I've decided to learn Chinese.

[sniffles]

我 有問題.
這句子甚麼意思? '他們真實 "做工的時候做工, 娩的時候娩".

Excuse my bad grammar in my question. This line (in quotes) is from The Lady in the Painting, which I'm using to develop my reading skills.

I understand the meanings of the individual words, but I'm having a hard time equating the entire sentence with something that makes sense to me in English. 'They truly "work when time to work and have fun when time to have fun"'?

Is that even close?

[xianzai]

'他們真實 "做工的時候做工, 娩的時候娩".

I understand the meanings of the individual words, but I'm having a hard time equating the entire sentence with something that makes sense to me in English. 'They truly "work when time to work and have fun when time to have fun"'?

Is that even close?

That's what I recall thinking the sentence meant. I think in your post you may have accidentally put in 娩 for 玩.

If you are finding the grammar hard going (I did, a bit) you might want to work through something like Chinese Grammar which is cheap and has answers to the exercises. I'm going through it now before tackling the 600-character Traditional Chinese Tales.

[jiang bao]

YEah I think you pasted the wrong word. The final word in that sentence as you have it means to give birth... which would still make it a sensical sentence, albeit a hilarious one.

Assuming that the final word should be "play," then the sentence just means "they play work hard, they play hard." to put it into American equivalent.

[sniffles]

YEah I think you pasted the wrong word. The final word in that sentence as you have it means to give birth... which would still make it a sensical sentence, albeit a hilarious one.

Assuming that the final word should be "play," then the sentence just means "they play work hard, they play hard." to put it into American equivalent.

Oops!! I was pulling the characters from mandarintools and copied the wrong character from the list that I got for wan2. Color me embarrassed.

[pandamao]

I think both 'oi' and 'ngoi' are acceptable for the word 'love'. 'oi' is the standard while 'ngoi' is the variation.

But, 'ngoi' sounds a lot nicer to me than 'oi'.

one of the characters in my name has love and i hate how my friends butcher it by saying ngoi. i so prefer oi.

ah oi is wayyy better than ah ngoi. ah ngoi can sound like, are you daydreaming?

[jiang bao]

Your name is not Ai Hua is it? AH seems pretty common.

I usually say ngoi because to me I like that sound better than 'oi.' It sounds a little bit too much like oy! Like the complaining sound in English.

I know, that makes me a hypocrite. Me being a proper-Cantonese nazi at all. But, at least it's not technically lazy Cantonese that I am doing.

[pandamao]

Your name is not Ai Hua is it? AH seems pretty common.

I usually say ngoi because to me I like that sound better than 'oi.' It sounds a little bit too much like oy! Like the complaining sound in English.

I know, that makes me a hypocrite. Me being a proper-Cantonese nazi at all. But, at least it's not technically lazy Cantonese that I am doing.

We should skype! Lol. My cantonese needs some help, especially with the fact that I'm an ABC.

I have a 4 character name b/c my surname is Szeto. It's not Ai Hua, in mandarin it's Mei Ai (which I think sounds a lot better than cantonese). My sister on the other hand, has the better sounding cantonese but sucky mandarin, Mei Er.

When I went to shanghai to study, everyone thought I was japanese but I was like, no.... i'm chinese. is my name really that jap like? i never really got it!

[jiang bao]

You have a kinda wuxia sounding name haha! Also Japanese sounding, yes. Especially having mei and ai, two common female Japanese names. It’s a rather uncommon first name in Chinese it seems. I hardly ever see the two words paired together. In fact, yours is the first I have heard. At least it’s a unique combo even though the two words are pretty common.

[sniffles]

You have a kinda wuxia sounding name haha! Also Japanese sounding, yes. Especially having mei and ai, two common female Japanese names. It’s a rather uncommon first name in Chinese it seems. I hardly ever see the two words paired together. In fact, yours is the first I have heard. At least it’s a unique combo even though the two words are pretty common.

My Mandarin teacher gave us Chinese names. Mine is Mei Hua, 美华.

[jiang bao]

What nationality are you originally?

Yes Mei Hua is pretty a common name. Modern female names are a lot better than the ones older than one or two generations. My aunts have crummy names.

I think the new generation of females don't get named "hao" (good) anymore. IMO that is a tough name to have.

[pandamao]

You have a kinda wuxia sounding name haha! Also Japanese sounding, yes. Especially having mei and ai, two common female Japanese names. It’s a rather uncommon first name in Chinese it seems. I hardly ever see the two words paired together. In fact, yours is the first I have heard. At least it’s a unique combo even though the two words are pretty common.

Wuxia? Really? I think I've heard my name once in a japanese anime translated to Cantonese. I always liked the double character last name, my friend's last name was Zhuge, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world!

Luckily I don't have any of the common HK chinese names like jia li, jia yin, etc. I find those name so unoriginal. It's the same as walking down the street with the world name Anne or Annie. I love guy names. Have you stumbled upon a really good chinese male name? I love the taiwanese 2 character names. My friend's name is Shen Yi (Like the Eason character).

[jiang bao]

I do know some TW folks with pretty uncommon names. Some work, some don't.

Andy Lau and Leon Lai certainly felt it was better for their careers to adopt new names.

