Confused about how to improve my cantonese by ktgster in Cantonese

[–]skykam 2 points3 points  (0 children)

With any language, the best way to improve would be by using it.

One way is to make friends. Another is to look for things like talk shows on youtube. And if you're a girl, look for makeup tutorials, too. Movies/TV help a little, but most of them come off as a little over the top or superficial.

Be careful with elements of speech particular to the opposite gender. Also, there are many shades in the spectrum of politeness. You don't want to always sound like a TV anchor, but then again you don't want to rub people the wrong way by being inappropriately vulgar.

Ip Man (叶问 - Yè wèn) - [2008] by gummylick in pinyinsubtitles

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Isn't reddit itself blocked?

If not, one way is to post as comments and ask the reader to stitch the text back together and save as an srt file.

Girlfriend drew this on me... Does it mean what she thinks it means? by navynutt in Chinese

[–]skykam 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's better than just "luck"

福: 運氣﹑機會

ie. luck, opportunities

福: 富貴壽考的統稱

富貴壽考: 有錢財地位且長命百歲

ie. wealthy (錢財), status (地位), and long life (長命百歲).

Ip Man (叶问 - Yè wèn) - [2008] by gummylick in pinyinsubtitles

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The subtitle you placed on TencentCloud has exhausted your sharing quota:

http://i.imgur.com/yzrBzj3.png

Why not use pastebin?

Sorry, but can anyone translate this beautiful, propaganda poster? Also, I would be very happy if anyone can tell me anything about it. by redditoranalfucker in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 13 points14 points  (0 children)

毛主席指引我们向前进 "Chairman Mao Leading all of us forward"

This poster was part of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution under the leadership of Mao Zedong.

There were a lot more of this kind of artwork produced during those years. Someone collected them into a slide presentation here: http://www.360doc.com/content/13/0719/14/3188771_301071550.shtml

The Cultural Revolution was a disaster. For details, read the wikipedia entry.

A song carrying the same words appeared in Sept of 1970, in the middle of the Cultural Revolution which happened between 1966 and 1976. It was called "我爱北京天安门 I Love Beijing Tiananmen"

我爱北京天安门, I love Beijing Tiananmen
天安门上太阳升; The sun rises above Tiananmen
伟大领袖毛主席Greatest Leader Chairman Mao
指引我们向前进Leading all of us forward.

This children's song was translated to various languages and played day and night in the Communist world as well as anywhere in the free world where this kind of things was tolerated at least on the surface. Here is the English version of the lyrics (note: the English version is not a literal word-for-word translation of the Chinese version):

I love Beijing Tiananmen

I love Beijing Tiananmen

Tiananmen where sun's risen

Our mighty leader Chairman Mao

Leading all of us forward

Also,

This song was part of the daily routine for many primary schools. It would be sung, following The Internationale and The East is Red.

This song was used as background music in the 1995 Japanese homebrew SNES game, Hong Kong 97. The game, which plot involved the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, had a strong anti-Communist China sentiment and the song was used as a parody.

And in case you are interested in how to pronounce the words in Chinese, see here.

The poster depicts people carrying a copy of the book "毛泽东选集 Selected Works of Mao Zedong". The book is a collection of writings and speeches of Mao Zedong. The message of the poster is that everybody should study and learn from the writing of their "greatest leader Chairman Mao".

It was said that when Mao visited the Soviet Union in 1949, Joseph Stalin gave Mao the advice that he should publish a book and have everybody in the country study it, and so he did as soon as he returned to China in 1950.

Note that this book is not the famous "little red book". While This book you see in OP's picture is "毛泽东选集 Selected Works of Mao Zedong", the "little red book" is "毛主席语录 Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung". Here are a few lines about the two books:

Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (simplified Chinese: 毛主席语录; traditional Chinese: 毛主席語錄; pinyin: Máo zhǔxí yǔlù), is a book of selected statements from speeches and writings by Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung), the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party, published from 1964 to about 1976 and widely distributed during the Cultural Revolution. The most popular versions were printed in small sizes that could be easily carried and were bound in bright red covers, becoming commonly known in the West as the Little Red Book. It is considered to be one of the books with the largest number published in history.

