Things learned in October
I thought I didn't learn all that much last month, mostly because I was stressed out of my mind with work for most of it, but then I started writing down all the Chinese things I have learned - including helpful websites and plugins, and it turns out there was a bit after all.
It's just that probably most of you won't have any use for it. ;D
1.
2.
3. Biology: "double eyelids" is the translation of a Chinese term for a crease in the eyelid that most people have but a lot of people of Asian descent don't (they have a so-called monolid) - https://www.quora.com/It-seems-common-for-Chinese-to-have-double-eyelids-so-why-are-monolids-called-Chinese-eyes - https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-beauty/article/2093921/why-double-eyelid-surgery-rise-asia-rising-incomes-and
When I stumbled on it in the second Chinese novel in a row, I got curious. :)
4. Biology: the Saiga is a kind of antelope with a really weird snout. There are about 50.000 of them left and they live on the Siberian steppes. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiga_antelope
5.
6. Geography: I learned a lot about the Azores: they are volcanic islands with lots of fumaroles everywhere, that they "belong" to Portugal, and that they are not as far South as the canary islands (and are far more green as well). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azores
7. Language: I learned how to say "thank you" in Hebrew: "toda raba" - I found a nice illustrated guide too: https://www.wikihow.com/Say-Thank-You-in-Hebrew
8. Google translate: not only can you look up handwritten chinese characters, you can also simply paste a url into the translate box and it will translate the whole webpage. - https://translate.google.com/
9.
10. Buddhism: "Chinese Fortune Sticks" work like this: you ask a question, then you shake one of the (up to 100) sticks out of its cup. Each stick is a number corresponding to a written oracle and usually an interpreter is used to tell you what the number means in relation to your question. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kau_cim
11.
12. Biology: "daphne" is a plant, a flowering shrub to be exact. Also, "Daphne" was a nymph who was turned into a plant (a laurel, not a daphne, they don't even seem to be related). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_(plant) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne
13.
14.
15. German: "danteln" - seems to be a Bavarian word for keeping a soccer ball in the air with your foot (or other allowed body parts) - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportjargon
16.
17. US History: Sears, a (now bankrupt) mail order company, helped fight racism by enabling black people to buy through mail order - https://theambassadorposts.tumblr.com/post/179120272746/signal-boost
18.
19. Chinese: viki.com is amazing! It's a video site, and their fangroups are doing a great job subtitling Asian shows. It's so much fun to watch that progress. Also, you can add timestamped comment to videos while watching them! The only downside is that they want to show ads (haven't seen any yet, but they made me turn off my adblocker). - https://www.viki.com
20. Chinese: baike dictionary is the place to look up idioms - https://baike.baidu.com/
21. Chinese: I learned some idioms today! 哭哭啼啼 "kukutiti" ("cry cry cry cry" -> "to weep endlessly" - very applicable to cdrama in general :D), 火燒眉毛 "huoshao meimao" ("the fire burns one's eyebrows" -> "extremely urgent") - https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%93%AD%E5%93%AD%E5%95%BC%E5%95%BC (in Chinese) - https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fbaike.baidu.com%2Fitem%2F%25E7%2581%25AB%25E7%2583%25A7%25E7%259C%2589%25E6%25AF%259B&edit-text=&act=url (same site sent through the translator)
The Guardian novel is such a pit of idioms, I have no idea how rainbowse7en does it. O_O
22.
23. German: "geil" not only means "randy", but can also refer to increased plant growth and there are some funny old words like "geile Triebe" (offshoots of plants) and "Geilflecken" (nutrient-rich spots in soil) - those still sound like sex to me ;)). - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergeilung
24.
25. Biology: pretty good and scientific Wikipedia article about homosexuality being genetic, with a ton of studies referenced - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_sexual_orientation
26.
27.
28. Chinese: via @disgracetoscholars: the Zhongwen plugin for Firefox (and Chrome) shows translations of Chinese characters on web pages when you hover over them. I feel like I might, maaaybe, make some headway into Chinese vocabulary that way! - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/zhongwen-chinese-english/
29.
30. Youtube: I uploaded my first subtitle to Youtube! (I didn't actually translate anything, just retimed an existing file to the youtube video.) But I have to admit Youtube's subtitling tool is really cool (although it doesn't allow italics, grrr). Here's the official help video, which shows a little bit of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3MMKHqoZrs
31. Language: Viki has a "learning mode" in their subtitled videos, which pauses the video when you hover over a word in the subtitles, and then it displays the translation. Also, you can skip forwards and backwards through the video by sentence. I did not know I needed this! It is awesome! https://www.viki.com (again)
x-posted from dw (comments:
)
It's just that probably most of you won't have any use for it. ;D
1.
