Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Dumping some weiqi terms

Trying to translate chinese language weiqi collection names, so dumping some info here where I can find it easily.

NannyOgg: what is 对局系列 ?
lanke: To bureau series
lanke: according to babelfish
lanke: hahahahahahaha
NannyOgg: very helpful, thank you
NannyOgg: i had tried that already ^^
lanke: 对 = facing/opposing
lanke: it can also mean correct
lanke: 局 = game
NannyOgg: oh, that's the collections of two players against each other!
lanke: 对局 just means "games" actually
lanke: series of games between two players
lanke: basically its just a collection of all the games played by two particular players I believe
NannyOgg: ok, makes sense
NannyOgg: So what about the victory bureau series? 胜局系列
lanke: bureau is an inappropriate translation of games
lanke: collections of victories
lanke: basically, like cho chikuns victory series
lanke: means the collection contains games that he won


FlameBlade: 手筋
FlameBlade: tesuji
FlameBlade: 腾挪
FlameBlade: sabaki
FlameBlade: 棋手专辑
FlameBlade: seems to be modern go players collection
FlameBlade: 常昊
FlameBlade: this is Chang Hao
FlameBlade: 古力
FlameBlade: guess who this is
FlameBlade: Gu Li
FlameBlade: Gu Li is Ancient Power
FlameBlade: or strength
FlameBlade: how fitting
FlameBlade: 中国棋手 chinese go players
FlameBlade: 坂田荣男 sakata
FlameBlade: 日本棋手 Japanese go players
FlameBlade: 山下敬吾对集
FlameBlade: this would be...?
NannyOgg: yk!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Saying of the day

恶有恶报,善有善报

e4 you3 e4 bao4, shan4 you3 shan4 bao4

Evil begets evil (has retribution), good begets good.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Good Morning

Today learned to say good morning to all in a room:

大家早上好

da4 jia1 = everyone
zao3 shang5 hao3 = good morning

I have been studying a lot of weiqi with my broken leg. Haven't done as much Chinese, because I often do that in the car, and not driving much yet. I guess I should translate more Pooh though, stay posted for more episodes of him :)

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Broke My Leg...

I broke my leg... I haven't been posting or studying Chinese much. I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself :)

But today, felt like making at least a small post, trying to say in Chinese: I broke my leg.

- I is easy: 我
- broke, no idea, will have to look up. Hmmm, not very promising, so many entries for break. Wonder what would be good. Guess I'll go with " 拗 ao4 bend / break in two"
- my : 我的
- leg: 腿 tui3 leg , or 胫 jing4 lower part of leg. I think i'll go with the first one.

My result:
我坳我的腿

Please leave comments if I totally screwed up. 谢谢

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

More weiqi terms

小目= xiao3 mu4 = little point = komoku
小飞 = xiao3 fei3 = little fly = little flying move = keima = knight's move

目= eye, but has many different meanings, here it meant point

Friday, October 27, 2006

以后?

“以后, 以后是什么时候”, 小豆问道

Later? Who will come later? Little Peas asked.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Proverb of the day

My friend S reminded me of this Chinese proverb:

Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water
After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water

Babelfish gets me
在启示, 砍木和运载的水之前
在启示以后, 砍木和运载的水



I like the proverb. S helpfully told me I should try to find the original one and translate it into English. Maybe some day ^^

Sunday, October 15, 2006

等以后吧,亲爱的

“ 等以后吧,亲爱的。” 妈妈说。

'See you later, dear', mama says.

Hmmmm, that's a new one to learn, the only one I knew so far is 再见 (tia jian = bye)

Now I'll have to learn 等以后吧 (deng yi hou ba) and figure out when it is used.

But first, time for my aikido and my morning walk, life has been kind of crazy here, so haven't done any of those yet. Sylvia ran off with my Pooh book, so I have a good excuse to translate only one sentence right now ^^

Friday, October 13, 2006

More Pooh

Back from my trip and found my Pooh book.

“你看,我正在买东西呢!”,他大声说道,“我已经长大了,可以帮妈妈买东西了。“

Hmmm, that is hard, not sure what it says

"You take care, I am going pretend shopping" he said loudly "when I am grown up, maybe I can go shopping with mama"


***


Today I was very happy to send a chinese sentence to a chinese seller on ebay. I had to get Min's help to get it correct, but hey, at least I tried! This is what I wrote:

期待着得到这些围棋书和那个手镯

Some day I will be able to actually do this without extensively scratching my head and using on line dictionaries ^^

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Before You Know It

A few days ago, I found the Before You Know It software site and downloaded their trial version for Chinese. I worked myself through one of the lists, it seemed to work quite well. I'll have to use it some more before I can have a grounded opinion on it, but I figured I would put a pointer here so people can check it out for themselves if interested.

Haven't been doing much Chinese, life is happening. This weekend will be gone for a go workshop, but it's a Chinese pro teaching, so I might get some Chinese in anyway.

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Morning Walk

This morning, I went out for a walk, and decided to take my mp3 player with me. It was so nice to be outside in the sun, get my exercise AND listen to Chinesepod. I listened to the tones lesson and the lesson about facial features. I now can tell people "你的宝宝很像你。" Of course, I would have no idea what to say when they answer me in Chinese, but it would be a good conversation starter ^^

Sunday, September 24, 2006

小豆

Found my book again! Just reviewed the translation I have made so far and ready to translate another sentence.

小豆找到一个大大的袋子,开始往里面装东西。

"Little Peas found a bag, and was starting to have fun playing pretend things. "

Not sure about this one, I like how 大 is just big, and 大大 is greatly, enormously. It's interesting to see how the Chinese seem to use double characters for emphasis.

