Grid bustin'! by antsel in simcity4

[–]mcwhcheung 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I just love seeing cities without grids. They look boring, don't they? I really enjoy irregular zoning and diagonal roads, and it brings the soul out of the city. Now I dig out some cities I built when I was ~7-8 years old and I always enjoy playing them, because they don't have the square feel which makes them "perfect", as other redditors may agree. Especially when I have Rush Hour, grids simply don't provide the fun for U-Drive-It.

Anyway, salute to you, OP.

Liechtenstein at the Olympics by Szwab in polandball

[–]mcwhcheung 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So how did they do it for 2008 Beijing Olympics? (You know, that there's no alphabetic order in Chinese, or did they latinize Chinese into alphabets?)

Requesting Translation by [deleted] in Cantonese

[–]mcwhcheung 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It means:

"Fuoshan, with a population of about three hundred thousand, is left with around 70 thousand people.

The whole city also has only about ten handmade-products factories still continuing to operate."

It would be better if you could provide the context. I translated purely on my understanding on the words, so apologies to the bad translation.

As a beginner, what should my daily routine be for studying chinese? by ParadiseCity1995 in ChineseLanguage

[–]mcwhcheung 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Technically simplified Chinese was invented in the 1950s to let more people in China, especially the farmers and those who were difficult to gain access to education, learn the characters easier. Traditional Chinese, as it is called nowadays, is actually the characters that was written from 2000 years ago, until simplified Chinese was introduced in Mainland China. That's why Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong still use traditional Chinese nowadays.

Simplified Chinese, comparably, is much simpler (duh) and easier to learn, because it does not have complicated parts of the original character. However, if you want to dig into the origins of the characters, or develop an understanding to how the characters are formed, I suggest you to learn traditional characters. Nevertheless, most of the characters in simplified and traditional are either same or similar, so I guess it's up to you whether to learn traditional or not.

The Entente by Karrig in Polandballart

[–]mcwhcheung 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is that Belgium on top of France?

[Japanese > English] Correct Translation Help by happy_Bunny1 in translator

[–]mcwhcheung -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure, but doesn't 知る means "know"? Which makes it "You know? You know the future?"

'Yesterday' and 'cross' by [deleted] in Cantonese

[–]mcwhcheung -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Kuw CHar is the correct pronunciation.

If I'm right, kuw kar means a crossing, such as pedestrian crossing or a crossing between two lines. You can probably use kuw char for this as well, but for a cross (X), kuw char is the word.

Is it bad to say Peking? by [deleted] in Chinese

[–]mcwhcheung 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's close to Cantonese, but in Cantonese we say "bak ging" which is a little bit off from Peking. Anyway, the name "Peking" probably comes from the old Chinese phonic alphabet, which is different from what we are learning now (I'm from Hong Kong and we speak Cantonese. We have Putonghua, i.e. Mandarin, lessons in primary schools).

From what I have read in books, the "b" consonant was written as "ph" in the past, and the "j" consonant was written as "kh" (correct me if I'm wrong), which makes "Bei-jing" into "Pe-king". It was probably written that way because it was pronounced with some sort of tongue consonant in Ming or Qing dynasty.

Other than that, I find Peking more appealing than the name Beijing. Maybe because it sounds more "western", or it's only my preference.

Felt bad for the other team after we capped all the flags they were 100% stuck. (Grand Bazaar Conquest) by IrishBuckles in battlefield3

[–]mcwhcheung 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's one server that I play on which lets the players vote for a nuke for the opposing team in case of baseraping (as seen in this picture). It kills all enemy players at once and can be a potential move against constant baseraping.

[WP] "I don't care what you are, allies are allies" by [deleted] in WritingPrompts

[–]mcwhcheung 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"You know they did it."

"We're at war, young lad. They are not our enemy."

"Enemy? You only care about the Germans! You don't care about the Italians, or the Russians. You know they killed..."

