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China bans English words in media

China bans English words in media

Old Mar 15th 2011, 7:03 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by nonthaburi
I don't really think that people struggle that much. It doesn't really take much to learn a few different ways of saying things. I even find myself using " gas " instead of petrol because that is what everyone else does. I think spelling settings on the computer are annoying though, they are always fixed to American. I only realised a while back about pyjamas / pajamas. Zed and Zee are annoying too. My own son was telling me that I was wrong for saying Zed because his teacher ( Filipina ) told him it was Zee !
Brits don't struggle that much because we have so much American TV but say an untraveled American that your going to the garage for petrol they will definitely look confused.
Obviously its not a life or death situation, most of the time its funny.
But I teach a bit of English sometimes and I picked up a fireman toy and said fireman but the parents corrected me and said 'no firefighter' ! and they say zee and I said zed which is fine unless they start to doubt my English speaking abilities because its different to all their kids books and tapes (mostly all American authors etc).
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Old Mar 15th 2011, 7:59 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

I hate the word 'airplane', another word invented over there. American's are lazy speakers ! They make new words that are easier to speak.
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Old Mar 15th 2011, 8:52 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by nonthaburi
My own son was telling me that I was wrong for saying Zed because his teacher ( Filipina ) told him it was Zee !
Crikey you wanna nip that in the bud quick
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Old Mar 16th 2011, 7:21 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by andrewrh
I hate the word 'airplane', another word invented over there. American's are lazy speakers ! They make new words that are easier to speak.
That is another one that got me 'in trouble' I spelt Aeroplane during a class only to be corrected on how it is 'AIRPLANE'
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Old Mar 16th 2011, 10:25 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by HK2UK
That is another one that got me 'in trouble' I spelt Aeroplane during a class only to be corrected on how it is 'AIRPLANE'
but surely the most annoying one has got to be the date ; month before date as in 9/11.
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Old Mar 16th 2011, 10:26 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by nonthaburi
but surely the most annoying one has got to be the date ; month before date as in 9/11.
oooooooooops, and I forgot drivethru. THRU ! I mean come on !
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Old Mar 17th 2011, 9:25 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by nonthaburi
but surely the most annoying one has got to be the date ; month before date as in 9/11.
ha so true, especially when you get a form denied because you bloody wrote the date in the wrong way around ! doh!

Day - Month - Year - makes the most sense!
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Old Mar 23rd 2011, 4:33 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

very interesting, it sounds like the french. but all power to them
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Old Mar 31st 2011, 4:35 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by bakedbean
It sounds like that, doesn't it.

What amazed me the other day was understanding the diversity of the different dialects. I think someone told me once that Cantonese and Mandarin are kinda similar and you can get by with one of those. I wouldn't know as I don't speak either dialect but maybe someone can confirm.

What I hadn't realised though was that Hokkien (which is spoken in Penang) seems to be totally different to Mandarin.
Bakedbean. Putonhua or main language in China is based in Mandarin. Mandarin is the main official language, not a dialiect. It is the most widely spoken form of Chinese spoken in all of China north of the Yangtze River and in much of the rest of the country and is the native language of two-thirds of the population varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. There are between seven and thirteen main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 850 million), followed by Wu (90 million), Cantonese (Yue) (70 million) and Min (50 million).
Cantonese is very different from Mandarin. I would consider it to be called a language, but, hm many consider it a dialect.
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Old Apr 3rd 2011, 8:23 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Cheers redvino. So where does Hokkien fit into the picture? Just asking as that is the common Chinese dialect here in Penang island.
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Old Apr 3rd 2011, 12:16 pm
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by bakedbean
Cheers redvino. So where does Hokkien fit into the picture? Just asking as that is the common Chinese dialect here in Penang island.
Dear Bakedbean, I must admit that "My name is Manuel and I know nothing about the Hokkien". You are the expert living in Penang

But I fell curious about the topic and thanks to a quick internet search I found this....

The Penang Hokkien people trace their origin to seafarers to left the province of Fujian in southern China since the 17th century......
Please read the whole article....

http://www.penang-traveltips.com/pen...ien-people.htm
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Old Apr 4th 2011, 7:20 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Cheers Manuel. I've only been living in Penang for 8 months so I'm no expert I'm afraid.
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Old Apr 4th 2011, 11:45 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by bakedbean
It sounds like that, doesn't it.

What amazed me the other day was understanding the diversity of the different dialects. I think someone told me once that Cantonese and Mandarin are kinda similar and you can get by with one of those. I wouldn't know as I don't speak either dialect but maybe someone can confirm.

What I hadn't realised though was that Hokkien (which is spoken in Penang) seems to be totally different to Mandarin.
China has a number of languages and they are not closely related. Cantonese to a mandarin speakers ears would be akin to hearing Italian if your native language is Latin...familiar but mostly gibberish.

Mandarin is the only language you need to learn if you want to go anywhere in China and have a chance of being understood though. But it's not what a lot of Chinese will speak at home. Look at China as a sort of unified Europe that's had a common language for centuries but everyone reverts to their "local" language at home.

N.
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Old Apr 5th 2011, 3:58 pm
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by HK2UK
Well I meant more difficulty through accents actually, I.e when I asked for water, sometimes they just didn't understand me so I'd drop the T and then it was easier.

But there are actual differences in words such as;
pants/trousers, garden/yard, chemist/pharmacy, crisps/chips, toilet/restroom, C.V/Resume, cinema/movie theatre, flat/apartment, petrol/gas, garage/gas station, holiday/vacation etc...

Sometimes it just takes extra few seconds to register but other times it just like 'say what now?' Brits understand a lot of American terms through their TV programs (thank you Friends) but I'm not so sure how much they know the other way around?
Don't think Americans make the effort, but if it's only a term or a phrase it's a minor obstacle, when abroad I personally tend to go with the most common term, but if I were told that some day I wouldn't find English words in the media I'd be in big trouble
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Old Apr 8th 2011, 9:44 am
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Default Re: China bans English words in media

Originally Posted by redvino
Bakedbean. Putonhua or main language in China is based in Mandarin. Mandarin is the main official language, not a dialiect. It is the most widely spoken form of Chinese spoken in all of China north of the Yangtze River and in much of the rest of the country and is the native language of two-thirds of the population varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. There are between seven and thirteen main regional groups of Chinese (depending on classification scheme), of which the most spoken, by far, is Mandarin (about 850 million), followed by Wu (90 million), Cantonese (Yue) (70 million) and Min (50 million).
Cantonese is very different from Mandarin. I would consider it to be called a language, but, hm many consider it a dialect.
Yes, cant agree with you more. by the way, I am a Chinese, good at Mandarin, almost cant understand many people from other places in China.
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