Love in 3 different languages
Am off to bed because feeling very limp but felt like posting about something about a tangential thought from Meteor Garden while I remember.
I first watched it in 2003 or so when I was working in Hong Kong and I became very addicted. Once a friend came to visit from Australia, she became so addicted that every time I came home staggering from work with groceries and our dinner, I'd have to let myself in because she would in front of my television glued to it in fascination. She made sure she bought a set of the dvds before she left Hong Kong.
Anyway, the reason I mention it is because Meteor Garden was my first realisation that it is not that Chinese people (and Japanese people) do NOT have a word for love - they definitely do, it's just that it's expressed slightly differently depending on the context.
This is what Shan Cai says to Dao Ming Si at the end of Meteor Garden. This is the screen cap from my Taiwanese dvds. She says 我喜歡你. Which depending on the context can mean I love you, or it can mean I like you.
This couple have gone to hell and back so it's pretty obvious that they mean it in the I love you sense. The English subtitles translate it as this:
I found that really inexplicable at the time and was very frustrated, but now I get it.
Modern Chinese has several terms or root words are used for "love":
Ai (愛) is used as a verb (e.g. Wo ai ni, "I love you") or as a noun, especially in aiqing (愛情), "love" or "romance."
Lian (戀) is not generally used alone, but instead as part of such terms as "being in love" (談戀愛, tan lian'ai-also containing ai), "lover" (戀人, lianren) or "homosexuality" (同性戀, tongxinglian). 談戀愛 literally means 'to speak of love' but it means 'being in love. 愛上 is to fall in love.
Qing (情) usually means "feeling" or "emotion," often indicates "love" in several terms. It is contained in the word aiqing (愛情); qingren (情人) is a term for "lover".
In Cantonese, they say 鈡意 jung yi which is the Cantonese equivalent of 我喜歡你 ie. can mean I love you / I like you depending on the context.
The word for love is written frequently but rarely spoken to another except in songs or in movies/tv dramas. 我愛你 (literally I love you) is almost never said. It's pronounce wi ai ni (wor eye nee) and in Cantonese it is ngo ngoi nei.
The Japanese is almost identical in their usage of the same phrases. In Japanese ai (愛) (identical kanji character as the Chinese) means passionate caring love, and a fundamental desire.
The two most common words for love are ai （愛）and koi (恋). koibito (恋人) has the connotation of "boyfriend", "girlfriend", or "partner".
Japanese rarely use ai (愛) or koi (恋) in every day conversation. ai shiteiru (愛している) or koi shiteiru (恋している) is literally "I love you" - 我愛你 in Chinese.
Instead they will usually say suki desu (好きです), which literally means "I like you" -- suki (好き). It's the same word used to express likings for things but the implied meaning of "love" is understood. It is identical in usage to the Mandarin 我喜歡你 (I like you) and the Cantonese 我鈡意 (I like you).
The word 'love' is not used often, nor is it used lightly.
I have used complex traditional characters because they're prettier:
Simplified character love is 爱
Complex character and Japanese kanji character love is 愛
The complex character 'love' contains the 'heart' radical.
This is the heart radical: 心
When the Chinese simplified their character for love, they lost the heart ...
I first watched it in 2003 or so when I was working in Hong Kong and I became very addicted. Once a friend came to visit from Australia, she became so addicted that every time I came home staggering from work with groceries and our dinner, I'd have to let myself in because she would in front of my television glued to it in fascination. She made sure she bought a set of the dvds before she left Hong Kong.
Anyway, the reason I mention it is because Meteor Garden was my first realisation that it is not that Chinese people (and Japanese people) do NOT have a word for love - they definitely do, it's just that it's expressed slightly differently depending on the context.
This is what Shan Cai says to Dao Ming Si at the end of Meteor Garden. This is the screen cap from my Taiwanese dvds. She says 我喜歡你. Which depending on the context can mean I love you, or it can mean I like you.
This couple have gone to hell and back so it's pretty obvious that they mean it in the I love you sense. The English subtitles translate it as this:
I found that really inexplicable at the time and was very frustrated, but now I get it.
Modern Chinese has several terms or root words are used for "love":
Ai (愛) is used as a verb (e.g. Wo ai ni, "I love you") or as a noun, especially in aiqing (愛情), "love" or "romance."
Lian (戀) is not generally used alone, but instead as part of such terms as "being in love" (談戀愛, tan lian'ai-also containing ai), "lover" (戀人, lianren) or "homosexuality" (同性戀, tongxinglian). 談戀愛 literally means 'to speak of love' but it means 'being in love. 愛上 is to fall in love.
Qing (情) usually means "feeling" or "emotion," often indicates "love" in several terms. It is contained in the word aiqing (愛情); qingren (情人) is a term for "lover".
In Cantonese, they say 鈡意 jung yi which is the Cantonese equivalent of 我喜歡你 ie. can mean I love you / I like you depending on the context.
The word for love is written frequently but rarely spoken to another except in songs or in movies/tv dramas. 我愛你 (literally I love you) is almost never said. It's pronounce wi ai ni (wor eye nee) and in Cantonese it is ngo ngoi nei.
The Japanese is almost identical in their usage of the same phrases. In Japanese ai (愛) (identical kanji character as the Chinese) means passionate caring love, and a fundamental desire.
The two most common words for love are ai （愛）and koi (恋). koibito (恋人) has the connotation of "boyfriend", "girlfriend", or "partner".
Japanese rarely use ai (愛) or koi (恋) in every day conversation. ai shiteiru (愛している) or koi shiteiru (恋している) is literally "I love you" - 我愛你 in Chinese.
Instead they will usually say suki desu (好きです), which literally means "I like you" -- suki (好き). It's the same word used to express likings for things but the implied meaning of "love" is understood. It is identical in usage to the Mandarin 我喜歡你 (I like you) and the Cantonese 我鈡意 (I like you).
The word 'love' is not used often, nor is it used lightly.
I have used complex traditional characters because they're prettier:
Simplified character love is 爱
Complex character and Japanese kanji character love is 愛
The complex character 'love' contains the 'heart' radical.
This is the heart radical: 心
When the Chinese simplified their character for love, they lost the heart ...