English ABC

靳京 · 发表于 2010-6-19 22:52:00

Here are some of the very simple expessions in Chinese we can practice to begin with, but how do we say in correct English:

1) 我叫（我的名字是）————————

2）我生长在北京。

3）我的中小学是在北京上的。

4）我喜欢老北京城。

5）我住在北京西城区，海淀区。。。。

6）我为是一个北京人而感到自豪。

Let's talk about them later.

靳京 · 发表于 2010-6-21 09:08:00

7) 对很多外国人来说，北京是一个很大的城市。

8）北京有很多好看好玩儿的地方，也有很多好吃的东西。

9）天安门在北京市的中心。

10）天安门广场是首都北京的象征。

Can everyone try translating them into proper English so that we can use them every day?

馬家大姑娘 · 发表于 2010-7-19 11:23:00

Here I am...
I am going to try to translate these sentences and hopefully can able to help a bit to active this forum:

1) 我叫（我的名字是）————————

My name is Majiadaguniang.

2）我生长在北京。

I was born and grow up in Beijing, China.

3）我的中小学是在北京上的。

I finished elementary and mid school in Beijing.

4）我喜欢老北京城。

I like the old city of Beijing.

5）我住在北京西城区，海淀区。。。。

I am living in Hai dian qu.

6）我为是一个北京人而感到自豪。

I am proud to being a Beijingnese.

靳京 · 发表于 2010-7-19 20:29:00

Here I am...
I am going to try to translate these sentences and hopefully can able to help a bit to active this forum:

1) 我叫（我的名字是）————————

My name is Majiadaguniang.

2）我生长在北京。

I was born and grow up in Beijing, China.

3）我的中小学是在北京上的。

I finished elementary and mid school in Beijing.

4）我喜欢老北京城。

I like the old city of Beijing.

5）我住在北京西城区，海淀区。。。。

I am living in Hai dian qu.

6）我为是一个北京人而感到自豪。

I am proud to being a Beijingnese.

----------------------------------------------------------------

It 's been so wonderful to have you here trying to keep the forum going on and on......

These words were supposed to have people perticipate more actively into this forum, together with some simplicity and fun to begin with. I personally hate to be one of their 版主s here, However, they are much less active than me as a visitor who love OLD BEIJING from the bottom of my heart. Anyway, let's get back to the business here:

1) and 2) are nothing but perfect in English and 3) I think have more than one way to present the translation:

a. 我的中小学是在北京上的

一。I finished my elementary and high school in Beijing.

二。I had my grade school and high school graduation (education) here in Beijing.

grade school 和 elementary school 基本意思一样

b. 我为是一个北京人而感到自豪

一。I am so proud of being a native of Beijing.

二。I am so proud of being a Beijing Native.

c. 另外“区”的英文是district, Hiadian District. etc.

d. be able to和can最好不连用。

e. active是一个形容词，这里需要的是一个动词，所以activate or animate再好不过了。

proud of something是一个固定格式，后边跟动名词短语作为介词宾语。另外，我非常不喜欢Beijingnese或Pekingnese这个词。在西方，是京巴狗的意思。在前几年，就在该论坛有过激烈的讨论，也没分出子丑寅卯来。我更喜欢Beijing Native (主要是指北京人）。

There are still more to be translated into proper English. Keep going on and wish you great success.

还有一些没有完成啊，加油！

By the way, I've been to many different places in the States. I finally chose Seattle for many different reasons, not only from the weather perspectives but also the sea water that I have to be with according to my fortune teller, even though I do not quite trust it much. My fortune tells me that I have to be by the sea for the rest of my life if ever I have to be in America. I tried California, Oregon and finally Seattle to be my best choice. However, I am right now back to Beijing for some permenant business at least for a while. But I am in love of Seattle for the past 11 years and maybe many years to come.

Welcome to Seattle. We have a "Beijing Family Get-together" every other week.

靳京 · 发表于 2010-7-15 16:27:00

These sentences have been here for quite a while. However, there has been NO one including THE organizer to come and try. I can wait for another week till some serious English learners to break the ice here for the forum.

Check back later.

馬家大姑娘 · 发表于 2010-7-24 05:55:00

Thank you so much for your time to correct my mistakes. I am so appreciated.

As for the "Beijingness" that I used, I agreed with you. I hit to use this work but I couldn't think an other word by than. Right, Beijing Native is better. What about "A citizen of Beijing"?

As for the "proud of" mistake, I always make the same kinds of mistake like this. Such as "want to",I only write "want","Proud of",I only write "Proud"...

As for the "be able to和can最好不连用". Why?
Is this correct?
"I am going to try to translate these sentences and hopefully able to help a bit activate (animate) this forum"

馬家大姑娘 · 发表于 2010-7-24 06:37:00

It's so interesting to see a person who believed and do what the fortune teller told that what you should do.[em63]

I totally understand. One of my Beijing friend who lives in Miami just like you. Once, she spend some $s and drove 4 hours down to a place to see a "Great and well know" fortune teller to get some ideas for some specific things in her live. The Fortune Teller leaded her that she has to go back to Beijing to fix her problems. After she came back from the Fortune Teller's place, she let her husband took a week day off to watch their one year old son and went back to Beijing right way. She stay there for three days.
She told us that the problems are gone.
She feels much better now. [em69]

As for you now,it's ok to live in Beijing with out any water or sea hum? Do you have any plant to go back to Seattle?

Interesting!

靳京 · 发表于 2010-7-24 14:34:00

As for the "Beijingness" that I used, I agreed with you. I hit to use this work but I couldn't think an other word by than. Right, Beijing Native is better. What about "A citizen of Beijing"?

