Did you know that...

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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The Chinese New Year is based on the Lunar Calendar, and the cycle is 29.53 days, the month starts when there is a new moon, the 15th of the month is when there is a full moon. And every 19 years, the date of a Chinese calendar year "matches" with a Western calendar again.

So for the sake of argument if you are born on 1st of January in the Chinese New Year which happens to be 10th Feb. Since next year it'll be different and the year after that, it won't be on your 19th birthday again until the date matches up again.

p.s. Karaoke in Japanese means "Empty Orchestra". "Kara" means empty in English, and "oke" is a kind of abbreviation of orchestra. Kinda hauntingly beautiful don't you think ?

p.p.s. It's 5am, I need to go to bed
 
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I didn't know that about the Chinese calender at all. I do however know that I was born in the year of the Boar! :)
 
Did you know - in Korea, you are all a year "older" than you are anywhere else in the world (and some of you are actually two years older!). They count the first 9 months in the womb as a year.

If you're 29, 39, etc western.... be depressed!
 
... 'Karaoke' is Japanese.

The Chinese might use (at least in Mainland Mandarin) a mixture of Chinese and English for their variation of Karaoke.

卡拉OK

The first two characters are 'Ka' then 'La' (3rd and 1st tone, respectively), followed by 'OK' as in English.

Sounds more like 'Kaaa LA or Keh'. :p :)

Mandarin Chinese has 4 tones, and one neutral tone.

1. High and Flat, like MAAA!
2. Rising, like maaaAAA
3. Falling then rising, like MAAaaaaAA
4. Sharp Fall, like a shout... 'CRAP!' or Ma!.

Each syllable, depending on tone and context, can mean something entirely different, but each word has its own unique character. One of 3,500~ you need to learn how to write for basic literacy.

Most people assume Japanese and Chinese are alike, but that's not true. The Chinese system relies on unique characters and has no alphabet, while Japanese has an alphabet (two, actually) and has no tones.

Different dialects of Chinese have different types or amounts of tones. Cantonese has between 6 and 9, a figure that is still argued today due to the complexity and use of the tones in some cases. I.e., you may change tone mid-way through a word. So does that count as another tone, or not? :p

To say 'Happy New Year' in Mandarin Chinese, simply go to your local Chinese take-away or China Town and shout, very loudly, with a smile on your face:

Xin Nian Kuai Le

Pron: 'Shin Knee-en kwhy luh'. Say it with Cheer, and I'm sure they'll understand. :p

Actually, most Chinese abroad are from Hong Kong and, thus, speak Cantonese.

Gong Hei Fat Choi

Pronounced as you read it, really. :)

Unlike Mandarin, Cantonese doesn't have an official romanisation system, so you may have seen it in many different spellings, such as 'Kong Hei Fat Tsoi', or more.

And that is my, pretty useless (but interesting), Chinese lesson for the day. :p

Edit: Oh, and year of the Rat here. I don't like Rats though. :(

Another random thing. We call ugly girls 'Dogs' but, in Mainland China, ugly people are called 'Dinosaurs', literally. Fun, eh? :)

Dinosaur = Kong Long.

Ni shi kong long = You are a Dinosaur = You are ugly. :p

​
 
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I learnt a few interesting things in Thailand on my travels, too.

New Year in Thailand, traditionally, falls in April.

วันขื้นปีใหม่
SONGKRAN

Thai has 5 tones, very similar to the ones in Mandarin.

The year in Thailand is based on the birth of Buddha, 543 years before Christ. That makes it the year 2550 in Thailand. They have these traditional dates on things such as a driver's license, birth certificate, etc.

Can't tell you much about the language, though. I was only there a short time and only managed to squeeze in a small vocab of 20-30 words/sentences. I also haven't sat down to learn the alphabet yet, but I will.​
 
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Just remembered what a Japanese friend told me in China:

In Japan, they have 'New Year' cards, as opposed to Christmas Cards.

You may write:

迎春,

Geishun

Happy New Year.

昨年は大変お世話になり
ありがとうございました｡

Sakunen wa taihen osewa ni nari
arigatou gozaimashita.

Thank you for all your kind help
during the past year.

*(ripped from About.com; My Japanese is limited at best)

If you have a friend from Asia, living in the UK, please give them a thought while they're in the wild west and share what you've learnt with them. It will really make them happy that you've gone out of your way to understand their culture during the festive season. :)

​
 
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I know this too, as my girlfriend's birthday falls on a different date every year!

nokkonwud said:
I did know that, but as I told you before, I used to work in a Chinese takeaway :p.
I'm year of the Rat.
Click to expand...

Actually, you are a pig (or boar if you prefer). The year of the pig ran from Feb.13th 1983 to Feb.01 1984, and your date of birth was in January 1984. You would only be a rat if your birthday was after Feb.01 1984.


OvertoneBliss said:
The first two characters are 'Ka' then 'La' (3rd and 1st tone, respectively), followed by 'OK' as in English.

Sounds more like 'Kaaa LA or Keh'. :p :)

Mandarin Chinese has 4 tones, and one neutral tone.

1. High and Flat, like MAAA!
2. Rising, like maaaAAA
3. Falling then rising, like MAAaaaaAA
4. Sharp Fall, like a shout... 'CRAP!' or Ma!.

Each syllable, depending on tone and context, can mean something entirely different, but each word has its own unique character. One of 3,500~ you need to learn how to write for basic literacy.

Most people assume Japanese and Chinese are alike, but that's not true. The Chinese system relies on unique characters and has no alphabet, while Japanese has an alphabet (two, actually) and has no tones.

Different dialects of Chinese have different types or amounts of tones. Cantonese has between 6 and 9, a figure that is still argued today due to the complexity and use of the tones in some cases. I.e., you may change tone mid-way through a word. So does that count as another tone, or not? :p

To say 'Happy New Year' in Mandarin Chinese, simply go to your local Chinese take-away or China Town and shout, very loudly, with a smile on your face:

Xin Nian Kuai Le
Click to expand...

Interesting stuff, but I'll just add a couple of things here :p

Karaoke in Mandarin does have it's own pinyin, it's : ka3 la1 ou1 kei1

The more commonly spoken form for happy new year is : 过年好 - guo4 nian2 hao3 (although, as you rightly point out, most Chinese places in England won't understand, as they don't understand Mandarin Chinese).

There are other tones in Mandarin, there are words such as 旅 (which has a different sound than 卤) and 绿 (which had a different sound than 路).
Also, the tones can change, especially when you have two words together which both have the third tone. The first word then becomes the second tone (eg. 你好). The word bu4 不 (fourth tone) will change to the second tone, when the word following it is also a fourth tone, eg. 不对. There are a few other examples, but you get the idea.

In Mandarin there are quite a few words which share characters. For example, the word for long (长 chang2, like in Great Wall, 长城) is the same character as the word for chief (长 zhang3, like in captain 船长).

Oh, and written Japanese consists of Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana. Kanji is of Chinese origin, i.e. they are Chinese characters. They are the traditional Chinese characters as used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, however, quite a few simplified characters are the same, or close to the traditional character, so it’s not unreadable to the Chinese.

And finally... I'm a rat too (although 12 years older than Overtone Bliss and nokkonwud).

:)
 
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