As many people know, we are now officially in the year of the ox! Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! In this episode we talk about the often talked about “年味儿”. What is it??!
In this episode I read a segment of the book 《从你的全世界路过》,author: 张嘉佳。It’s a collection of short stories about the protagonists life, half of which are related to love. It contains modern, witty, humorous slang with some profanity. If you like it, you could buy a copy of the book and read along with me. Here we go!
【路过 (colloquial): The formal version is 经过 but in daily life we would always use 路过。For example, “我正好路过你家门口,要不要下来喝杯咖啡?” etc.
路过 (slang): 网络语言指不想认真回帖,但又想拿回帖的分数或经验值。On internet forums, when people don’t really want to answer the question but want to get the points for responding to a post, they’ll say something like: “我只是路过而已” or “水瓶座路过” etc.
世界: In Chinese, we like to use ‘world’ to represent the entirety of someone’s life but in English, it can sound a bit weird in certain contexts, like here. I passed through some people’s worlds and some people have passed through my world. It’s beginning to sound like a sci-fi film. In English, it makes more sense to say, “I passed through some people’s lives, and some people have passed through mine”. It’s the same vice versa here, if you were to translate this literally back into Chinese, “我从一些人的生命路过,一些人从我的生命路过”,it’s beginning to sound like a horror film.】
【罅隙(不常用 rare):是裂缝,缝隙的意思。在这里,更常用的词是缝隙,夹在时间的缝隙里。You can translate it quite literally so: “it’s like a bookmark, worth getting caught in the gap of time”. Or translate the summary of the meaning of the phrase, for example: “it’s like a bookmark, marking a time, for us to take an occasional glance”.】
【岁月 (常用):通常用来指时间,尤其是过去的日子。也就是:“In the years that have passed”. 然后,
世界:“我们都会想去拥有一个人的全世界”,”We will have wanted to have a person’s entire world” just about works here I think but I would probably translate it as “We will have wanted to have the entirety of someone but we can only pass by”. This line really reminds me of the song “Let Her Go” by Passenger.】
【呆呆伫立:呆呆means a bit dull, a bit lifeless, 伫立 means standing for a long time. In English, when we’re learning to write fiction, we’re often told ‘show, not tell’. 呆呆 this kind of emotion is often implied in English so I wouldn’t literally translate 呆呆。 In Chinese, it’s kind of show and tell, which also means something else in America but let’s stop the cycle there.】
这些并不可怕。所有人的坚强,都是柔软生的茧。
【茧有“破茧成蝶”的意思,就是cacoon, breaking out of a cacoon to be a butterfly. 也有callous 的意思。In English, 所有人的坚强,都是柔软生的茧, would translate into something like “Everyone’s strength is hardened by our softness”.】
【“世界”:“属于你的另一个全世界“, here we can translate it literally I think, “This whole other world that belongs to you, it will eventually open itself up to you, in the name of happiness. We must have happiness.”
“幸福” actually means a level higher than happiness, the ultimate happiness in life, but there are limited options is English. Maybe blissful or blessed, but that depends on the context of the sentence. Most of the time, the way it’s used is closest to “happiness”. For example, here, you wouldn’t say “in the name of bliss” or “in the name of blessed” so we’d almost always settle for “happiness”. 】
In this episode, Summer and I discuss the topics of a loveless marriage and whether we should tell our friend that their other half might be cheating on them?
哈喽,大家好,我是Kaycee。
[Summary of preamble: If there’s anything from the podcast episodes you think would benefit from further explanation, please feel free to send it through via email or Instagram! I can perhaps do an explanatory episode. I will aim to bring English transcripts back once I finish my degree!]
In this episode, Summer and I discuss two main concepts often debated in China: (i) should pretty women focus on their career or on men; and (ii) should you marry someone with a similar background and family to you? Then, I go on to discuss a recent TV series called 《流金岁月》, the storyline of which encompasses both of these points.
