Unlike English, which tends to adopt foreign words to get new words, Chinese tends to gets new words by combining preexisting Chinese words. For example, the Chinese word for computer is 电脑; with 电 meaning electrionic and 脑 meaning brain combining to form the complex concept of a computer. Thanksgiving can be broken down into 感恩,meaning greatful, which can iteself be broken down into 感,feel or sense; 嗯,kindness; and 节,meaning holiday. Still, my favorite example of this is turkey, which in Chinese is 火鸡,from 火 meaning fire and 鸡 meaning chicken. While I am a fan of turkey and Thanksgiving, it would be significantly cooler if instead of eating a bird with a named after a country it isn't from for Thanksgiving we all sat around the table and ate a fire chicken! While it may be a funny literal translation with our pure white domesticated turkeys you can defiantly see the fire connection with some of the more while turkeys with their glistening feathers. Even though Chinese has a perfectly good word for turkey and the stereotype of China is that the people will eat any animal under the sun, turkey is rare in China. I am sure if I wanted to buy a turkey I could get one somewhere in Shanghai, but I believe it would be quite the quest.
1 Comment
Dad
11/25/2016 01:01:10 am
I bet they have Turkey at the American Embassy in Beijing. Might be worth a trip on the high speed train
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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