China, Korea, Japan...........

Nubclear · March 24, 2003, 20:26

Are great places

And they'll be even greater if someone can TRANSLATE this for me

Spec · March 24, 2003, 20:34

It says:" This doesn't mean anything"

Urban Ranger · March 24, 2003, 22:43

Tassadar,

I can only make heads and tails out of the character at the upper left hand corner. It means "income from a government official position."

Dis · March 24, 2003, 23:06

does anyone know how their keyboards are set up over there?

How can they use computers? Their written language seems so impractical.

ranskaldan · March 24, 2003, 23:08

These are my guesses for what those... squiggles

... are.

Top left: great wealth
Top right: long life
Bottom left: good luck
Bottom right: joy

badams52 · March 24, 2003, 23:08

Dis: depends upon the country and each has multiple systems. But they all have a way to convert romanized characters into ideographs. So they can all use the same keyboards we do.

Spiffor · March 24, 2003, 23:11

I think (but UR will probably correct me) they write their words with the latin alphabet, and the computer replaces the latin chars by chinese chars automatically.

From my experience as a beginner in Japanese, Ideograms are very convenient once you learned them (which is the biggest difficulty). Once you've mastered the alphabet, it is much faster, and much less room-consuming to read and write many things.

ranskaldan · March 24, 2003, 23:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Dissident
does anyone know how their keyboards are set up over there?

How can they use computers? Their written language seems so impractical.

The Chinese language inputter was provided with Windows XP. Basically pronunciation is automatically converted into logographs, with the option to adjust in case the computer gets it wrong.

Inputters in Chinese used to be inaccurate to the point of insanity. They've gotten much better over the years.

Since Japanese and Korean use alphabets, (Japanese - partially; Korean - almost wholly) I'd imagine that things are somewhat easier for them.

Spiffor · March 24, 2003, 23:15

Aren't the Koreans considering to use ideographs again ?

Spiffor · March 24, 2003, 23:17

Now Tassadar, admit you have shown us the paint-work of your 3 year old daughter !

ixnay · March 24, 2003, 23:37

bottom right looks like a sickle & hammer plus a star.

Dis · March 24, 2003, 23:39

yes. long live the soviet union.

Nubclear · March 24, 2003, 23:53

Quote:

Originally posted by ixnay
bottom right looks like a sickle & hammer plus a star.

Yay!

Someone got it!

Drake Tungsten · March 24, 2003, 23:55

Quote:

Aren't the Koreans considering to use ideographs again ?

I don't see why they would. Hanguel is sooo cool...

BTW, the Chinese speakers on the board might be taking Tass's question a bit too seriously.

Spiffor · March 24, 2003, 23:56

Tass :
Remember, the sickle and hammer were translated by Ranskaldan to "Joy"

Nubclear · March 25, 2003, 00:02

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
Now Tassadar, admit you have shown us the paint-work of your 3 year old daughter !

Here are my attempts at getting it better:

Note that the two at the top are the same thing. Just two different attempts because it is a complex symbol to write.

The bottom one is nearly exactly how it looks. BTW people: Rans was right. It does mean JOY

Nubclear · March 25, 2003, 00:06

Spiff: Yep!

Quote:

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

BTW, the Chinese speakers on the board might be taking Tass's question a bit too seriously.

Nope. I'm pretty serious with the first three....A friend who lives somewhere in China sent me something simply saying "A gift to you" in english and these four characters are on a small object that spins around a central string. Then it has a picture of several chinese boys playing and then theres a large bit of quite dark jade. Below the picture, of course.

Spiffor · March 25, 2003, 00:06

The upper drawings seem to display a rifle and a cross. I can't distinguish the rest though

Nubclear · March 25, 2003, 00:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
The upper drawings seem to display a rifle and a cross. I can't distinguish the rest though

I highly doubt its trying to say "You will get great wealth, then death at the hands of god!"

Drake Tungsten · March 25, 2003, 00:09

Quote:

Nope. I'm pretty serious with the first three....

Really? You must be the world's worst drawer then...

ranskaldan · March 25, 2003, 00:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Spiffor
Tass :
Remember, the sickle and hammer were translated by Ranskaldan to "Joy"

D'OH!!!

You know, it REALLY blends in with the rest of those squiggly lines

The other three are Chinese characters though. I'm pretty sure those are right.