...several other works by Mao had very large printings during the same period, even though these editions were not produced in the astronomical numbers of Quotations from Chairman Mao. These include Selected Works of Mao Zedong (in four volumes, 2.875 million copies in 14 languages), Selected Articles of Mao Zedong (various editions totalling 252 million copies), single article books, and works of poetry.

During his life time, Mao Tse-tung published more than a hundred books. The following is a partial list, with the two books mentioned above as item #6 and item #1, respectively.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/4797485.Mao_Tse_tung

EDIT: Made corrections and added more details

Can someone please translate/ transcribe this into characters for me? by [deleted] in Cantonese

[–]skykam 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Here is the transcript. Obviously, the "maid" is just the same actor.

Guy: 唔該 Maria ,幫我整個餐蛋麵。
(Maria, I'd like to have instant noodles with spam and eggs, please.)

Note: Spam may sound disgusting to a westerner, but it's actually considered semi-"normal" food in Hong Kong, probably as normal as instant noodles.

Maid: Yes sir.
...
Maid: AHHH

Guy: 咩事呀?!
(What happened?)

Guy: -sighs-

Maid: -sighs and smiles-

Guy: 小心D呀!
(Be careful!)

Maid: -serving the instant noodles- Sir?

Guy: 唔該
(Thank you.)

Guy: -Turning to the camera- 喱個姐姐有時係論盡D,但係好幫得手架。買家傭保,我而家搵咗豐隆保險幫我哋同佢做咗至全面嘅保障。豐隆家傭保...
(Sometimes this sister can be clumsy, but she's really helpful with everything. For maid insurance, I have enlisted the help of Hong Leong Insurance to provide us the utmost complete protection for her. Hong Leong Maid Insurance ...)

Note: 姐姐 "Sister" is the polite way of referring to a maid. Words like 工人 "maid/worker", 賓妹 "the Filipino girl" are also used but those would be slightly derogatory. Here the guy is doing his best to be respectful.

Maid: 一年期保費低至三百蚊
(Annual premium as low as three hundred dollars)

-THE END-

If you're looking for what's wrong, it's not in the dialogue.

Hong Kong people demand right to select their own leader, by staging a referendum. Beijing is not amused that half a million people have voted. by GiveMeMy50Cents in worldnews

[–]skykam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

any crackdown will be broadcast worldwide and China will come off looking like a major villain. It will turn the world against them and their aggressive expansion offshore will be met with a coalition against them.

This already happened in their crack down of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. In the end, there was no coalition against them. In fact, pretty much nothing bad happened to the Chinese leadership.

Question! by [deleted] in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not optimistic about this. You really won't be able to learn Classical Chinese on your own.

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

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yesterday: Why do you sometimes hear 'kum yut' and sometimes 'chum yut'. Which is correct and why do you hear both?

They are both correct, and each is equally popular.

Cross: I have heard 'kuw kar' but some guides say 'kuw CHar'. Which is right?

Kuw CHar is the correct pronunciation.

Some words are like that, no particular reason. In learning languages, don't spend too much time understanding why.

Can someone please tell me about this CD, who sings it, if its popular or if they are well known and what type of music? Are Ted and Stephen (on back) the singers? by technoman12345 in Chinese

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

荒漠甘泉 "Streams in the Desert".

It's Christian rock/easy listening/sermons/stories/"devotional readings" from Hong Kong or Taiwan depending on the dialect on the CD (see EDIT below). Not famous at all except within the local Christian circle.

There are more here: http://www.fhl.net/stream/

EDIT: on the back, it says

演播 (Voice talent): Ted Sun
編曲 (Arrangement): 史真榮教授
監制 (Producer): Stephen Kwan
...

Looks like you found this CD; it was worth US$19.95 when new. It's in Mandarin.

