Thursday, May 13, 2010

Chinglish (and Englinese?)

exectuion

Click here for some laughs:

A Sampling of Chinglish: slideshow

Of course, I'm sure I make some howlers when I mangle Chinese (I call it “Englinese”).


Speaking of which, I'm proud to say I'm still on track. As of yesterday, I remembered the meaning, pronunciation, reading ,and writing of the following words for this week (patting myself on the back here, but also testing myself today as I write these):

有意思 yǒu yì si to be interesting
shì to try
shuō to speak
màn slow
shǒu [measure:songs]
週末 zhōu mò weekend
密碼 mì mǎ password
to drink
愉快 yú kuài happy
吸煙 xī yān to smoke
肉絲 ròu sī shredded meat
de [particle:manner/degree]
néng can (physically)
可以 kě yǐ can (permission)
huì can (learned)
tīng to hear, listen
茄子 qié zi eggplant
青椒 qīng jiāo green pepper
huà word
shì matter, affair
song
nán difficult
有一點 yǒu yì diǎn slightly
意思 yì si meaning
好像 hǎo xiàng to seem to be
jiǔ alcohol
niàn to read
番茄 fān qié tomato
zhēn real, true
做事 zuò shì to take care of matters
畫畫 huà huà to paint, draw
xiě to write
jiāo to teach
fàn food, cooked rice
點飯 diǎn fàn to order food
chàng to sing
無線上網 wú xiàn shàng wǎng wireless Internet
味道 wèi dào flavor
現在 xiàn zài now



There are two words from this week that I keep forgetting how to write, although I can recognize the meaning and pronunciation when I see them:

不錯 bú cuò not bad
跳舞 tiào wǔ to dance

Did you notice that there are two words above pronounced exactly alike? SHÌ (試 to try) and SHÌ (事 matter).pulling hair These homophones significantly complicate my learning.

Add to these some other words that I already know—

SHÌ (是 to be)
SHÌ (市 city,market)
SHÌ (式 style)
SHÌ (視 part of the word for TV)
SHÌ (世 part of the word for world)

Plus some other SHIs that I know with different tones

SHĪ (師 part of the word for teacher)
SHĪ (獅 lion)
SHÍ (十 ten)
SHÍ (時 hour)
SHÍ (石 stone)
SHǏ (屎 excrement)

—well, the picture sums it up pretty well.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Proud of myself


This morning, I did NOT turn on my computer the first thing. Instead, I made some coffee, unplugged my laptop, put it on the OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM, and proceeded to do one hour of calligraphy practice, and one hour of Chinese study.

Yes, it's gotten to that point: If I want to get anything worthwhile accomplished, I have to force myself to stay away from the damn Internet.

If felt good. No, it felt great! Can I keep it up? This week will be a test for me.

By the way, here are some photos of my weekend activities. Enjoy!

Click on photos to enlarge




Sunday, May 9, 2010

omg Omg OMG!

OK, so maybe three OMGs is a bit much. Still, I was totally stoked to find hazelnut syrup and Dr. Pepper in Taoyuan! (on Da You Rd. [大有路], near the entrance to Tiger Head Mountain).

They also had tons of baking ingredients, spices (with English labels), and hard to get items like real pickles, jalapeño peppers, and sour cream. Unfortunately, some of the items are hit-and-miss; so, while they may not have Dr. Pepper the next time I go there, they could very well have tortilla chips.

Had a great day today: Calligraphy class in the morning and mini golf in the afternoon. Read all about it in the next entry. Right now, though, I'm eating Zatarain's red beans & rice and attempting to bake cookies in a toaster oven.

The wine is helping.