Archive for Multilingualism

Rice noodle sense: Sino-Anglo-Nipponica

Photograph taken outside a shop in Hong Kong:

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Quadriscriptal "You Are My Sunshine"

From Emma Knightley:

Sent by my boomer parents – according to the caption how a Taiwanese village is teaching seniors how to sing "You Are My Sunshine" in English, which requires them to know a combination of Mandarin, Taiwanese ("阿粿"), English ("B"), and Japanese ("の")! (I think the calligraphy is wonderful, to boot.)

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Korean pot food in southern Taiwan

2017 photo of a Kaohsiung storefront courtesy of Mark Eaglesfield:

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Ta Mother Noodle

Sign on a noodle shop in Xindan, Taiwan:


(Via Google Street View)

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Oil separator / cooker

When I entered the Airbnb where I'm now staying, one of the first things that caught my attention was the following utensil:

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Sinitic exclamations in English speech

Listen to Malaysian comedian Nigel Ng (aka "Uncle Roger"), who has had his Weibo and bilibili social media accounts banned due to "violation of relevant regulations":

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Multilingual TV series

Coby Lubliner called my attention to the Belgian Netflix series "Rough Diamonds." It takes place in Antwerp, so the default language is Dutch (Flemish), but the characters move into Yiddish, English and French with the greatest of ease. The subtitles don't indicate the language spoken in any one scene, except that when [Yiddish] appears what is actually heard is Ashkenazi Hebrew. (To someone who doesn't know either Dutch or Yiddish it will not be clear which one is spoken.)

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Some recent news and posts from Pinyin.info

OMG, it’s nougat (4/15/23) — "OMG" borrowed into Mandarin

A long post on puns, multiscriptal writing, and the difficulties of Hanzi.

Puns piled upon puns.

Microsoft Translator and Pinyin (4/15/23)

Microsoft's not very good character-to-Pinyin conversion.

They have the resources and could surely do better.

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Thailish, part 2

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Mixed Thai, English, and Chinese sign

Photograph taken at a park in Chiang Mai, Thailand:

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Polyglot Manchu emperor

From the British Museum:

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Taiwan Navy recruitment ad language puzzle

Photo of a Taiwan Naval Academy recruitment ad in the Taipei MRT which references the One Piece ワンピース manga series from Japan:

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Please do not anything

Enigmatic East Asian sign:

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