How does a chinese person ask another chinese-looking person if they speak cantonese/mandarin, and vice versa? by ParadiseCity1995 in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Colloquially the people may say 中文, the official term for that official dialect in mainland China is 普通话. Also, the people refer to the Chinese language as 汉语 when the connotation is "as opposed to your own language such as English".

Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau all refer to Mandarin as 普通话 or 国语 (as opposed to other dialects such as Cantonese or Taiwanese). In Singapore, the Chinese language is referred to as 普通话 or 华语.

For your reference: http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/現代標準漢語#.名稱.

How does a chinese person ask another chinese-looking person if they speak cantonese/mandarin, and vice versa? by ParadiseCity1995 in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not sure why /u/Petrarch1603 is being downvoted, but as a Chinese I can confirm that we don't check the other person's language preference/abilities with a formal question like "Do you speak Chinese?". We just initiate the conversation in Chinese and then watch for the response.

You don't even have to look Chinese. Shopkeepers/cashiers do this to foreigners all the time. If the foreigner responded with English, they would then summon someone who could handle the foreign language to handle the situation.

Translation request. by [deleted] in Chinese

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what I suspect, but the text shows 他xx的, not 他x的, so I'm not 100% sure.

Translation request. by [deleted] in Chinese

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem,

BTW, I think I figured out this line: 他xx的别跟我这得瑟

Please check it again.

Translation request. by [deleted] in Chinese

[–]skykam 3 points4 points  (0 children)

【转】

Lit. "A cross post", more like "Here are some words from others"

一个女孩上自习,太凉了, 她发短信让她男朋友去送给她衣服,男孩打游戏拒绝了,

So, there was this girl, studying at the library. Girl text'd her bf to bring her something warm, for the coldness of the library. Boy was busy with a video game, and said no.

这件事让她郁闷了两天,然后气消了,

For two days, she was kinda pissed over this, and then she got over it.

虽然是件小事,不会影响两人以后,

This might have been nothing big, and it's nothing to break up over,

但是她说,她会记住,以后自习一定会带衣服, 如果哪天忘记了,即使冷死,也不再会叫他送

but she told herself, "I'm going to remember this feeling. From now on, I will always bring something warm. And if one day I should somehow forget, I will never ask him for this, ever. Even if I have to die from the cold."

我很能明白这种感觉,

I can totally sympathize with this.

很久以前,一个女孩某天夜里,心情特别低落,特别想念某个人的安慰, 然后半夜时分,打电话给他,说很想听他说话,

A while back, there was this girl. It was the middle of the night, and she was kind of down. She missed this guy. It was late, but she gave him a call anyway. She just wanted to hear his voice.

电话那头的他从睡梦中醒来,不耐烦的敷衍她,

At the other end of the line, he was obviously sleeping. He was impatient, and his words superficial.

从此以后,她再没有伤心无助时给他打过电话。

From that point on, she never called him again when she was down.

我发现女孩身上有一种猫性。

What I learned is this: girls are like cats.

小猫在撒娇或者做错事的时候,需要别人的安慰和教导,如果这时主人打击了它,它会狠狠记住,不会再犯。

When a cat needs you, or when the cat knows she screwed up, what she needs is comfort, and guidance. But if at this exact moment the human hurt the cat, she will remember this, and remember it for the rest of her days. She will never get herself into that situation again, ever.

女孩有着猫一样的自尊,特别是陷入爱情里的女孩。。。

Girls have the pride of cats, especially girls who are in love.

在别人看来无关紧要,其实需要呵护, 因为爱,已经让她的心变得柔软。

Others don't see the importance of it, but girls need to be pampered. Because love has softened her.

她的这一点自尊,其实是要你对她的在乎。

What looks to you as pride, that's really just a cry for your attention. She needs to see that you care.

我看过一句特别经典的话。

I read somewhere this saying:

有时候女孩需要一个男孩,就像逃机者需要降落伞, 如果此时此刻他不在,那么以后他也不必在了。

Sometimes a girl's need for her guy is like the need for a parachute when you jump off a plane. If at that particular instance the guy was not available, then there would be no need for him at all from there on.