Semester 1 is over, most of my Semester 1 exams are done and it’s been 4 months since I’ve resigned so… I thought this would be a good time for a quick catch-up!
我妈和她的男朋友退休搬到法国南部了嘛,所以圣诞节之前,就飞过来,想说一起过一个圣诞节,跨个年。原本打算时一月一号会英国的,但是圣诞节之后就一直听新闻说英国疫情持续恶化,所以就改签。改签到一月五号,好像。要飞的前一天晚上,英国那边就说要进行第三次封锁,然后就考虑了一个晚上,到底要不要飞,第二天就给航空公司打电话,继续改签。改签到二月末。我来的时候只打算在这儿待个两周半,就带了两套衣服,没想到要在这深山里隐居两个月了,不过环境很好,而且景色也很好,就还是很舒服的。Nothing to complain about.
如果具体一点的呢,就是有的时候中文和英文的单词,有点儿对不上。比如,business,在英语里只有这一个词,但是在中文里头,它可以说成是:企业、商业、商界、业务,都可以,都是看情况来决定哪一个是比较准确的。所以,如果要是说,business model,可能商业模式更适合,那 business 单数,可能企业更适合。businesses的话,更多是商业、商界,之类的。所以,翻译的时候,就会卡。
另外卡的点,就是一些中文的词呢,两个字组成的词,正着念和反着念都可以,这个,这么说是不是有点抽象?举几个例子吧,比如开展和展开、生产和产生、意见和建议。它们的意思很相同,不同之处是很微妙的,翻译的时候,我也会考虑一下,我要说的单词,符不符合这个语境,是不是准确的,就是会想太多。但是这些多练一下的话,就okay了。所以,practice really does make perfect.
Hope everyone had good Christmas! This the second instalment of the three-part Silk Road series. Key phrases are: collapse of the Roman Empire, Buddhism and Journey to the West. Enjoy 😉
Over the Christmas and New Year period, I will be talking about the Silk Road in 3 (hopefully interesting) parts. This is the first instalment where we will have a look at how the journey started in the first place. Let’s get started!
In this episode, I examine some lyrics from Jay Chou’s “Qing Hua Ci” and briefly discuss some interesting points about China’s blue and white porcelain, could it have been taken from another country? Let’s have a look.
In this episode, I talk about the recently released film “Leap” – a film about China’s women’s volleyball team. Why volleyball? And why the Chinese women’s team? Let’s find out!
我第一次真正了解中国女排的时候是2016年的 Rio 奥运会,中国对塞尔维亚这场比赛。这是我第一次好好地看了一场排球赛,还是决赛,所以肯定很精彩。那为什么跑去看了呢?是因为当时看到很多评论、报道、新闻、文章之类的,都在讲中国女排是不是可以回到80年代的辉煌时代。因为80年代之后,中国女排在几乎所有的国际性的比赛中取得的成绩,大部分的时候都不是那么的好,一直到2016年那场Rio奥运会的决赛,拿到了冠军。
60年代的时候是日本女排的辉煌时代。在1960年,日本女排创下了118场国际赛连胜纪录,震惊世界。大家管日本女排叫东洋魔女,英语好像是现在乍一听不是那么很好听的 The Oriental Witches。好,取得这样的成绩就引起中国排球界的注意了,中国开始系统性的教育并培训队员们。这里呢,不得不说,在日本女排获得这种成绩的前不久,1945年9月份的时候,中国刚结束抗日战争,摆脱了日本侵略中国的危险,中国在60年代的时候可能还是抱着一种不甘的心态吧,这可能是比较低调一点的形容词了。那个时候有很多人还是会觉得必须要战胜日本为中国争光。或者,中国当时也有可能觉得,诶,我们的邻居日本可以做到,我们怎么就做不到了呢。也有可能这两种心态都有。这是我猜的哈。但是,这就带我们进入电影的一大主题了,就是郎平当教练的时候,问队员们的一句话:你为什么打排球。