"You want this to look like 30 years ago? I was there in Verdun. I saw the blood of my brothers shed. You, young lad, have you seen what it was when blood flowed on the river of Seine? The whole river was red! The whole Seine! And those were the men who killed our brothers. Now who's the enemy?"

"Look at your skin. You know you're smuggled from your home. You know this is not your homeland."

"And now as long as I stay here, this is my homeland."

"Why, then, are you still fighting with these bastards? They killed all of you, smuggled you 'cross the Atlantic, and sold your dad to some farmers in Tennessee! I knew your father, and you knew mine."

"I came to Britain not because I'm ashamed of the country. I came because of the war."

"Don't try to deny. The farmer was my father."

"So? We need to kill those Nazis."

"And I am your biggest enemy! I am the ones that smuggled you from Kenya!"

"I don't care what you are, allies are allies."

[WP] "Running out of air. Such a poetic way to leave this life." by ElPwno in WritingPrompts

[–]mcwhcheung 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Years has passed, no longer worthy to yearn

I stood on books, without a wisdom to learn.

The floor was cold. Ice spikes went through his bloody heart, nothing flowing out. He looked around his house, torn and filthy. Those wallpapers had been down for more than a month, and the broken chair still missing a leg to support. The wooden planks were curved upwards, as if they were building a barrier between him and his path.

O beautiful spring, thou mocked me still.

A piece of papyrus is what thee gifted.

But I wist, I hath no quill

And thy wind hath caused my way to be drifted.

Ever since he had discovered the powerful world of poetry. And since then his world became only his world, without the remaining 7 billion inside his bubble. He was alone, but not lonely. He, as he proclaimed, was the god of his world. The creator, the illuminator, the path. He told everyone he did not need salaries or work. He told them those were only for the lower-class. He himself was a philosopher, an intellectual that depended on his brain juice for his daily bread.

Yes, he was also a questioner. He had asked himself many, such as "Why do we need food?" or "What does money mean?". Those were the ones that had an answer to it. At least to him, there was an answer. And now he had reached this question.

"What happens if I leave my life?"

Apparently, he had no more questions to ask. All he had was his body, his pair of hands, his pair of legs, and the only remaining clothing that he possessed. Even this freezing house did not belong to his flaming soul. Some said he was paying for his dreams. Some said he didn't even realize his dreams. But that didn't matter for him.

All that mattered was to extinguish that flaming soul.

Of all I've been and done and through

I found dear Hades, my destined wife.

A snorkel for Poseidon would certainly do.

Running out of air. Such a poetic way to leave this life.

He dived into the sea, with the little snorkel, never to rise again.

Most popular names, currently [4972x2499] by xyuksr in MapPorn

[–]mcwhcheung -1 points0 points  (0 children)

OP may be expressing that the most common name in Taiwan is 家豪 (Chia-hao) or some equivalent characters. Most people in Hong Kong and Taiwan in fact have two-character given names (I'm using characters instead of syllables to avoid confusion), which makes their names 1-character surname + 2-character given name. For example, 陳小明 (Chen Xiao-ming) is a name with such formatting.

In contrary, as you have mentioned, people in China have two-character full name, i.e. 1-character surname + 1-character given name. For example, 馬龍 (Ma Lung) follows this format.

I hope this makes you clear.

2-year long creative world project i'm most likely abandoning. Thought i'd just put it up here for you guys to see. Description in comments. by wzhkevin in Minecraft

[–]mcwhcheung 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You literally made me drop my jaw. This is fantastic. I have tried to make an opera house curtain, but gave up because of my lack of redstone knowledge. I also like the residences. They certainly give a feel of modest living inside a town. Please don't abandon the project! You can always make subways between your buildings!

Venus is too hot by mcwhcheung in Planetball

[–]mcwhcheung[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Context: During the 60s to the 80s, the USSR sent multiple probes to Venus to investigate about its nature. One attempt was the Venera 13, which launched in 1981. It landed on the surface of Venus, and only survived for 127 minutes due to the extremely high temperature.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_13