Liu Fu Rong... I can see why Andy wanted to change it. Li Jie is pretty good, though Li Ming makes him more memorable as "dawn."

I sometimes wonder how people with the last name "ng" (wu) name their kids. Since "ng" sounds like "mm" (not) in Cantonese, if you give them lucky or positive first names, the last name pretty much "negates" the good stuff when you say it. (A fact used in comedy schtick)

Double last names are cool. I had a friend named Zhuge something as well. However, in school, his Anglicized name became Ge XX Zhu. LOL. Actually his first name is an unusual one, and makes him sound like he could be a character from the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms

[pandamao]

I do know some TW folks with pretty uncommon names. Some work, some don't.

Andy Lau and Leon Lai certainly felt it was better for their careers to adopt new names.

Liu Fu Rong... I can see why Andy wanted to change it. Li Jie is pretty good, though Li Ming makes him more memorable as "dawn."

I sometimes wonder how people with the last name "ng" (wu) name their kids. Since "ng" sounds like "mm" (not) in Cantonese, if you give them lucky or positive first names, the last name pretty much "negates" the good stuff when you say it. (A fact used in comedy schtick)

Double last names are cool. I had a friend named Zhuge something as well. However, in school, his Anglicized name became Ge XX Zhu. LOL. Actually his first name is an unusual one, and makes him sound like he could be a character from the Romance of the 3 Kingdoms

Leon's name definitely worked for him! I remember I couldn't say much when I was a kid and all I could do was tell ppl, ngor oi lai ming! =)

hmm - i like rosemund kwan, kwan zi lum, it was so pretty. I love the character lum, in both male and female! Hey, what's your name?

My friend's name is Ng and she said her parents had a difficult time naming her and her brother. I'd probably do the double character thing to make it artsy.

Are you a fan of complicated stroke characters as names? I don't know why, I love the simplicity of names when they are only a few strokes. Yeah, I'm crazy about names since I've been trying to name my future kids already, lol!

[jiang bao]

Haha I won't reveal it for privacy purposes just in case someone I know in RL visits here.

i'll just say it's a disaster to pronounce for Westerners in pinyin. The Cantonese romanization is a little better but still fairly "unconventional" in sound.

[pandamao]

Haha I won't reveal it for privacy purposes just in case someone I know in RL visits here.

i'll just say it's a disaster to pronounce for Westerners in pinyin. The Cantonese romanization is a little better but still fairly "unconventional" in sound.

Lol. Ok. I'm sure it's nothing common then.

[jiang bao]

Not necessarily. It's just the pinyin of the word is difficult to pronounce for westerners.

[sniffles]

What nationality are you originally?

Yes Mei Hua is pretty a common name. Modern female names are a lot better than the ones older than one or two generations. My aunts have crummy names.

I think the new generation of females don't get named "hao" (good) anymore. IMO that is a tough name to have.

I'm a boring old Caucasian American. My teacher says that if we ever go to China people will like it if we have Chinese names. So if we wanted to have a Chinese name he gave us one, based on some personal information that we provided to him.

My real given name is from the Hebrew language (though I'm not Jewish; my mother just liked the name). It originally meant "peace". English-language names have all evolved away from their original meanings. They're no longer parts of speech; they're just personal names. You wouldn't use my name in a sentence to mean "peace". I like it that Chinese names still have meaning.

[jiang bao]

Sometimes, the name in a foreign just gets transliterated into Chinese by representing the sound in Chinese characters, then a Chinese last name that sounds like it is picked. There's more freedom with first names I suppose.

I would have named you "Jing Ru" 靜如

Not all Chinese names have meanings. Sometimes parents name kids based on the composition of the character. E.g. my uncles' names all have a radical for a certain element (as in five elements) cuz it's supposed to be proper according to Chinese astrology or something.

Anyone have a least favorite Chinese name? I personally dislike '炳' the most cuz of the sound. Lei Siu Bing. 李小炳.

[pandamao]

Sometimes, the name in a foreign just gets transliterated into Chinese by representing the sound in Chinese characters, then a Chinese last name that sounds like it is picked. There's more freedom with first names I suppose.

I would have named you "Jing Ru" 靜如

Not all Chinese names have meanings. Sometimes parents name kids based on the composition of the character. E.g. my uncles' names all have a radical for a certain element (as in five elements) cuz it's supposed to be proper according to Chinese astrology or something.

Anyone have a least favorite Chinese name? I personally dislike '炳' the most cuz of the sound. Lei Siu Bing. 李小炳.

I hate that taiwanese guy's name. chen shuy bien. hahah.

[sniffles]

Sometimes, the name in a foreign just gets transliterated into Chinese by representing the sound in Chinese characters, then a Chinese last name that sounds like it is picked. There's more freedom with first names I suppose.

I would have named you "Jing Ru" 靜如

I'm not sure what to think of that name, since I'm not entirely certain how to interpret the meaning.

I went on a website to get a Chinese name and got one of those that is just a phonetic representation of my English name in Chinese. My teacher said those are a pretty much a waste of time. He told us that if we tell Chinese citizens our Chinese surnames and they have the same surname, they'll treat us like family.