Why do Chinese often ‘adopt’ Western names?

Why do Chinese often ‘adopt’ Western names? It is a question that has always puzzled me. Many of the Chinese that I have met have a Western name, not all but many. Occasionally they have a name that surprises me such as “Minnie”, “Apple” or “Edna”…How did they come to choose such a name? I have searched on several forums on the Internet and have found no satisfactory answer. I found lots of speculation but no real answers. Does anyone have a good answer or explanation?

Just for fun if you want the transliteration of your name in Chinese here is a tool for you. Find this at Chinese-Tools.com. One more tool on the same site is a Chinese Calligraphy Editor where you new found hanzi name can be rendered into calligraphy font. 

Here is what the first tool came up with for my name:

 

Jonathan 乔纳森 (Qiáo nà sēn)

Here is the second tool came up with: 

 

 Now I really hope that these tools have given me an accurate transliteration of my name. I can only hope that my name has not been translated into the Chinese equivalent of “Rupert”, “Percival” or “Two dogs”. 

Just to check there is another blog that I often read.  A site called "Hanzi Matter" a site dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in western culture. "Hanzi Matter" has tattoos, signs, clothing and more with incorrect Chinese hanzi and Japanese Kanji.  So just to be safe I am going to have my new name in hanzi Jonathan 乔纳森  checked out before I have it tattooed across my body.

中文Red 中文Blue 中文Green

Recently I found these three excellent resources.  Three websites called Chinese language Red, Blue and Green. The three websites all have lessons in simplified hanzi, pinyin and English. There are PDFs to download and mp3s of native speakers.  Finding specific grammar points or words is sometimes a bit hit and miss, as there is not search. However, for the quantity and quality of the free lessons all three web sites are really useful for quick specifics for sentences and grammar. The web site states that it is a vocabulary-centered language learning.   Have a look at Chinese language Red, Blue and Green; 中文Red  中文Blue 中文Green

The Most Complicated / Difficult Chinese Character

I found this on YouTube. According to the comments it is;

Biáng biáng noodles

• The most difficult in contemporary usage
• A traditional character
• It means Biáng biáng noodles (noodles found in Shaanxi Province)
• Not found in modern dictionaries
• Can’t be entered into computers
• Not used as a Kanji in Japan

 See it written here

Even more information found on Wikipedia Biángbiáng noodles

Community Centre Chinese Class

On Saturday afternoons I go to a Chinese class.  It has many attractions for me. 

 

• There is a native speaker teacher
• It is a small group
• I can be corrected on my tones
• It is extremely cheap
• I can meet like-minded language learners
• It has a very relaxed and casual learning environment

I found out about the class by accident. It was on a notice board and I happened to see it while walking past. Other members of the group are interesting. One is part of a local Tai Chi group.  Another is a very young learner (primary school student) and it is good to see him starting to learn language while he is young. His grandfather also comes and it is good to see him leaning languages later in life. So overall it is a very mixed group of students.

For my own learning it helps me quite a lot. Even though the level is absolute beginners I still gain much from the lessons. 

So if you are trying to learn Mandarin, I suggest you consider making opportunities for practice.

Watching Chinese films helps me learn

I have always enjoyed watching good foreign films. As part of my learning I try to watch Chinese films fairly regularly. Recently I watched 2046 and Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.
 
2046 is best described as drama, sci-fi, romance. A quote from the film is "All who go to 2046 never come back, except one." What was interesting to me is that one character speaks Mandarin while another speaks Cantonese, in the same conversation. Apparently this is not uncommon in real life. There is also some Japanese speaking, which I found very interesting.  So have a look at 2046.

 

Another film that I really enjoy (can watch it over and over) is Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.  The story is about two young men sent for a Maoist "re-education" in the mountains fall in love with the village tailor's granddaughter. I find the setting for this movie very beautiful.  Life is hard for the villagers, but the place looks like a mountain I would like to live on. The village and surrounding countryside makes me think of Shangri-La or other earthly paradise. Have a look at Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.

 

At this stage of my learning I do not understand  very much. 我听不懂。However, I am able to pick up words and phrases.  I couldn’t watch the films without subtitles, but still find this a very pleasurable way to enhance my learning. I often watch these films a couple of times just to see if I can pick up more Mandarin the next time I watch.

Free Chinese Video Lessons - Peggy Teaches Chinese

When I want to practice or learn a specific skill or grammar point in Chinese I often have a search on YouTube. There are lots of native speaker teachers very keen to teach their language. Of course there is a range of quality of the videos and they don’t always match up exactly with my current language learning needs. Despite this I have a couple of favourite YouTube teachers. One of these teachers is Peggy she has a serious of videos called Peggy Teaches Chinese.

The quality of the videos are quite good, grammar explanations are very good. For a quick short explanation I find these types of videos perfect for my learning needs.  As Peggy is Taiwanese and the Taiwanese use traditional characters and the tones are not marked with tone marks but numbers these aspects are not useful to me. On the plus side the videos are often short, practical and very well explained. I like the role plays and the humour too. All parts played by Peggy.  Have a look and see what you think of the following examples.

我很高兴

I have received good news I have just joined a programme offered by my university called Asian Language Accreditation Program (ALAP).  It means that I will be able to learn Chinese at UNE and become a registered Mandarin LOTE teacher.  It has some very good benefits such as my HECS will be paid, I can attend intensive schools and my accommodation and transport is subsidized and I will be able to go to the sister university Shaanxi Normal University in Xian, PR China for three weeks in January 2012.  My travel costs and expenses are paid. So I am quite excited about all this. 我很高兴。