Tag Archives: #language

This Qin-era weapon is called a “gē”.  It usually gets translated into English as “spear” or “pike” or “dagger axe”, but as you can see from the picture it’s kind of weirder than any of those and I can’t really think … Continue reading →

Quick!  What’s the opposite of a squat toilet?  Yeah, I got it wrong, too. For the record, the Chinese characters actually just say “sit toilet.”  Way to keep it classy, Baidu Translate.  

The Chinese word for “highlighter” is 荧光笔 (yíngguāng bǐ) which translates to “firefly pen”.

Thanks to late 70s/early 80s anime, I grew up kind of obsessed with Japan.  For example, I have long known that a “daimyo” was a feudal ruler back in the era of the shoguns.  But I had only ever seen … Continue reading →

COWORKER:  Do you want a cookie? DAVID:  What flavor is it? COWORKER:  Penis. DAVID:  I’m pretty sure you mean “peanut”…but now I definitely don’t want one.

Although Mandarin, the Beijing accent is distinct in that they tend to add 儿 (“er”) to the end of words.  Which, to Western ears, makes them all sound like pirates.

I notice things. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised when I point something out to my Chinese coworkers that they had never noticed before.  A few days ago, I went out to lunch with some of them to a Hong Kong … Continue reading →

Can we clear the air? No, seriously, can we clear the fucking air? Shanghai is on the sea.  (The city’s name literally means “Upon-the-Sea.”)  Just like Los Angeles.  In many ways, the smog reminds me of growing up in L.A. … Continue reading →

The highlight of my visit to the Shanghai Bookstore was noticing two kids signing to each other in Chinese sign language. I saw that one — the older brother, perhaps? — was wearing earbuds, but the other one — the … Continue reading →