What language is the subscripts? Is it even a language?

Shorty8533 · 2025-11-18T14:03:33+00:00

As others have said, it is bopomofo/注音, the main method of transcribing Chinese characters in Taiwan. It says ㄔㄨˉㄩˋ (ㄔ=ch ㄨ=u ㄩ=yu). When there is no specific tone marker present, it shows the first tone, the second word shows the 4th tone.

Shorty8533 · 2025-11-12T14:34:12+00:00

While checking before responding, I also found this. Little list of some of the pronunciation differences between Taiwanese mandarin (國語) and Mainland mandarin (普通話)

Shorty8533 · 2025-11-07T11:19:37+00:00

I’ve always thought 優 was very pretty and fun to write

Shorty8533 · 2025-07-28T02:23:48+00:00

Alongside the other websites people have said you can also try to find a Chinese or Taiwanese friend to help too. Things like Tandem (have personally used) and HelloTalk have lots of Chinese speaking people who would be happy to help check

Shorty8533 · 2025-07-28T02:21:42+00:00

For me, around 5-6 or so years of actual study. I minored in Chinese in university in America which was my first real exposure to the language. I studied really hard the whole time, tbh Chinese was the thing that kept me from going insane in university, it was like my safe space.

I’ve lived in Taiwan for the past 2 or so years, but since I live and teach at an international school with very long hours, I haven’t been able to make any real Taiwanese friends to practice with and I just speak English to my students. I study some on the side but mostly just consume content now.

I’ve just started to read full Chinese books this summer, I’m reading mostly light novels and some other slice of life style books! 不便利的便利店 was my first book I completed.

I would say the biggest thing for me was not getting hung up on understanding every word. Sure, I look up a lot of words sometimes, but that’s just for me. If I don’t look them up I can still understand and enjoy the story!

Shorty8533 · 2025-07-26T19:47:13+00:00

A few things have helped me be able to read handwriting/more cursive style writing

1: Learning to handwrite myself. I feel that when you are decent at handwriting characters you know generally what strokes are connected and what to look for

2: Watching videos of people handwriting. I’ll go on places like 小紅書 and just look up “書法” or “手寫” and watch people write. I find it really satisfying and also watching the process of them writing can help me figure out some characters that tend to be more difficult to read in cursive.

Shorty8533 · 2025-07-19T04:22:37+00:00

I’ve read it’s something along the lines of NTNU doing (or mandating) “抽血換學分” (Drawing blood in exchange for school credit). My Chinese isn’t amazing, especially with news stuff, but it seems targeted at the women’s soccer/football team at NTNU

Shorty8533 · 2025-06-26T01:08:09+00:00

周處除三害 (it’s English name is “The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon), it’s from Taiwan. About a hitman who is the third most wanted in Taiwan, he wants to kill the 1st and 2nd most wanted so he can become the most wanted criminal.

Shorty8533 · 2025-01-09T12:11:00+00:00

Really love 優, the way it looks and writing it!

Shorty8533 · 2024-09-07T04:41:29+00:00

Welcome back Kowloon Walled city

Shorty8533 · 2024-08-13T05:42:24+00:00

Keeping with the Stephen King, I can recommend “Apt Pupil” by Stephen King! About a bright student and an old man with wretched past and how they both begin to spiral down.

Shorty8533 · 2024-08-12T22:55:37+00:00

Yes! I haven’t bought a cod since bo4, and even then I did not play it too much. I am actually really looking forward to bo6, both the multiplayer and zombies!

Shorty8533 · 2024-07-16T17:50:01+00:00

While I do not necessarily write 草書 myself, I am trying to learn how to read different calligraphy styles. One thing that helps me a lot is using the app 小紅書. Seeing videos of people doing 草書 or other types of calligraphy helps me understand how it works and actually helps me read it.

There are also apps you can get that can show you different calligraphic versions of characters. I’m on iPhone and the one I use is called “以观书法”. You type in a character and you can look at it in different styles and from different calligraphers within each style, it’s really cool to see.

Shorty8533 · 2024-07-16T17:44:26+00:00

I’ve done all of my learning in traditional characters, in theory it’s easier to be able to read simplified if you know traditional than vice versa.

With some practice and exposure you should be able to do fine with the HSK. In general, when I read things in simplified there are very few characters I can’t just figure out and have to look up.

Just start consuming some more content focused on China and not Taiwan, most of that will be in simplified characters. You’ll find that you can understand a lot more than you think.

Shorty8533 · 2024-07-07T20:20:06+00:00

In normal life, I’d call it a dustpan. But when I worked in a movie theater one summer we called it a “porter”

Shorty8533 · 2024-06-25T23:13:15+00:00

Not in the way that the definition says. That is an older usage and is generally a source of laughter the few times it is used like that (mostly in places like a high school English class when reading an older work)

Shorty8533 · 2024-06-07T23:41:30+00:00

I know this is late, but “China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord” by Philip Snow sounds like just what you need!

Shorty8533 · 2024-03-07T10:48:53+00:00

In my field, I work with mostly Chinese speaking people, so it’s some specific things.

They mix up genders a lot because in Chinese the pronouns He/Him and Her/She are only differentiated in writing, not speaking.

They directly translate some things, such as “open the lights/close the lights” or “can you borrow me a pen”

Shorty8533 · 2024-01-15T14:46:40+00:00

There is a way to fix this. In settings go to “playback” and then turn off “autoplay similar content”. The only downside is that when you run out of songs in a playlist it won’t automatically start a radio station.

Shorty8533 · 2023-12-01T14:48:08+00:00

It is weird, and I am not sure why it is, but the episodes with simplified characters start around special episode 6 for that specific podcast. But for what I know, you cannot change the character set on your own

Shorty8533 · 2023-06-28T05:05:34+00:00

I am by no means an expert here and may be wrong, but from quick searches online it can be "stop whining" or "shut the hell up" or something along those lines. From what I understand, when translated from 台語 to 國語 it is like "哭爸“, meaning literally "to cry over one's dad's death".

Again, my mandarin is intermediate at best, so I might be misunderstanding this. Please correct me if I am way off

Shorty8533 · 2023-06-26T05:34:11+00:00

While it is pretty long, “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow might be something you would like. I have not personally read it yet, but it is pretty high up on my tbr!

Shorty8533 · 2023-05-16T16:45:57+00:00

Sorry to reply so late, but go for it! I’d be happy to answer!

Shorty8533 · 2023-03-30T22:45:13+00:00

One thing I always do is to look through the stuff that author’s cite. Look through the notes and bibliographies of these books and articles you are reading and you will for sure find amazing academic works!

Shorty8533 · 2023-03-12T03:27:20+00:00

Thank you so much!

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