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Silky Johnson
International Playa Hater
Registered: Nov 2003
Location:
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quote: | Originally posted by Lira
I recently read an old thread in which you said that, and I thought you had another character in your neck, because that character alone doesn't really mean all those things, but it is used in the spelling of all the words you mentioned (birthday is 誕生, for example). 命 is more likely to occur on its own when they mean "life".
All by itself, 生 means "raw" (生の牛肉 = "Raw beef"), "live" (as in happening right now, e.g. 生の音楽 = "Live Music"), "not elaborated" (この刃は生だ = This blade is blunt / 読者の生の声を聞きたい = I want to hear readers' candid opinions) in Japanese. In Chinese, much like in Japanese, this character alone does not seem to be able to convey all the meanings you want. "Life", for example, is 生命, and it would be more usual to see the last character being used independently. In summary, that's like having "bio" tattoed in your back - it is part of many words related to life, such as "biology" and "biodiversity", but it isn't really the proper word. Who recommended you that character?
Anyway. what really matters is that...
... they look awesome on you |
Well I didn't make that up. A Chinese girl in the nursing program told me that. In fact I've heard similar explanations from several Chinese people.
edit: someone once told me "ruler" as well. Or rule or something..like as in measurement. But that was a guy who just went over there to teach or some shit. Lol.
But yeah thanks.
quote: | Originally posted by tubularbills
Jenny, did you ever have a "sunburn" kinda feeling with any of your tattoos? the one i had done, the guy said it was going to feel like it afterwards, and sure enough for a good 2 days it felt like a had a really bad sunburn...isolated in one small area, it was weir.d....can't imagine a full back like yours. |
Yep that's exactly how it feels.
Last edited by Silky Johnson on Apr-04-2010 at 19:37
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Apr-04-2010 19:30
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Unique2701
in deep space
Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Amsterdam
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生does mean live, to be alive, to be born, to give birth as Jenny said. But Lira is not wrong about that it also means raw, or live as in live music etc and I agree that the right way to translate "Life" would be 生命.
I'm pretty sure that 生 can be used as an independant word though, for example the words 生或死 are often used, meaning "alive or dead".
ps. this reminds me of when I was standing at a bar in Helsinki and I saw a Finnish girl having a tattoo with Chinese characters that said "tourist". I didn't know if she knew that she was fucked. So I said casually "oh hey, those are Chinese characters you have tattoed on your wrist.. what does it mean?".
She: you can't read it?
Me: hmm nah, my Chinese isn't very good.
She: well, if you don't know, then I'm not gonna tell you!
Guess she DID know! lol
Last edited by Unique2701 on Apr-04-2010 at 20:24
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Apr-04-2010 20:14
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Lira
Ancient BassAddict
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Brasília, Brazil
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Oh, I suppose it's more of a Chinese reading then. By the way, never mind my following posts about this topic, Jenny, I'm now just trying to understand the Chinese language a little better
And are there any other tattoos in your body? Is that a scorpion on your hip?
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
生does mean live, to be alive, to be born, to give birth as Jenny said. |
I mean, don't you need some more characters to convey all these meanings? For example, in order to say "birth" or "to give birth" don't you need to say 出生? Can I just say 我出生在巴西 instead of 我生在巴西 to say "I was born in Brazil"? Or just 我的生 instead of 我的生活?
For example, here in Brazil people often get 平 tattooed in their body because they're told it means "Peace". But, as far as my smart-arse laowai knowledge is concerned, unless 和 is thrown somewhere in the mix, 平 just means plain/flat. No?
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
I'm pretty sure that 生 can be used as an independant word though, for example the words 生或死 are often used, meaning "alive or dead". |
Well, that's a fixed expression. For example, "nowt" is not used outside Northern England except in the expression "There's nowt so queer as folk", which is probably used beyond its borders more often than the word "nowt" independently. "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" is another instance of an archaic use retained by tradition.
Isn't it the same case, or can I say 我生 to mean "I live"?
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Apr-04-2010 20:46
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Unique2701
in deep space
Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Amsterdam
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Pfffft. It's pretty hard to explain. In some cases, most Chinese people will find it hard to explain what only one character means, because we've only been taught what a combination of two characters mean.
Often it doesn't even make sense to think about what each individual character means. For example, the most correct way to say "happy" in Chinese, is 快樂. But 樂 covers that meaning more than 快 and is often being used indepently (in names, for tattoos). Because what does 快 mean independently? Just fast.
There's not one character or a combination of characters that cover every way of the word "life" we use in English. 生命 is life like you said. But in some situations, we only use 生, and in others, we only use 命.
For example, if you'd say "my whole life..", in Chinese it's "我一生人..".
