Pronouncing English Place Names
Further to Pushkin's comment about taxi drivers, in the China women O & A forum, I thought some additional language skills might be useful for visitors / newcomers to China.
[QUOTE=Pushkin13;2073241]{S N I P}
I have often thought about opening a Mandarin (putonghua) training school for cabbies in China. Sometimes, . Only my feeling. I sense that their Mandarin (putonghua) is not standard!
{S N I P}P13.[/QUOTE][URL]http://www.internationalsexguide.info/forum/showthread.php?1627-China-Women-Opinions-and-Advice&p=2073241&viewfull=1#post2073241[/URL]
The Chinese pronunciation of English language names (such as international hotels) is very different to the English pronunciation. If you tell the taxi driver the English name of your destination, it is likely you will get a confused look. For example:
[B]Sheridan Hotel[/B]: [I]Xielideng Jiudian (Xiè lǐ dēng jiǔ diàn)[/I].
[B]Marco Polo Hotel[/B]: [I]Mage Beiluo Jiudian (Mǎ gē bèi luō hǎo rìzi jiǔ diàn - happy days?)[/I].
[B]Shangri La Hotel[/B]: [I]Xianggeli La Jiudan (Xiāng gé lǐ lā jiǔ diàn)[/I].
And for some English named places, the Chinese use a completely different name. For example:
[B]Coco Park Shopping Centre[/B]: [I]Gouwu Gongyuan (Gòu wù gōng yuán)[/I].
[B]Panglin Hotel[/B]: [I]Pengnian Jiudian (Péng nián jiǔ diàn)[/I].
[B]Perthden Hotel[/B]: [I]Baisidun Jiudian (Bǎi sī dùn jiǔ diàn)[/I].
Lastly, some hotels use the word [I]Binguan[/I] instead of [I]Jiudian[/I]. For example:
[B]Lotus Hotel[/B]: [I]Furong Binguan (Fú róng bīn guǎn)[/I] - Furong also means Lotus.
If you do not want to make the effort to learn the Chinese pronunciations, then use addresses written in Chinese, otherwise you will have some painful experiences with taxi drivers.
Ikks.
2 photos
What does CNMLGB stand for?
The driver with this number plate was sentenced to 15 days detention in prison, fined 15,000 yuan and lost all 12 points from his licence.
The CNM obviously stands for [I]cào nǐ mā[/I] (f**k your mother), or more politely [I]cǎo ní mǎ[/I] (the famous chinese grass mud horse), but what is LGB?
Ikks.
Reference numbers to characters.
Help. How does one use a reference number, 21487 for example, to find the Chinese character plus pinyin?