{"id":45045,"date":"2019-11-18T23:32:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T04:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=45045"},"modified":"2019-11-19T00:40:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T05:40:31","slug":"writing-english-with-sinographs-and-chinese-with-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=45045","title":{"rendered":"Writing English with Sinographs and Chinese with numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

All in one sign!\u00a0 Here it is:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n(Source: Pinyin News<\/a>)<\/p>\n

There is a tremendous amount of clever satire and punning embedded in this large advertisement for inexpensive apartments (near the Banqiao train station, New Taipei City, Taiwan).<\/p>\n

f\u0101l\u00f3u \u767c\u6a13ME (with the English \u201cFollow me\u201d above the big \"ME\")<\/p>\n

f\u0101l\u00f3u \u767c\u6a13 doesn't really mean anything sensible (lit., \"generate \/ emit \/ release [storied] building\") as a lexeme.\u00a0 It's there chiefly to transcribe in characters the sound of the English, though the \"f\u0101 \u767c\" part suggests becoming wealthy (from f\u0101c\u00e1i [\"make money\"]) and the l\u00f3u \u6a13 part, of course, means \"(multi-story) building\", hence you could think of a f\u0101l\u00f3u \u767c\u6a13 as a \"building that will help you make money\".<\/p>\n

The next line is quite complicated and is working on many levels:<\/p>\n

g\u00e0obi\u00e9 z\u016b du\u00ecy\u01d2u \u544a\u5225\u79df\u968a\u53cb (\"say goodbye to your rent paying teammates\"), followed by these tiny words in English:\u00a0 live your life<\/p>\n

It can only be explained fully in combination with the next, even more complex, line:<\/p>\n

sh\u014du z\u016b r\u00e9nsh\u0113ng 94 (ji\u01d4s\u00ec) shu\u01ceng \u6536\u79df\u4eba\u751f94\u723d (\"rent collection life is cool \/ exciting\")<\/p>\n

Here the \"ji\u01d4s\u00ec 94\" is a near homophone that is standing in for \"ji\u00f9sh\u00ec \u5c31\u662f\" (\"is [precisely \/ exactly \/ just like \/ none other than]\")<\/p>\n

Taking the above two lines into simultaneous consideration, we may say that the ad is aimed at two separate groups. The first group (\"g\u00e0obi\u00e9 z\u016b du\u00ecy\u01d2u \u544a\u5225\u79df\u968a\u53cb [\"say goodbye to your rent paying teammates\"] live your life\") are young adults who are tired of living with roommates and thus would want to buy a place of their own. Most people think that there's also a pun here on z\u016b \u79df (\"rent\"), with that standing in for zh\u016b \u8c6c (\"pig\"). So, something like \"Say goodbye to living with pigs.\"<\/p>\n

The second group (represented by the woman and the text \"sh\u014du z\u016b r\u00e9nsh\u0113ng 94 [ji\u01d4s\u00ec] shu\u01ceng \u6536\u79df\u4eba\u751f94\u723d\" [\"rent collection life is cool \/ exciting\"]) are people who would buy such apartments as investments, making supposedly easy money on rent. Thus, this accounts for the \"falou \u767c\u6a13\" — f\u0101c\u00e1i d\u00e0l\u00f3u \u767c\u8ca1\u5927\u6a13<\/p>\n

Now, about the size of these apartments, they are either 13 p\u00edng \u576a or 14 p\u00edng \u576a.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0ping<\/i>, which is a measurement Taiwan acquired from the Japanese\u00a0tsubo<\/i>, is the size of two tatami mats, or a total of about 3.3 square meters (35.6 square feet).\u00a0 In Korea, this unit of measure is called a\u00a0pyeong<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 It's the standard measure in Taiwan for apartment size. But it's important to note that an apartment's\u00a0ping<\/i>\u00a0does not equal its actual interior space. Rather, it's that interior space plus a portion of all the \"public\" space in the building.<\/p>\n

For example, if your apartment building has a lobby, a prorated portion of that lobby is added to the\u00a0ping<\/i>\u00a0count of your apartment. Is there an exercise room? Ditto. The stairwell and elevator shafts count too. Underground parking? Yup, that as well.<\/p>\n

So many apartments are actually at most two-thirds of their nominal size.<\/p>\n

To sum up, this kind of language is very common among the young generation in Taiwan, particularly on the internet.\u00a0 In this specific case, owning your own apartment will release you from your friends who are still renting, and those who are still renting are like losers who have been holding you back. The message of this ad is certainly not very kind, but quite witty and humorous nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\n