" as in the face of someone who has not eaten for days.

梧桐 wútóng is the name of a tree that grows in China, the parasol tree (Firmiana Simplex).

璀璨 cuǐcàn "bright, resplendent". The glamour of a hundred movie stars walking the red carpet on Oscar night.

吝嗇 lìnsè "stingy". Often used in the negative, as in 毫不吝嗇 "generous".

Idioms #003 - 高處不勝寒

2009-01-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

高處不勝寒 gāochùbùshènghán - it's lonely at the top

高 gāo - high

處 chù - place

不 bù - not

勝 shèng - win

寒 hán - cold

Not strictly a 成語 since it contains five characters, but an idiomatic expression nonetheless and relevant to the young new president being inaugurated today. As with many Chinese idioms, this originally appeared in a poem, more specifically in the 水調歌頭 by the famous Song dynasty poet Su Shi (蘇軾):

明月幾時有，把酒問青天。

不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年？

我欲乘風歸去，又恐瓊樓玉宇

高處不勝寒。

How long will the full moon appear?
Wine cup in hand, I ask the sky.
I don’t know what time of year,
It would be to night in the palace on high.
Riding the wind there I would fly,
Yet I’m afraid the crystalline palace would be,
Too high and cold for me.

Chinese poetry is divided into periods, corresponding with the change of dynasties, where one style was dominant. During the Song Dynasty (960-1269 a.d), the style in vogue was 詞 cí, lyrics set to the popular tunes of the day. This is one of the more famous examples of the style and there have even been written modern pop songs around this poem!

So many words #001

2009-01-19T09:13:00.000-08:00

Chinese has a lot of words. Lots. So many that even the most dedicated of students could only begin to scratch the surface. Here's some of the ones that I entered into Anki today.

粗獷 cūguǎng - rough, boorish

盔甲 kuījiǎ - armor (measure word 副)

戰俘 zhànfú - prisoner of war

馬廄 mǎjiù - stable

蟾光 chánguāng - moonlight

I'm still not completely sure how I went three and a half years without learning the word for "stable", but due to their environment mostly being an academic one, it's not uncommon for students of Chinese to know fairly obscure literary terms while being unaware of basic everyday vocabulary items.

I picked up 戰俘 while listening to Deutsche Welle's excellent Mandarin podcast. Of course, Chinese has another word for prisoner of war, which is 俘虜 fúlǔ.

Anki

2009-01-18T22:41:00.001-08:00

For someone learning several languages at once, it's very important to manage time efficiently. Since I have less time to learn Portuguese, Cantonese, Japanese and Taiwanese than I have to learn German and Chinese (the languages I study at the university), I can't afford to waste time relearning words and phrases.

This is where Anki comes in. Anki is a flashcard program that incorporates spaced repetition. With Anki, Every time you answer a flashcard correctly you also notify the program whether you thought the question was hard, somewhat easy or very easy to answer. The program will then schedule that card for a later date.

Spaced repetition makes time management very efficient. You can adjust the number of new cards a day, so for a low-priority language like Portuguese I can learn five new words a day whereas with Chinese I will do maybe fifty new words. And even with only five new words a day, if those stick I will have a vocabulary of 2000 words by the end of the year. Not bad.

With Anki, I now learn new vocabulary at ten times the speed I used to do. I can even upload cards to my iPhone and do repetitions on the bus. An absolutely fantastic program.

Idioms #002 - 塞翁失馬

2009-01-18T20:23:00.000-08:00

塞翁失馬 sàiwēngshīmǎ - blessing in disguise

塞 sài - from 邊塞 biānsài, frontier fortress

翁 wēng - old man

失 shī - lose

罵 mǎ - horse

A few days ago I received an email which said that the Norwegian consulate in Guangzhou was looking for someone to do a six-month internship there. Even though I would be perfect for the position, I'm finishing my bachelor's degree this semester and there is no way I could apply for it. After I had called my girlfriend and told her about this, she sent me an SMS which said "塞翁失馬，焉知非福".

These two 成語 are usually used together. They refer to a story from the 淮南子 about a horsebreeder named 塞翁, who has his horse run off. When the neighbors come to console him about losing his horse, he shrugs it off and says "even though my horse ran off, who's to say that's not a good thing?".

Some time afterwards, his horse returns, together with a flock of strong horses from the neighboring state of Hu. The neighbors come over to his house to congratulate him about this, but he remains indifferent, saying "getting a lot of horses for free, I'm afraid that's not a good thing". And who could have anticipated that not too long afterwards, his son falls off and breaks his leg when he tries to ride one of the horses.

The neighbors once again come over to his house to comfort him, but to their surprise he says "who's to say my son breaking his leg isn't a good thing?". A while later the state of Hu invades, and every able-bodied man is conscripted. 塞翁's son, since he had broken his leg, is exempted.

This reveals a very Chinese way of thinking: one should neither despair over one's losses nor gloat about one's successes, for fate might turn on you in an instant.

Idioms #001

2009-01-18T02:12:00.000-08:00

篳路藍縷 bìlùlánlǚ - endure great hardships in pioneer work

篳 bì - bamboo

路 lù - road

藍 lán - blue

縷 lǚ - thread

This is an interesting 成語. I originally thought 篳路 meant to "finish a road", which would also have made sense in the context of the idiom. I couldn't have been more mistaken, it is actually an ancient term for a firewood truck (柴車) which was used, among other things, when developing new land. 藍縷 on the other hand describes worn-out, raggedy clothes.

Together they create the mental image of the frontier worker, his hands blistered and his clothes ragged from months of hard labor, pushing the cart ahead of him to the construction site.