My Chinese is Better Than My Blog Entries
February 15th, 2006 @ 9:42 pm CST, 285 words by Evan BroderWith the exception of some jargon that I’m unable to translate, I can now effectively put my usual chronological blog posts into Chinese. Should I be disturbed by that?
For example (This will be enhanced over the usual post by incorporating some of the standard sentence patterns we’re using in Class. It will also be translated in a moment. Please excuse the mess I make of the Chinese language—my main issue right now is a complete inability to translate compound sentences),
今天我六点起床。洗澡以后，我吃早饭，到学校去。因为明天我睡觉很晚，今天我很累。
第一节课是健康课。我做第六节课的功课。
第二节课是中文课。因为昨天是情人节，所以老师给了我们巧克力。老师今天给我们生词，汉字的小考。考试以后，我们练习新课文。我们念“李友的一篇日记”。
第三和四节课在Vanderbilt。我们学k-forms in Rn。老师两个星期以来没给我们功课。
第五节课是历史课。我们今天有帝国主义考试。我觉得考得不错。
第六节课是经济课。老师也给我们小考。因为我做了功课，小考很容易。
第七节课是英语课。Carla给同学们饭。吃以后，我们念Macbeth.我不喜欢Hamlet，但是我很喜欢Macbeth,因为董很容易。
Ok. That’s enough of that. I expect several angry Chinese-speakers to be banging down my door momentarily for the brutal slaughtering of their language. Actually, that proved to be somewhat more difficult than I expected, but a lot of the issue was vocabulary.
Translation:
Today I woke up at 6. After showering, I ate breakfast and went to school. Since I stayed up late last night, I was tired today.
First period is Wellness. I finished my homework for sixth period.
Second period is Chinese. Because yesterday was Valentine’s Day, our teacher gave us chocolate. Today we had a quiz over new vocabulary and Chinese characters. After the quiz, we studied a new text. We read “Li You’s Diary Entry.”
Third and fourth periods are at Vanderbilt. We studied k-forms in Rn. Our teacher hasn’t given us any homework for a couple of weeks.
Fifth period is history. Today we had a test on Imperialism. I don’t think I did badly.
Sixth period is economics. We had a quiz on our homework. It was easy because I did my homework.
Seventh period is English. Carla brought us food. After we finished eating, we read Macbeth. I didn’t like Hamlet, but I really like Macbeth.
See? It’s just like one of my normal posts!
February 15th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
i don’t see chinese. i see a bunch of question marks.
February 15th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
You don’t have the fonts installed.
(22:32:22) Evan: meh. my chinese friends are probably going to all come and comment about the screwiness of my post when i’m done
(22:32:23) Evan: oh well
(22:32:35) Evan: i’m making up the grammar i don’t know as i go
February 16th, 2006 at 1:29 am
Ahhh, I wish I were literate so I could understand what you wrote! I got the first four characters… and then a few in between. Are you learning the simplified version? I just don’t see the ridiculously complicated character I had to learn for “school” years and years and years ago.
February 16th, 2006 at 6:35 am
Yeah. We’re learning simplified. It’s much easier. Our character practice workbook has both simplified and traditional, so, having seen the traditional versions of some of our characters, I’m very, very glad we’re learning simplified.
February 16th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Here’s the romanization:
jīn tiān wǒ liù diǎn qǐ chuáng. xǐ zǎo yǐ hòu, wǒ chī zǎo fàn, dào xué xiào qù. yīn wéi míng tiān wǒ shuì jiào hěn wǎn, jīn tiān wǒ hěn lèi.
dì yī jié kè shì jiàn kāng kè. wǒ zuò dì liù jié kè de gōng kè.
dì èr jié kè shì zhōng wén kè. yīn wéi zuó tiān shì qíng rén jié, suǒ yǐ lǎo shī gěi le wǒ men qiǎo kè lì. lǎo shī jīn tiān gěi wǒ men shēng cí, hàn zì de xiǎo kǎo. kǎo shì yǐ hòu, wǒ men liàn xí xīn kè wén. wǒ men niàn “lǐ yǒu de yì piān rì jì.”
dì sān hé sì jié kè zài Vanderbilt. wǒ men xué k-forms in Rn. lǎo shī liǎng ge xīng qī yǐ lái méi gěi wǒ men gōng kè.
dì wǔ jié kè shì lì shǐ kè. wǒ men jīn tiān yǒu dì guó zhǔ yì kǎo shì. wǒ jué de kǎo de bú cuò.
dì liù jié kè shì jīng jì kè. lǎo shī yě gěi wǒ men xiǎo kǎo. yīn wéi wǒ zuò le gōng kè, xiǎo kǎo hěn róng yì.
dì qī jié kè shì yīng yǔ kè. Carla gěi tóng xué men fàn. chī yǐ hòu, wǒ men niàn Macbeth. wǒ bù xǐ huān Hamlet, dàn shì wǒ hěn xǐ huān Macbeth, yīn wéi dǒng hěn róng yì.
February 16th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Maybe you should say “But I really like Macbeth, 因为我懂得很容易.” It’s not polite to leave your second clause and verb without a subject. Otherwise, it passes muster. =)
February 16th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Your chinese writing is better than my chinese writing.
-_-
February 17th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
chinese………..
February 19th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Oh, I loved Hamlet. More than MacBeth, actually. Possibly because I really don’t remember reading Macbeth as a freshman. I mean, I read it. But I really don’t remember it.
February 22nd, 2006 at 4:19 am
Oh, like the romanization helps. =P I never learned pinyin. I am, however, very proud of myself for having guessed the name of your Health class and how you said it right though. =D And… I second zoogies regarding Chinese writing.
February 22nd, 2006 at 6:40 am
Yes, but I would bet money that either of you could own me in oral conversation.