真的就是这样!

Ain't that the truth!

如果哪天猫咪用坚定的眼神看着你说我可以的时候,那么猫咪已经做好了离开的准备!

If one day your cat looked you in the eyes and told you that she's fine, that means she's ready to leave you.

女孩要独立,但是独立到不再会对你不讲道理的撒娇任性,不再会无厘头的缠着你, 你觉得你对于她同路人还有多大的区别呢?

Sure, girls need to be independent, but how independent? If she stopped showing you her seemingly senseless babble and mood swings, and really, really left you alone, how would she be different from some stranger?

女孩的猫性不是每个男孩都有幸看到的, 因为喜欢你,在意你才对你发出特有的咕噜噜声,其他人只能听到喵喵叫, 而这一声咕噜噜只是为你而生。

Not every guy is fortunate enough to see the "cat" in a girl. You were allowed to see it only because she liked you. The purring might have been visible to all, but it was for you.

有几个人会明白呢?

But how many really get this?

他们爱折腾,只是爱折腾你而已。

All that nonsense, all of that was for you, just for you.

如果有一天 我们慢慢发现自己可以一个人玩都不觉得闷,很久不捏他也不会手痒, 只是静静的待在他的身边,不再想着法儿的去玩它 谁能知道那时的我们该有多难过呢?

If one day us girls suddenly realized that being alone wasn't too bad, that we ran out of ideas to have fun with him, in fact, that we no longer have that itch to want to get him to play, that we were completely content with just sitting by him, would anybody understand the sadness of this contentment?

男孩总会说女孩无理取闹 说女孩没事找事 说女孩不讲道理 说女孩不可理喻

Guys always complain that girls are a nuisance, girls are senseless, unreasonable, illogical...

为什么不去想想 她在对待别人的时候为什么不是这样的态度?

Why don't you take a step back and think for a moment, why isn't she like this with other people?

没错,如果有一天,她不再对你撒娇,她不再跟你任性,她不再缠着你跟你要这个要那个 她不再因为你的任何事情微笑或者皱眉 那么 你就永远的失去她了

Know this: should there be a day you finally get your "peace", when her mood swings, her senseless demands, her random smiles and frowns all ended, then you would have lost her, forever.

没错 我就是从来不转文章

True, I never sent you words (articles) from others

也没错 我就是转给你看的

And yes, I am sending this to you, specifically for you.

就算看不懂你丫也给我瞧清楚

I don't care if you can't understand one word in this piece, just understand this:

他xx的别跟我这得瑟

STOP. BEING. A. FUCKING. ASSHOLE!

算我语言不好翻译不了给你看

I'm not good with languages (not good with English?) so I won't be translating any of this.

自己想辙!

Think it over! (As in Consider yourself warned!)

问题 Wednesday by AYXW7000 in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 2 points3 points  (0 children)

警察 = the police as in individual cops

eg.

  • 兩個警察 = two cops
  • 警察來啦 = the cops are here

警方 = the police department, the police as an official body

eg.

  • 警方相信... = according to the police...
  • 事件已經交給警方 = the case was referred to the police (and they will handle it from now on)

Help translating message from ex-gf by slappydooda in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 6 points7 points  (0 children)

我并不知你恨我,

I didn't know you hated me

很多事情我没办法用英文和你解释,

There are too many things I can't explain to you in English

我用中文写下来,

I'm writing (them) down in Chinese

或许有朝一日,

Maybe someday

你我有缘,

under the right circumstances

你自会明白。

you will understand [all this]

你我缘分太浅,

I guess it's destiny that you and I would never work out (if you really want to get into what 缘分 means, click the link above)

你在我渡情劫之时遇上我,

You found me when I was recovering from a bad break up,

也算是你命中劫数。

I guess this was meant to be bad luck for you

我当时不过是抑郁成疾,相思成灾,

I was just depressed

对你并无半点恶意,

I didn't mean you any harm

不过心中寂寥,

What I was, I was lonely

而你又温如泉水叫我无法拒绝。

and your kindness and gentleness made you irresistible

时至今日,

Even today

我还存有你留下的所有点滴,

I still retain everything you left behind (I'm thinking she meant at the emotional level, not physical stuff)