"人生" is also used for "life", though it literally means "a human's life"
Or "He has a very fortunate life" - "他真的好命".
quote: | Originally posted by Lira
I mean, don't you need some more characters to convey all these meanings? For example, in order to say "birth" or "to give birth" don't you need to say 出生? Can I just say 我出生在巴西 instead of 我生在巴西 to say "I was born in Brazil"? Or just 我的生 instead of 我的生活?
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"I was born in Brazil" would be 我是在巴西出生.
"When my mom gave birth to me.." - 我媽生我的时候
There is no better way to translate "alive" than 生 and it means "alive" more than any other meaning. Actually, raw as in 生牛肉 (raw beef) is derived from the meaning of "alive". The idea behind it is that when meat is raw, it's not dead yet - so it's "alive" so to say.
quote: | For example, here in Brazil people often get 平 tattooed in their body because they're told it means "Peace". But, as far as my smart-arse laowai knowledge is concerned, unless 和 is thrown somewhere in the mix, 平 just means plain/flat. No? |
平 also means balance, so it's not that far fetched. Most people from the West just want to use one Chinese character in general, because they don't know much better and think that one word = one character. But I agree with you that the most correct way to translate "peace" would be 和平
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Apr-04-2010 22:11
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Lira
Ancient BassAddict
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Brasília, Brazil
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quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
Pfffft. It's pretty hard to explain. In some cases, most Chinese people will find it hard to explain what only one character means, because we've only been taught what a combination of two characters mean. |
It's all right - it's the same in Japanese. That's why I'm often confused when people around here make the correspondence "Ideogram" = "Word" like you mentioned later... and, except for some rare words that are indeed written with just one character, such as 水, 冬, and 力, I often wind up giving people a long speech about Japanese grammar, which I think listeners either find too complicated or just too long to be correct.
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
Often it doesn't even make sense to think about what each individual character means. For example, the most correct way to say "happy" in Chinese, is 快樂. But 樂 covers that meaning more than 快 and is often being used indepently (in names, for tattoos). Because what does 快 mean independently? Just fast. |
Yeah, that's the sort of thing I had in mind.
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
There's not one character or a combination of characters that cover every way of the word "life" we use in English. 生命 is life like you said. But in some situations, we only use 生, and in others, we only use 命.
For example, if you'd say "my whole life..", in Chinese it's "我一生人..".
"人生" is also used for "life", though it literally means "a human's life"
Or "He has a very fortunate life" - "他真的好命".
"I was born in Brazil" would be 我是在巴西出生.
"When my mom gave birth to me.." - 我媽生我的时候 |
Interesting
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
There is no better way to translate "alive" than 生 and it means "alive" more than any other meaning. Actually, raw as in 生牛肉 (raw beef) is derived from the meaning of "alive". The idea behind it is that when meat is raw, it's not dead yet - so it's "alive" so to say. |
Heh, now that's something I didn't expect, but that makes perfect sense.
quote: | Originally posted by Unique2701
平 also means balance, so it's not that far fetched. Most people from the West just want to use one Chinese character in general, because they don't know much better and think that one word = one character. But I agree with you that the most correct way to translate "peace" would be 和平 |
I think that's also because one character is cheaper than two
By the way, I had no idea you spoke Chinese. Were you born there or are you Dutch Chinese?
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Apr-04-2010 22:56
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Unique2701
in deep space
Registered: Apr 2005
Location: Amsterdam
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quote: | Originally posted by Lira
It's all right - it's the same in Japanese. That's why I'm often confused when people around here make the correspondence "Ideogram" = "Word" like you mentioned later... and, except for some rare words that are indeed written with just one character, such as 水, 冬, and 力, I often wind up giving people a long speech about Japanese grammar, which I think listeners either find too complicated or just too long to be correct.
Yeah, that's the sort of thing I had in mind.
Interesting
Heh, now that's something I didn't expect, but that makes perfect sense.
I think that's also because one character is cheaper than two
By the way, I had no idea you spoke Chinese. Were you born there or are you Dutch Chinese? |
My parents are from Hong Kong but they immigrated to Holland ages ago, so I'm born as a Dutch.
Cantonese was also the first language I've learned. I attended Chinese lessons on Saturday with a bunch of other Chinese kids like me, who were also born in Holland. I was never much interested in that - I didn't have much of a say in it as a kid - so I didn't learn as much as I should've. Once you stop taking lessons and don't keep it up with reading, watching Chinese tv, you forget how to write characters very fast.. I still recognize a quite a bit when I try to read it (though I miss the essential words so kind of pointless), but writing doesn't get me far.
I might go to China to learn Mandarin someday though I've got a real advantage knowing how to speak Cantonese and I like the idea of living abroad for a while.
How do you learn Japanese, lessons or self taught?
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Apr-04-2010 23:13
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