2.
3. Biology: "double eyelids" is the translation of a Chinese term for a crease in the eyelid that most people have but a lot of people of Asian descent don't (they have a so-called monolid) - https://www.quora.com/It-seems-common-for-Chinese-to-have-double-eyelids-so-why-are-monolids-called-Chinese-eyes - https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-beauty/article/2093921/why-double-eyelid-surgery-rise-asia-rising-incomes-and
When I stumbled on it in the second Chinese novel in a row, I got curious. :)
4. Biology: the Saiga is a kind of antelope with a really weird snout. There are about 50.000 of them left and they live on the Siberian steppes. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiga_antelope
5.
6. Geography: I learned a lot about the Azores: they are volcanic islands with lots of fumaroles everywhere, that they "belong" to Portugal, and that they are not as far South as the canary islands (and are far more green as well). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azores
7. Language: I learned how to say "thank you" in Hebrew: "toda raba" - I found a nice illustrated guide too: https://www.wikihow.com/Say-Thank-You-in-Hebrew
8. Google translate: not only can you look up handwritten chinese characters, you can also simply paste a url into the translate box and it will translate the whole webpage. - https://translate.google.com/
9.
10. Buddhism: "Chinese Fortune Sticks" work like this: you ask a question, then you shake one of the (up to 100) sticks out of its cup. Each stick is a number corresponding to a written oracle and usually an interpreter is used to tell you what the number means in relation to your question. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kau_cim
11.
12. Biology: "daphne" is a plant, a flowering shrub to be exact. Also, "Daphne" was a nymph who was turned into a plant (a laurel, not a daphne, they don't even seem to be related). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_(plant) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne
13.
14.
15. German: "danteln" - seems to be a Bavarian word for keeping a soccer ball in the air with your foot (or other allowed body parts) - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportjargon
16.
17. US History: Sears, a (now bankrupt) mail order company, helped fight racism by enabling black people to buy through mail order - https://theambassadorposts.tumblr.com/post/179120272746/signal-boost
18.
19. Chinese: viki.com is amazing! It's a video site, and their fangroups are doing a great job subtitling Asian shows. It's so much fun to watch that progress. Also, you can add timestamped comment to videos while watching them! The only downside is that they want to show ads (haven't seen any yet, but they made me turn off my adblocker). - https://www.viki.com
20. Chinese: baike dictionary is the place to look up idioms - https://baike.baidu.com/
21. Chinese: I learned some idioms today! 哭哭啼啼 "kukutiti" ("cry cry cry cry" -> "to weep endlessly" - very applicable to cdrama in general :D), 火燒眉毛 "huoshao meimao" ("the fire burns one's eyebrows" -> "extremely urgent") - https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%93%AD%E5%93%AD%E5%95%BC%E5%95%BC (in Chinese) - https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fbaike.baidu.com%2Fitem%2F%25E7%2581%25AB%25E7%2583%25A7%25E7%259C%2589%25E6%25AF%259B&edit-text=&act=url (same site sent through the translator)
The Guardian novel is such a pit of idioms, I have no idea how rainbowse7en does it. O_O
22.
23. German: "geil" not only means "randy", but can also refer to increased plant growth and there are some funny old words like "geile Triebe" (offshoots of plants) and "Geilflecken" (nutrient-rich spots in soil) - those still sound like sex to me ;)). - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergeilung
24.
25. Biology: pretty good and scientific Wikipedia article about homosexuality being genetic, with a ton of studies referenced - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_sexual_orientation
26.
27.
28. Chinese: via @disgracetoscholars: the Zhongwen plugin for Firefox (and Chrome) shows translations of Chinese characters on web pages when you hover over them. I feel like I might, maaaybe, make some headway into Chinese vocabulary that way! - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/zhongwen-chinese-english/
29.
30. Youtube: I uploaded my first subtitle to Youtube! (I didn't actually translate anything, just retimed an existing file to the youtube video.) But I have to admit Youtube's subtitling tool is really cool (although it doesn't allow italics, grrr). Here's the official help video, which shows a little bit of how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3MMKHqoZrs
31. Language: Viki has a "learning mode" in their subtitled videos, which pauses the video when you hover over a word in the subtitles, and then it displays the translation. Also, you can skip forwards and backwards through the video by sentence. I did not know I needed this! It is awesome! https://www.viki.com (again)
x-posted from dw (comments:
)