Nubclear · March 25, 2003, 00:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Quote:

Nope. I'm pretty serious with the first three....

Really? You must be the world's worst drawer then...

Ran: Yep, the first three are authentic. And the first (top left) of the first three was correct. Its just the other two (pictured in my latest picture) that you got wrong.

Again, not that the top part of my second picture has 2 of the SAME character. The bottom is DIFFERENT.

ranskaldan · March 25, 2003, 00:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
Spiff: Yep!

Nope. I'm pretty serious with the first three....A friend who lives somewhere in China sent me something simply saying "A gift to you" in english and these four characters are on a small object that spins around a central string. Then it has a picture of several chinese boys playing and then theres a large bit of quite dark jade. Below the picture, of course.

Yes it's pretty serious. They read as fu2, lu4, shou4 and is a common poetic formula used to wish people good luck.

(In that order: good luck, great wealth, long life)

Of course, by squiggling it like that you have utterly destroyed it. And adding the hammer and sickle!! Blasphemous!!

edit:

Are you sure they're wrong? Let me try an alternate translation:

Good fortune, great wealth, longevity

Nubclear · March 25, 2003, 00:20

Quote:

Originally posted by ranskaldan
Good fortune, great wealth, longevity

Yes I'm sure their wrong! I looked very closely at the little drawings, and you got the first one right but......The rest were WRONG :P

And show my symbols for those. I don't read Chinese

Also, just for refrence purposes, a comparison:

HAPPY?!

ranskaldan · March 25, 2003, 00:22

Reverse the second and third.

As for the last one

... I was trying to find something that matches the first three. SOOOOO ....

Nubclear · March 25, 2003, 00:23

I know, I switched tow of the symbols. Oh well, its still wrong

Some errors I noted:

On your "A JT" drawing....The "A" and the "J" should be connected and immediately above it (connected) There should be a large handle coming from the left side and as it goes through the middle is creates a triangle. Then from the center (where it became a triangle) draw a large stick going up. Then go back to the "Center Circle" and draw a C and put a line inbetween the top and the bottom of the C. Then go to the top and slightly down from there put a straight line. Then put a little line off to the side. Yay.

On another one: Draw an "i". Then draw an A off the to side of the i. Then draw a three above the A, and put a large "J" connecting with the bottom of the thre.

Urban Ranger · March 25, 2003, 00:26

I thought it was the Hammer and Sickle too, but didn't comment on it. Tass, switch the second and third character. Looks closer that way.

Spiffor,

There are various ways of entering Chinese characters. In fact, way too many. I reckon most people in Mainland China uses pingyin, which is a good thing. However, there are also other ways such as breaking characters down into blocks.

Nubclear · March 25, 2003, 00:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Tass, switch the second and third character. Looks closer that way.

Yes yes, I know

I made a mistake....

ranskaldan · March 25, 2003, 00:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
On your "A JT" drawing....The "A" and the "J" should be connected and immediately above it (connected) There should be a large handle coming from the left side and as it goes through the middle is creates a triangle. Then from the center (where it became a triangle) draw a large stick going up. Then go back to the "Center Circle" and draw a C and put a line inbetween the top and the bottom of the C. Then go to the top and slightly down from there put a straight line. Then put a little line off to the side. Yay.

On another one: Draw an "i". Then draw an A off the to side of the i. Then draw a three above the A, and put a large "J" connecting with the bottom of the thre.

I've never seen Chinese characters described like this. Charming.

Quote:

I know, I switched tow of the symbols. Oh well, its still wrong

There is almost no way this can be wrong. If it were I would eat my keyboard.

edit:
since I can't digest such materials, let me clarify:
the script your friend sent you was in cursive. What I gave you was in printed form.

Urban Ranger · March 25, 2003, 00:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
On your "A JT" drawing....The "A" and the "J" should be connected and immediately above it (connected) There should be a large handle coming from the left side and as it goes through the middle is creates a triangle. Then from the center (where it became a triangle) draw a large stick going up. Then go back to the "Center Circle" and draw a C and put a line inbetween the top and the bottom of the C. Then go to the top and slightly down from there put a straight line. Then put a little line off to the side. Yay.

On another one: Draw an "i". Then draw an A off the to side of the i. Then draw a three above the A, and put a large "J" connecting with the bottom of the thre.

Ah. If my guess is right, the differences is caused by traditional vs. simplified characters.