You are a surprisingly good and direct person for conversation of any kind, like one of those American in the US.

Anyway, as for the topic, 1st of all, I always hate to correct anyone and hurt his/her feeling, but I am by all means to have the strict rules for myself to keep English, such a beautiful language, in a very natural flow and good communicative way.

I think I'd rather prefer Beijinger than Beijingnese or Pekingnese (smells like a dog in the Western countries)

"A citizen of Beijing" is perfect for me, however, it is more of a written than a spoken word, isn't it? In conversation, we rarely say:" Hello, I am a citizen of Beijing." (compare: Citizen of New York AND New Yorker）

As for the "be able to和can最好不连用". Why?
Is this correct?

can:可以，会；而be able to语气比can强很多，更表示“能力和自信”。It sounds awkward if you put them together in susage. You should have the weird feeling when you use them together in Chinese.

The sentence right below the qustion:

"I am going to try to translate these sentences and hopefully able to help a bit activate (animate) this forum"

To my experience, if you think it will be hard for you to do this(translation), you can use "be able to" in this particular case.

Let me try some of my ways of translation from your idea ONLY:

a. I am going to try translating these sentences and see if I can help animate this forum.

b. I am going to translate these sentences to help activate this language forum.

c. I will help to activate this forum by trying to translate these sentences into English as a visitor.

d. I will try to perticipate in the activities if I am able to translate these sentences well.

e. I will learn and talk more in English through activities here on this forum if I am able to translate these sentences.

f...........

Hope we will learn from each other and help more people to come and stay in the forum.

Speaking of the water thing for my life, I truly don't feel like home here even though I am a Beijinger. I miss the sea, the pure blue sky and crystal clear air, big trees around my house....... However, I always comfort myself with the same idea when in Seattle that I miss Beijing and people here a lot more than I do to Seattle. Therefore, I can always go back and forth, more water in Seattle, and maybe more intimacy here in Beijing as hometown for a great balance of my life.

Well, well.... maybe I've talked too much.......

馬家大姑娘 · 发表于 2010-8-2 14:52:00

I am sorry about that I reply late.
I got a bad cold and have been sick almost a week. Even now I still feel weak.
Your translation is great and the explanation is very clear. I am learning ...Thanks.

I found a Beijing Native who is now living in Seattle from Wenxuecity (文学城博客 you might already knew him). He is so weird and kind of funny.(北美崔哥脱口秀) See attached:

http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/201008/news-gb2312-1133863.html

靳京 · 发表于 2010-9-21 12:29:00

回马家大姑娘: 说到宝印兄弟,在西雅图的华人中可以说是尽人皆知,家喻户晓. 每当节日来临或有活动演出,总少不了宝印兄弟的精彩相声或脱口秀. 给较宁静的华人社区的生活增添不少欢笑和乐趣. 他不但能开口成章, 还是北京同乡会的副会长. 工作尤为繁忙, 还有身边的北京哥们儿们. 我们是好兄弟.

Right now I am back in Seattle with some business and will return to Beijing late this month.

Now let me come back to the 2nd floor for the translation by myself to have fun with:

7) 对很多外国人来说，北京是一个很大的城市。

8）北京有很多好看好玩儿的地方，也有很多好吃的东西。

9）天安门在北京市的中心。

10）天安门广场是首都北京的象征。

7) To a lot of foreigners, Beijing is comparatively huge city.

8) There are so many places in the city to have fun and delicious food to eat(satisfy your stomach).

9) TianAnMen is the center of the Beijing City.

10) The TianAnMen Square is the symbol of Beijing as the capital.

Enjoy your time at Old Beijing forum and 快乐中秋！

靳京 · 发表于 2010-9-29 20:11:00

Well,well, the translation turns out to be a political topic.

弘德皇帝 · 发表于 2010-9-25 21:33:00

QUOTE:

以下是引用靳京在2010-9-25 14:17:00的发言：

Thanks for your comment. I hereby refer ONLY to the point of language reqirement for the translation purpose. We DO need a different sentence in Chinese to fit a different translation in, don't we?

The square IS no doult in the center of Beijing City area. It is more of a bad impression of "Cultural Revolution" which many foreigners, even Chinese do not consider AS the center any more but a sign of politics.

that's right. Many foreigners rather believe the square is a place for revolt.

靳京 · 发表于 2010-9-25 14:17:00

Thanks for your comment. I hereby refer ONLY to the point of language reqirement for the translation purpose. We DO need a different sentence in Chinese to fit a different translation in, don't we?

The square IS no doult in the center of Beijing City area. It is more of a bad impression of "Cultural Revolution" which many foreigners, even Chinese do not consider AS the center any more but a sign of politics.

弘德皇帝 · 发表于 2010-9-24 20:20:00

10）天安门广场是首都北京的象征

to be frank, when I talk to some foreigners about Tian'anmen, many of them never regards it like a square for festival and full of happiness

靳京 · 发表于 2010-10-2 13:12:00

Let's go to a joke about TianAnMen during the PCR.....

在史无前例的无产阶级文化大革命当中，一位农村的老贫农家里的墙上长期挂着一幅天安门的彩色画像，他天天瞅，月月盼，期待着有一天自己能亲自到首都北京，亲眼看到天安门，那该多幸福啊！这一天终于等到了，他有机会随农村参访团进京参观，当他来到天安门广场，亲眼看到天安门城楼的时候，他不自觉地大叫了一声，然后转头就走了，一路很郁闷地回到了家。家人问及是否看到天安门时，他回答说，“看到了，但那个真的天安门不如俺家的好，它一点都不闪金光啊。。。。”。

I have had this story in my mind for the past 30 years of my life.