Chinese people, English names

You already know where to get yourself a Chinese name. But if you have a common English name, there might already be a Chinese equivalent of it. Below are the Chinese versions of some of the common English names:

Jack: 杰克 (Jié kè)

Martin: 马丁 (Mǎ dīng)

Ian: 伊恩 (Yī ēn)

Mark: 马克 (Mǎ kè)

Lisa: 丽莎 (Lì shā)

Colin/Colleen: 柯林 (Kē lín)

Dan: 丹 (Dān)

David: 大卫 (Dà wèi)

Bill: 比尔 (Bǐ er)

Tom: 汤姆 (Tāng mǔ)

Sara/Sarah: 莎拉 (Shā lā)

Jeff: 杰夫 (Jié fū)

Ben: 本 (Běn)

Jess: 杰斯 (Jié sī)

Andy: 安迪 (Ān dí)

Just like the Chinese people like to give others Chinese names, they like to get English names for themselves as well. But some of them tend to pick very strange names, so strange that there is even a book about it. Apple, Sprite, Cook, Fish, Dinner are some of the strange ones I know (for some reason, all of them have something to do with food). Do you know any strange names? Please share.

Here is an interesting video on Chinese people’s English names. Do you remember Sexy Beijing?

Chinese nicknames of NBA players

I have already talked about how much the Chinese people love basketball. Yao Ming has to be the most popular NBA player in China, but that doesn’t mean that other NBA players are not popular there. In 2009/10 season, Kobe Bryant had the most popular jersey in China. Here are the top five:

Kobe Bryant - Lakers

LeBron James – Cavaliers (then)/Heat (now)

Dwight Howard - Magic

Kevin Garnett - Celtics

Derrick Rose - Bulls

You must have already gotten yourself a Chinese name by now. Just so that these NBA players do not fall behind, Chinese people have given nicknames to their favorite NBA players. Here are few of them:

Kobe Bryant: 小飞侠 (Xiǎo fēi xiá): Little Flying Warrior

LeBron James: 小皇帝 (Xiǎo huángdì): Little Emperor

Dirk Nowitzki: 德国战车 (Déguó zhàn chē): German Racecar

Carmelo Anthony: 甜瓜 (Tiánguā): Sweet Melon

Richard Hamilton: 面具人 (Miànjù rén): Man in the Mask

Shaquille O’Neal: 俠客 (Xiákè): Warrior

Dwyane Wade: 闪电侠 (Shǎndiàn xiá): The Flash

Tim Duncan: 石佛 (Shí fú): Stone Buddha

Check the NBA website for the Chinese nicknames of more NBA players.

Chinese Proverb: Easier said than done

Below is the Chinese language version of the English proverb “Easier said than done”.

说起来容易，做起来难

(Shuō qǐlái róngyì, zuò qǐlái nán)

Here is the breakdown of individual characters:

说(shuō): to say

容易(róngyì): easy

做(zuò): to do

难(nán): difficult

As you might be able to tell by now, 起来 (qǐlái) is used to indicate impressions. Here are couple other examples:

看起来不错(kàn qǐlái bu cuò): Looks ok

听起来好玩儿(tīng qǐlái hǎowán er): Sounds fun

看(kàn): to see

听(tīng): to listen

The king of all Tongue Twisters

Maybe you didn’t believe me when I said that tones are important in Chinese language, so I have this tongue twister for you. I think this is the king of all tongue twisters.

Lion-eating poet in the stone den was written by Zhao Yua Ren to highlight the importance of Chinese characters. He wrote this 93 words long story, with all the words pronounced shi (in various tones), to prove that replacing Chinese characters with a phonetic script wouldn’t make sense. While this essay confirms the importance of characters in written Chinese, it also confirms the importance of tones in spoken Chinese.

施氏食狮史	Shī shì shí shī shǐ
石室诗士施氏	Shíshì shī shì shī shì,
嗜狮, 誓食十狮	Shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
氏时时适市视狮	Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
十时, 适十狮适市	Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
是时, 适施氏适是市	Shì shí, shì shī shì shì shì shì.
氏视是十狮, 恃矢势,	Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì,
使是十狮逝世	Shíshì shī shì shī shì,
氏拾是十狮尸, 适石室	Shì shi shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
石室湿, 氏使侍拭石室	Shíshì shī, shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
石室拭, 氏始试食十狮尸	Shíshì shì, shì shǐ shì shí shí shī shī.
食时, 始识十狮尸,	Shí shí, shǐ shi shí shī shī,
实十石狮尸	Shí shí shíshī shī.
试释是事	Shì shì shì shì.

And here is the English translation

Lion-eating Poet

A poet named Shi who lived in a stone den was fond of lions and swore that he would eat ten lions. He constantly went to the market to look for ten lions. One day at ten o’clock, Shi went to the market and saw ten lions there. Using his arrows he killed the ten lions, and carried the dead lions back to his stone den. The stone den was damp, so Shi ordered his servants to wipe the stone den. When he tried to eat the ten lions, he realized that they were actually made of stones and tried to get rid of them.

Just in case you are wondering how this story sounds, here is a video

I hope that I have convinced you now. Can you imagine getting the tones wrong in the above story?

Are Sichuan girls the prettiest?

There is a general consensus in China that the girls in Sichuan province are the prettiest. There is even an old saying “You’d better not go to Sichuan; it wouldn't help your career”. I went to Sichuan, twice, but the girls there looked the same as the girls from other parts of China. Maybe all the Chinese people look the same to me?

Whether the girls from Sichuan are the prettiest or not, it is always useful to learn how to say you are pretty in Chinese language. Below are the different ways you can tell a girl that she is pretty:

你很漂亮(Nǐ hěn piàoliang): You are beautiful

你很可爱(Nǐ hěn kěài): You are cute

你很好看(Nǐ hěn hǎokàn): You are good looking

你很美丽(Nǐ hěn měilì): You are beautiful

Remember the 美 (měi) from “Beautiful Kingdom?”

If you want to say the same to a guy, use the following

你很帅(Nǐ hěn shuài): You are handsome

And if you think someone is ugly

你很丑(Nǐ hěn chǒu): You are ugly