好 = good
好好= nicely
大 = big
大大 = greatly, enormously

I am sure there must be many more like that. I'll keep an eye out for them.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Some Chinese Go Terms

My Winnie the Pooh book disappeared in my black hole house, so have not been posting much. Today is cleanup day, so will get some chinesepod in. I also dusted off my Rosetta stone and did the first unit。 It went surprisingly well.

Last night, I played go (围棋 wei qi) with a chinese friend, and he taught me some important go terms.

  • My Corner = 我的角 wo de jiao
  • My side = 我的边wo de bian
  • right side = 右边you bian
  • My center = 我的中央 wo de zhong yang
  • Another word for center = 中腹 zhong fu
  • Ko = 劫 jie





I also learned the chinese name for jewelweed: 凤仙花

风 feng phoenix
仙 xian immortal
花 hua flower

Immortal Phoenix Flower

But then mosaica told me: 'Actually, sorry, that's not jewelweed :) ..do an image search for those characters, and you'll see'

Oh well, I still like the name anyway ^^

Thursday, September 07, 2006

炒土豆丝



炒土豆丝--one of my favorite dishes

recipe:
1.cut potatoes, seedweed, green peppers into matchstick sharp.
2.put some oil (depending how much potatoes you cook) in the wok
3.put (1) into (2) (until the oil is hot enough)
4. stir-fry it quickly, then put soy sauce, a little salt, crushed chili peppers( if you have it)
5. After you cook it for a whole, you may need to add a little water in it.
6. cook it until you feel it is ready.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

如何表达时间

  • 询问时间

What's the time?
What time is it?
Do you know the time?

  • 表达时间

整点表达法:……点钟+o'clock(o'clock可省略) 记得am 和pm
  
"几点几分":
  1.顺读法:按"钟点数+分钟数"的顺序。
  6:18 six eighteen 7:30 seven thirty

  2.逆读法:按"分钟数+past/to+钟点数"的顺序表达。
  A. 分钟数不超过30(包含30)时,用"分钟数+past+钟点数"表达。 如:6:05 five past six
  B.分钟数超过30时,用"分钟数+to+钟点数"表达。其中"分钟数"为60减去原分钟数,"钟点数"为下一个钟点数,表示"差几分几点"。如:  9:50 ten to ten
   

10:15 a quarter past ten
  7:30 half past seven

:-) Today I forgot how to express time in English again when I made a appointment with someone on the phone. Wrote it down. Hope I will never forget it again.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

是的,亲爱的

“是的,亲爱的." 袋鼠妈妈说。她一边忙着级(系)大以(衣)扣子,一边找钱包

'Yes dear' said mama kangaroo, while she was busy buttoning her coat and finding her purse.
(The translation is perfect.)

Not sure about that sentence. I could do the " 'yes dear' said kangaroo mama " without dictionary, woohoo ^^

Thursday, August 31, 2006

我不想玩

“我不想玩。”小豆说,“我也要去逛街,我也会买东西呀。”

'I do not want to play nicely!!!' Small Peas said
'I want to go shopping with you too!'



This one I actually understood before I used the dictionary, woohoo!!!
Time to study go, but had to do some chinese first :)

日落

Last night, my friend Min taught me this word.

日落



ri4 luo4

Monday, August 28, 2006

小豆,乖

“小豆,乖。妈妈先要出去买东西, 然后还要和萨阿以(阿姨)一起吃饭。”袋鼠妈妈说, 拟(你)和小熊维尼一起好好儿玩

Small peas, be obedient. Mama has to go out to take care of important things. (Dong xi, I actuall knew that one ^^)After that, I have to get together to eat a meal." Mama kangaroo persuaded, I want you to be nice and amuse yourself.
( Mama has to go out to do some shopping. After that, I will have dinner with aunty Sha. )
(You can play with Winnie and have a good time.)

This one was hard, no idea how close I came to actually figuring out the meaning. This does finish the first page.

But hey, i entered and mostly translated a whole page of chinese text ^^ (yes, yes, I know it is only a kids book)

More Pooh

“我不想要别人照看!” 小豆大声说。他级的(急得)都快哭了。

'I don't think other people can look after me' Small peas (is that Roo? the little kangaroo?) loudly said. He cried. (?)
( I don't want other people look after me.) (He was so anxious that he almost cried.)
Pizza is ready, more later. This will take a while to translate the book, but it's fun to see how far I can get.

亲爱的

I got a chinese Winnie the Pooh book, will use that for chinese translating practice

亲爱的,照看你的人就要来了。袋鼠代数妈妈说

Dear .. (is this an term of endearment?) Yes
Someone is coming to look after you, kangaroo mama says.

The picture shows mama Kanga talking to baby Roo.

More later, sylvia needs attention.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

There we go

那听起来好. 我想要做月饼.

I used the MDBG Chinese-English Dictionary to make sense of it.
First sentence I can't figure out 'How/which listen beginning or continuing good'
Second sentence seems to be 'I think I am going to make moon cakes.'

Let's cheat and see what babelfish tells me. 'That sounds I want to make the moon cake'
So second sentence agrees, but still no idea what to make of the first part.

(It sounds nice. I want to make moon cakes.)


咧嘴

'Draw back corners of mouth' Sounds like laughing?



好, 我将去回到读书

Oh, that one I could figure out with some dictionary help
'Good, I will return to my studies'

嘻嘻笑

Giggle. That's a new one, will have to remember that one. I usually use 哈哈

Welcome to Chinese For Fun

This is just a blog to have fun with our Chinese language studies.

你好

My goal for today is translating what my friend said this morning,interspersed with my replies, but will post translation later today.

那听起来好. 我想要做月饼.
argh, that will take me a minute

咧嘴
help, too fast!

好, 我将去回到读书
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
good, I something something something

嘻嘻笑