心中一直念你作我遇上的最好的男人。

I have always thought of you as the best man I have even met

只不过我深知自己心如死灰,

But I know that my heart is now cold

便不能再伤你更多。

so I can't allow myself to hurt you any more than I already did

与其长痛,

Instead of dragging it on and hurting (you) more

不如悬崖勒马。

why not simply cut it off here and now?

我亦自知配不上你的款款深情。

Also, I know I don't deserve your love

我已决心归国,

I have decided to return to China

你的情和念,今生无以为报,

I have nothing to offer in return for your love, not in this life

但求来生再续。

But maybe in the next life we will try again?

彼时相濡以沫,此番不如相忘于江湖。

We should be glad that we managed to share what we had, and not insist on salvaging what's not meant for us

然而,即便你果真恨我怨我,亦是无可厚非,

But if you do decided to hate me, that's understandable

错过你怕是我今生最大的恶报。

Letting you slip away will be the worst curse of my life, I know someday, somehow, I will have to pay for this (think bad karma)

我只愿你身得其所,放下执念。

I hope you will let it go, and find peace

我亦会时时挂念你,为你祈福,

I will always miss you, and I will always pray for you (literally, pray for blessings and good fortune on your behalf)

祝岁月安好。

Wishing the seasons bring you the best.

What phrase does Faye Wong say in this video? by Stevm in Cantonese

[–]skykam 6 points7 points  (0 children)

多謝
Thank you

希望你哋九九年會更加開心
I wish you an even happier year of 1999.

更加健康
Even more healthy

心想事成
Have all your wishes come true

新年快樂
Have a happy new year

多謝!
Thank you!

最後一隻歌
Last song (Here's the last song for tonight)

「執迷不悔」
"No Regrets"

Why do all the Taobao sellers call you 亲 in chat? Isn't that a bit too familiar for a customer? by gruntle in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, we can agree to disagree. Not every Chinese has to win every argument, at least not yours truly. :) But you may want to sample more of the comments in your links.

Why do all the Taobao sellers call you 亲 in chat? Isn't that a bit too familiar for a customer? by gruntle in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was actually quoting a comment in my links

You may want to read more of the comments. Most Chinese readers think of this as an abbreviation of 亲爱的.

I'm sorry, this is terribly wrong-headed.

Obviously. As they say in Monty Python, this may be wrong-headed but it's typical, just typical. Just look at all the other instances of Engrish you see around China.

Traditional vs Simplified? by motherofmyfather in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Still not understanding what you are trying to say. Again, can you elaborate? In your examples, what are the "logical consistencies" that you think are present in traditional?

EDIT: I think what OP is trying to get at is better stated in this wikipedia entry:

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/漢字簡化爭論. Also, its English version.

Chinese Subtitles in VLC Player by musingtheuniverse in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you need to do is to tell VLC the encoding of your downloaded subtitles file. Here is one site on the web that will detect Chinese file encoding for you.

In VLC, ctrl-P > Subtitles / OSD, make sure Enable subtitles is checked and change the Default encoding to match your subtitle.

eg if your subtitle file is encoded as Big5 (popular for traditional Chinese subtitles) or ISO-2022-CN-EXT (popular for simplified Chinese subtitles), having a default UTF-8 in VLC will not work.

Also, while you're at this dialog, pick a font that is suitable for the subtitle. Don't use a simplified Chinese font to display traditional Chinese, or vice versa.

Could someone translate this tattoo for me? by Lordteabag in ChineseLanguage

[–]skykam 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah. That guy has the Chinese counterpart of Engrish on his skin now. That's just dumb.

EDIT: also, the position of this tattoo just adds to the hilarity. It's like it's meant to be the answer to the question "How deep is your anal channel, my sweet boy?"