Chinese name pronunciation
- Thread starter Burnsy2023
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Listen to this man. Shee-en gee. Let's avoid the whole issue of tones for the time being though!
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Talking of racism........
The Singh family of Plumbers in Birmingham a few years back had the slogan 'You've had the Cowboys now try the Indians' on the sides of their vans.
The local council made them remove the slogan as it was racist.
I heard this from a friend of mine, an Indian residing in Birmingham no less, who confirmed this as true.....wtf
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Point taken, but the family concerned were Indian
Oh, I know. I was just making a joke.
It's a great slogan for an Indian plumbing firm. Really clever.
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I know,....wicked but not allowed it would seem.....my friend is a relative and they were dumbfounded to say the least
For something as personal as a name, I consider it best to ask what pronunciation is preferred. Especially if it's a foreign name and I don't know anything about the rules of pronunciation for that language. It's their name - how do they want it pronounced? e.g. if someone's name is Lemon and they want it pronounced 'le mon', 'lay mon' or 'smith', then I'll go along with that.
Having said that, it's obviously transliterated because the original language doesn't use this alphabet. I think it fails as a transliteration if the pronunciation isn't clear.
Having said that, it's obviously transliterated because the original language doesn't use this alphabet. I think it fails as a transliteration if the pronunciation isn't clear.
There is a taxi driver in Seoul whos name is "Strong Dick" honest to god, its on his taxi permit and everything. I've got one of his cards around somewhere i'll have to try and find it.
Allot of Koreans take western names to reduce confusion dealing with us westerners the chinese do the same, i find it a little embarassing not being able to prounce someone you work withs name.
That said with all the Mr Park's and Mr Lee's in Korea its rather difficult. I once commented to a Mr Lee in a meeting and had no less than 5 people ask if I ment them.
Funny thing is they often pick names that you dont hear at home, Bennie, Felix, Jeffery all names from older times, one girl picked the name Fannie until we explained to here the other meaning.
I had quite a few Chinese friends with interesting names, there seemed to be a bit of a Lion King thing going round, with a Simba and a Scar, along with Rainbow and the like. My favourite was a guy who called himself Horse. We asked him why he chose it, assuming it represented speed/power or something, and he replied in all seriousness "no, it's because my friends all say I look like a horse". Harsh
Then again, a lot of Westerners will just go over and use meaningless transliterations of their own names anyway, so it works both ways to an extent.
Sian Jee would do. It's actually two Chinese characters put into a name, rather than together like ssiaanjee.
Try and say it like "ung" but make the "u" as short as you possibly can until you make it disappear.
Because it is possible.
Just thought I'd help:
ignoring tones, anyone with 'Ng' as their surname are probably from beyond China (think Malaysian, Singaporean or even Taiwanese as that surname is of Hokkien origin) It is pronounced as Skull rightly pointed out, as 'ung' but more emphasis on the 'ng' at the end of the 'ung' tone.
Unless they specifically show their name is Xi An Ji, I'm going to assume it's Xian Ji (a 2 character name).
"Xian" 贤, is pronounced as "see-yen" in syllable. "Ji" will really depend on which of the 4 tones he's got for his name. A safe bet would be "Ge-ee", emphasis on the ee when pronounced in 1 syllable.
Hope this helps.
/Don't be fooled by my name. Anyone that knows me or have seen my pictures knows that I'm ethnically Chinese/Singaporean and speak fluent Mandarin, everyday Cantonese and Hokkien.
ignoring tones, anyone with 'Ng' as their surname are probably from beyond China (think Malaysian, Singaporean or even Taiwanese as that surname is of Hokkien origin) It is pronounced as Skull rightly pointed out, as 'ung' but more emphasis on the 'ng' at the end of the 'ung' tone.
Unless they specifically show their name is Xi An Ji, I'm going to assume it's Xian Ji (a 2 character name).
"Xian" 贤, is pronounced as "see-yen" in syllable. "Ji" will really depend on which of the 4 tones he's got for his name. A safe bet would be "Ge-ee", emphasis on the ee when pronounced in 1 syllable.
Hope this helps.
/Don't be fooled by my name. Anyone that knows me or have seen my pictures knows that I'm ethnically Chinese/Singaporean and speak fluent Mandarin, everyday Cantonese and Hokkien.