The bare form of the word "beaver"

@Joe Nation,

Joe Nation wrote:

Quote:
BTW, it is for the first time that you've spoken Chinese here, Joe. "Be Well" means "保重“ （bao zhong) in Chinese. "得到很好的" is not natural and it seems no native Chinese speak like that.

Rats! I was trying to show off. The Chairman of my company is coming this month and he and I are going on a two trip together. His English is reputedly poor and I only know how to say "Hello" in Chinese. So I have been practicing using Google Translate on my iPhone.
If it cannot say "Be well" correctly, I am in big trouble.

The other day I tried finding out how to say "Good Night" to local manager, he laughed and said that I had learned to say the equivalent of "Nighty-night".

Joe(gah!)Nation

Eh? I ran to Google Translate to verify and indeed got the result that you've showed off:
http://translate.google.cn/?hl=en#en/zh-TW/Be%20well

Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn in the world. What a machine translator produces (Chinese to English or E to C) is extremly less reliable and cannot be trusted at all.

But it tranlates "good night" (晚安， wan an) correctly. Nighty-night is a baby-talk word that means "good night." (interjection)
An example of nighty night is what you might say to your son as you tuck him into bed.

I cannot figure out why your local manager would have laughed and said that you had learned to say the equivalent of "Nighty-night".

What did you say that in Chinese?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

晚安

Good night(?)

He said it was something you'd say as you were on your way to bed, not something you would say as you left your co-workers at the office.

Yes? No?

I'm sure Mr. Meng and I are going to have a good time. He can speak into my iPhone and it will translate it into English.

Joe(I hope)Nation

1 Reply

@Joe Nation,

Joe Nation wrote:

晚安

Good night(?)

He said it was something you'd say as you were on your way to bed, not something you would say as you left your co-workers at the office.

Yes? No?

Yes, "Good Night."

An automatical translation by iPhone? Can you use Pin Yin (or something similar) to write down what he sounded so that I can figure out what he said in Chinese?

1 Reply

Can you see this? (click): 晚上好

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@oristarA,

Wǎn'ān

(My manager may have been just teasing me.)

Chinese is SO difficult compared to English. We speakers of English are lazy. Smile

We like things simple. No tones, no, as there are in French, German, Spanish, special endings for male and female words (Amigo, Amiga; ~ in English, it's just FRIEND, not male friend and female friend.) We do have lots of rules and we do have lots of colloquial expressions which don't fit any of those rules and English changes very quickly (we don't speak English today the way we spoke it only thirty years ago. Ask the movie producers.) BUT it's still simpler than Chinese. Rolling Eyes

Thanks for the tip about Pin Yin, I'm going to study with it.
Joe(How does someone wish someone else to Be Well in Chinese?)Nation

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@Joe Nation,

Quote:

Chinese is SO difficult compared to English.

Another old wives tale, Joe. Any second language seems difficult to adults but there's no language that is more difficult than another. Children learn them all with no bother whatsoever. Take a native whatever language child, plunk 'em down in another language and they've got it nailed within a year.

Quote:

We speakers of English are lazy.

Another old wives tale, Joe.

1 Reply

I'm so happy to see this thread about bare beavers remains active. I've been following it very closely.

1 Reply

@Joe Nation,

This thread makes me think of Kurt Vonneguts "Breakfast of Champions."

1 Reply

@Strauss,

Yes.

Joe(Hi, Strauss)Nation

0 Replies

@chai2,

What part?
Or all of it?
If it's all of it of it, okay, but I bet it's not.

Today we were trying to think of a good translation for Xi Li.
Both words mean happiness or joy or both.

I voted not to translate them.

Joe(Xi2)Nation

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Another old wives tale, Joe. Any second language seems difficult to adults but there's no language that is more difficult than another. Children learn them all with no bother whatsoever. Take a native whatever language child, plunk 'em down in another language and they've got it nailed within a year.

I very much doubt that Joe is a child of language acquisition age.

After the point is reached whereby the brain is hardwired, so to speak, for language acquisition, it becomes very difficult for most people to acquire a new language. Some people do retain the ability to easily acquire languages other than their native ones throughout their lives. They are a small minority, however.

1 Reply

@tycoon,

The problem is that a bare beaver is a contradiction in terms. A paradox if you will.

0 Replies

@Joe Nation,

Joe Nation wrote:

What part?
Or all of it?
If it's all of it of it, okay, but I bet it's not.

Remember how he draws pictures in that book?

He somehow brings up the subject of "wide open beaver", then there's 2 hand drawn pictures, one of each kind.

Oh heck, it's not that scandalous I guess, here's the text around it, and pictures....

From: Breakfast of Champions

A beaver was actually a large rodent. It loved water, so it built dams. It looked like this:

http://www.nerve.com/files/regulars/jacksnaughtybits/02-28-00/beaver.gif

The sort of beaver which excited news photographers so much looked like this:

http://www.nerve.com/files/regulars/jacksnaughtybits/02-28-00/bush.gif

This was where babies came from.

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@InfraBlue,

Quote:

I very much doubt that Joe is a child of language acquisition age.

He sure cries a lot. Wink

But that wasn't my point, Infra. The OWT is that one language is more difficult than another to learn. As you have noted any 2nd language is tough for adults, but a lot of that is caused by god awful teaching methods.

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contrex, I'd been thinking "twit", but perhaps you're right. "Prat" may be superior, evne tho it's pretty much only the other side of the pond.

And nighty night to you too, Joe.

1 Reply

@Strauss,

Strauss wrote:

Can you see this? (click): 晚上好

Yes I can.

0 Replies

@Joe Nation,

Quote:

The other day I tried finding out how to say "Good Night" to local manager, he laughed and said that I had learned to say the equivalent of "Nighty-night".

Joe Nation wrote:

晚安

Good night(?)

He said it was something you'd say as you were on your way to bed, not something you would say as you left your co-workers at the office.

Yes? No?

Joe Nation wrote:

Wǎn'ān

(My manager may have been just teasing me.)

Your manager was right, not teasing.

晚安 can only be said when you (or he/she) are on the way to bed.

When leaving your co-workers at the office at dusk, you may say "晚上开心“、”今晚快乐“ (both "Happy tonight") to them.
And if you meet them at that evening again, you may say "晚上好“（"Good evening"），but not "晚安“ （Good night)。

However, the actual use of such wish would be very casual. For example, one may say when leaving office: 走了，拜拜。（I'm going. Bye-bye)

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@Joe Nation,

Joe Nation wrote:

Joe(How does someone wish someone else to Be Well in Chinese?)Nation

1) 请多保重
2）保重
3) 平安

1),2) and 3) are to be said seriously and calmly.

4）祝福 (to be said joyfully)

The actual usage of such wish varies according to environments. It can be wordy. Take a look at here:

祝福语发给朋友
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/8856b2c78bd63186bcebbc93.html

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@MontereyJack,

Quote:

contrex, I'd been thinking "twit", ...

A twit, MJ, would be a guy who spreads ignorance on language and then proves himself wrong in the next breath. A twit would be a guy who doesn't have the balls to honestly address his stated ignorance after it has been clearly shown to him.

There are, of course, other words that would describe behavior like this; 'prat' might even be one of them. I'll leave that to Contrex to decide.

0 Replies

The bare form of the word "beaver"

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