Funny Animal Names

Like many other languages, Chinese language has many compound words. A compound word is a word that joined by two or more old words.

Many animal names in Chinese are compound words; some people found them strange; some found them quite clever.

Could you guess what animals they are in the below:

袋鼠 （C-doih-syú; M-dàishŭ)

Bag Mouse

壁虎 （C-bik-fú; M-bìhŭ)

Wall Tiger

海象 (C-hói-jeuhng; M-hăixiàng)

Sea Elephant

長頸鹿/长颈鹿 (C-chèuhng-géng-luhk; M-chángjǐnglù)

Long Neck Deer

鴨嘴獸/鸭嘴兽 (C-ngaap-jéui-sau; M-yāzuǐshòu)

Duck Beak Monster

Click on the characters to check the answers!

A poem for (Mandarin) tones lovers

《施氏食獅史》

石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。
氏时时适市视狮。
十时，适十狮适市。
是时，适施氏适市。
氏视是十狮，恃矢势，使是十狮逝世。
氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。
石室湿，氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭，氏始试食是十狮尸。
食时，始识是十狮，实十石狮尸。
试释是事。

Warning: This piece may damage your vision, and make you sound like a lisper temporary.

« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »

Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.

Thank you for your effort, and you deserve the translation:

« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »

In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.

The poem , consists of 92 characters with 1 sound in 4 tones, was written by Chao Yuen Ren, a Chinese American linguist, to against the idea of replacing classical Chinese characters with romanization. The poem is almost impossible to understand by romanization but characters.

I hope you had a good time there.

Emilie's Story Part I

This was originally a piece of holiday homework for Emilie, it later turned out to be a short story!

Part I was written by me, the rest was by Emilie.

Part I

十一月二十一日 雨

我看到她了。

今天我很忙。清晨要開車送太太到機場，她要到倫敦工作五天。然後回家後把車給兒子，今天他要用我的車上班，聽說他有了一個新的女朋友。

我坐出租車回大學，今天我們要和校長開會。那是一個三小時的大會，我們沒有時間說笑，也沒有時間吃飯，今天早上一點也不輕鬆。

晚上回家後兒子不在，我一個人出去吃飯和看電影。我去了中環的IFC看電影，看的是活地阿倫的《遇上陌生情人》。他的電影我都覺得有意思，但是生活更有意思。

然後，我在電影院看到了她。

作文：請用不少於400字完成日記。

When I said He, what I meant was...

"She quitted his job, took three-month holiday and went to France. She then later went to a Le Cordon Bleu school to follow his passion as a pastry chef... "

"...wait, is the person a he or a she?"

This is not an uncommon question you would ask when you have a conversation with a native Chinese speaker.

One day, I was in Causeway Bay on my way home, a foreigner asked me for direction, "excuse me, do you know where the Discovery Bay pier is?"

"It was in Central near IFC mall."

He looked a bit puzzled.

"Sorry! I meant 'it IS in Central'!!! Yes... present tense!"

You don't have to be a fluent Chinese speaker to know that saying "he" and "she" in spoken Chinese are the same; and in Chinese language, there is no tenses.

Many people here in Hong Kong started learning English when they were about 3 or 4. Some people even learnt to speak English before Cantonese.

We are expected to write, read and speak English on a decent level.

I think many people who are learning a second language share a similar situation- it seems fine when longer time is given to us to construct a sentence. However, when we are in a situation that requires an INSTANT RESPONSE, we make more mistakes. Our brains are not fast enough to construct a "perfect" sentence.

If you are Chinese, you might miss out the "s" after a plural noun; or forget to change the tense of a sentence when it is a past event; or missaying "he" when it is actually a "she"...

If you are a native English speaker, you might put the time word at the end of the sentence (In Chinese, a time word is generally placed in front, or after the subject.); you might add an unnecessary article in front of a noun.

How can we train our brains to think faster? You have to speak and response, try to have conversation with native speakers; hitting language or grammar books all the time won't bring you anywhere close to fluent level.

A student of mine who also speaks fluent Japanese, told me that he practiced Japanese while spending nights in Japanese bars talking to local people over drinks. Now living in a city surrounded with not-so-patient people, he tries to "annoy" the taxi drivers...

So, what do they actually mean?

明(Mandarin-míng;Cantonese-mìhng)

sun+moon=bright

掰 (M-bāi; C-bāai)

hand+divide+hand=to break off something





囍 (M-xǐ;C- héi)

happiness+happiness=double happiness (used for marital happiness)

嬲 (M-niăo; C-nāu)

man+woman+wan=M-to flirt with someone;to tease; C-to angry at someone (I'd be surprised if no one got angry...)

囚 (M-qiú; C-chàuh)

to surround+person=imprison

The stories behind the characters

Many people complain about how difficult it is to learn Chinese characters.

It is true that most of the time, we do not have a clue what the pronunciation of a Chinese character is until you learn it.

But, what about the meanings?

Could we tell the meanings of a Chinese character by just looking at it?

(before answering, try looking at these characters, though you have to have some basic knowledge of Chinese characters first!)

明，掰，囍，嬲 ，囚

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day!

Have been reading poems these day and found one I quite like. (Though it is a sad poem!)

Have it translated into English here:

我知道凡是美丽的总不肯，也不会为谁停留。

所以，我把我的爱情和忧伤挂在墙上展览，

并且出售

——席慕容《画展》

Art Exhibition

If beauty does last, it is a rare privilege.

Therefore,

my love and sorrow are hanging for sale,

on the exhibition wall.

-Xi Murong