Letters...

Just in one week, I came across two different articles about writing letters. The current generation may not be even aware of what this is all about, but I am from a generation which saw the new technology taking over the old way. Now, our communications are all through internet and even E-mails are considered old-fashion (Don't u tweet?...Oh, Cmon...U r too old).

I still remember we had letter writing as a part of our exams and it normally carries the maximum score in the language second paper exam. Leave letters, job cover letters etc will be among the questions and we had to remember the format with which those letters should be written. Now, there is no such thing called "Format" even for official letters(E-mails). "Respected Sir/Madam" is no longer the starting line of a formal letter and if you still write this way, you are either in your 50+ years or you were out of this planet for a while.

I still have some of the letters and greeting cards from my family members and friends. When I take them out and read them, they surely give a great feeling which can't be explained by words. Such things will not happen with E-mails as they lose the personal touch. No questions about tweets and scraps as most of them don't mean anything even at the moment you read.

Greeting cards received during birthdays, anniversaries and festivals always gave an added pleasure and there were times when I spent few days thinking what I should write in a card. Now, we send E-cards (Most of us send the free cards) and I receive the same card from many people (Because, there are only few free cards and just one or two are appealing).

There are drawbacks with letters and in this fast moving world, it may not suit our needs. But, we still can sit back and write a letter or send a card to some friends or family members. It will surely give a great feeling for both the sender and the receiver. It will also help to gain more focus (Once we pen something, we can't get rid of it as we do with E-mails,tweets and scraps).

What are you waiting for?... Take a pen and write a letter to someone and see what happens.

Chinglish...

Chinese to English and English to Chinese translations can end up into weird meanings. Chinese language has many characters and each and every character has a meaning. There are more than 7000 characters and its quite a complex language.

Normally, Chinese people will have a name with 3 characters, one for the family name and the other two, the given name. But, when foreigners are given Chinese names, it is normally given based on sounds, choosing some characters that sound like your real name. For example, my name Sriram in Chinese is "Shi Li Nan". Each of them has a Chinese character and they have a meaning. Shi means History, Li means Sharp and Nan means South. Doesn't make any meaning right?

But, thanks to my Chinese teacher who translated my name, it atleast doesn't sound funny. Some funny ones are the famous Hollywood star Brad Pitt in Chinese is "Bù Lā Dé-Pí Tè". Julia Roberts becomes "Zhū Lì Yà - Luó Bó Cí", Tom Cruise "Tānɡ Mŭ-Kè Lŭ Sī". Sounds very funny huh?

It becomes even more funnier when people (who don't know any Chinese) get their name tattooed in Chinese and it ends up giving weird meanings. An NBA player Shawn Marion, wanted his nickname "The Matrix" tattooed in Chinese. The characters he got is a phonetic translation of the word "Matrix", but the characters giving a meaning "Demon Bird Moth Balls".



In another case, a UK teenager named Joanne Raine wanted to have her boyfriend's nickname "Roo" tattooed on her body and ended up getting something that actually meant "Supermarket".



There are many such funny stories. If you are interested in getting a Chinese character tattoo, better show it in paper to some people who know good Chinese and then get it done on your body. Because, once its done, its not so easy to get rid of it.

Just for Laughs...

Some pictures here are taken by me and I found some in the internet.

This picture was taken when I was on a trip to Hong Kong. As you can see, its a coffee shop.



A much closer view of the same neon-lit board.



Do you have a passport for your bike? If so, get it stamped here...Found it near the Love River, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Don't know what the Chinese characters mean.



Found this one near the Sun-Yat-Sen Memorial University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.



I found this in the internet. This seem to be the name of a restaurant. I think someone working with an online translator ended up getting this message "Translate Server Error" thought that its the translation for the Chinese characters.



Well, I took this from the internet. But, I found a similar one when I was in China. I stayed in a hotel where they had a sticker in the bathroom saying "CAREFULLY SLIP".



I am completely lost with this one.



No words to say...



and one more... Actually, before the Olympic Games, 2008 in China, the Chinese Authorities thought that English signboards are necessary to help foreigners visiting their country. They did everything in a short period of time and probably didn't get the right staff to handle it. Most things were direct translations from Chinese characters to English.



The last one... I found this picture posted by a friend in Facebook... Really hilarious!!!



Have fun!!!