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Originally Posted by jasonbvr
I don't recognize those kanji. What about guai lo? What is the kanji for that? I think that one is outright offensive, isn't it? I can't recall the meaning.
As far as kanji for modern appliances and such, maybe the Chinese started borrowing for the Japanese, but I doubt it. Japanese also stopped assigning Japanese names to things such as computers and tv's since katakana (phonetic spelling of "loan" words) is widespread and heavily used.
What is a mobile phone in Chinese? We use 携帯 in Japan which means carrying device or something. Hope I got the Kanji right.
Also, ni zai nali? Beijing zai wo zhu sange yue le. Sorry, my Chinese is shocking. I've forgotten so much!
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Gui lo is Cantonese pronunciation, I think the Mandarin is gui4 zi 鬼子, which means "foreign devil," a term not used any more. Laowai 老外 isn't officially derogatory. Rumour has it the term was coined hundreds of years ago when the foreigners that were coming to China were old sea captains, or something like that. Lao 老 means "old," and is also used in the word for teacher - 老师 lao3 shi1. By itself it has no negative connotations. 外 wai4 has the same meaning as the Japanese, it means "outside." Most foreigners come to hate the term laowai because every time you step out of your door Chinese say "你看，老外。“ Meaning, "Hey look, a foreigner!" It wears on your after a while. Two German classmates of mine told me their Chinese language teacher in Germany (herself Chinese) said that laowai was negative. I've never been told that.
黑鬼 hei1 gui3 is a very racist term, it means "black ghost,"the equivalent to "spook" in the States. Sadly it's commonly said. 白鬼 bai3 gui3 means "white ghost," but I've never heard that said around me. I could write a lot about Chinese racism, especially racism towards Japanese. The anti-Japanese sentiment in China is strong, and is state sponsored. There isn't any notion of political correctness in China, at least not that I've seen. Every time there is a Japanese person portrayed in a Chinese movie he's the bad guy. When Japan does something China doesn't like, they riot. There have been mass rallies and anti-Japanese protests in cities I've lived in. Someone told me that one time, where they were living, Chinese ran through the city and destroyed anything remotely Japanese, like Japanese restaurants. Later the idiots found out some of them were Chinese owned.
The article in Wikipedia said that Chinese refused to admit that they borrowed anything from Japan, due to the hatred of things Japanese and strong nationalistic pride. It's hard to know the truth, since China excels at re-writing history.
Mobile phone in Chinese is 手几 shou3 ji1, which literally means "hand machine." I think it's a translation of the British English "handy phone."
I'm living in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It's about 2 hours south-west from Shanghai. I'm studying Chinese at Zhejiang University. I just finished my first semester, and was studying on my own before I started going to school. It's sort of a dream of mine to go to Japan after learning Chinese and study Japanese. Maybe find a job in an international Japanese company, but alas, it will probably just remain a dream. Picking up and moving to Japan and going to school for another few years isn't very practical, not since I'm marrying soon and have plans to start a family. If I could first get a job there, and study on the side, perhaps with the company's blessing and support, it might be possible. Who knows . . .
I started a blog, which I can't see in China because the Chinese government blocks a lot of websites, but you shouldn't have any problems. Haven't added anything to it in a while, but if you want to check it out the url is
www.djdollainchina.blogspot.com. If you ever come back to China let me know, Hangzhou is a great city. Could show you around.