第四年第八十一天

[nnozomi]

The chengyu game in yesterday's post is 热闹热闹, feel free to come join in!

本周的部首
丿 part 3
乐, happy/music; 乒乓, ping-pong (both characters); 乖, well-behaved; 乘, to ride/to multiply 乐 lè/yuè, happy/music; 乒乓 pīngpāng, ping-pong (both characters); 乖 guāi, well-behaved; 乘 chéng, to ride/to multiply
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=4
Obligatory anecdote: who knows about the magic 乖乖 snacks in Taiwan?

词汇
全场, the whole audience; 全面, comprehensive; 全球, the whole world 全场 quánchǎng, the whole audience; 全面 quánmiàn, comprehensive; 全球 quánqiú, the whole world
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
从来没见过它这么乖呢, I've never seen him so well-behaved. [This makes me realize that Da Qing's third-person pronoun automatically changes between 它 and 他 according to what shape he's in...]
乘客一半是地星人, half the passengers were Dixingren
所以刚好路边这里的民众需要全面疏散, so right now all the people on the streets here need to get off of them

Me:
听着音乐时我还挺快乐的。
他唱歌的时候会把全场魅惑。

Comments

[donutsweeper]

I hadn't noticed that about Da Qing's personal pronoun! That is so interesting; I suppose it makes sense since animals are 它s while men are 他 but I hadn't considered sentient animals and what their pronouns would be.

[trobadora]

I noticed this just recently during the novel readalong! The fan translation went with "it" because Daqing is 它, but the official translation went with "he", which works better in English because named animals aren't "it" in English.

[donutsweeper]

I can see why the translators might have gone with 'it', it's more literal of a translation, but 'he' definitely makes more sense for English. I need to do a re-read, I missed that.

[trobadora]

Just out of curiosity, did you read the Chinese (and if so, which version), the fan translation or the official translation?

[donutsweeper]

I don't know enough Chinese to read in that. I read the fan translation one ages ago and honestly didn't even notice the pronoun usage. I started the official one but didn't get very far before life got hectic and haven't found time to return yet.

[trobadora]

I hope you find the time to get back to it! FWIW, IMO the official translation is great. Much more smoothly readable.

[donutsweeper]

I've heard great things about it! I just need more hours in my day :(

[trobadora]

I feel you on that SO MUCH.

[nnozomi]

yeah, I agree "he" sounds better in English when you know the relevant gender! I need to ask a Chinese native speaker how they think about this some time...

[nnozomi]

I hadn't considered sentient animals and what their pronouns would be.
Me neither! It's a fun concept to think about (especially, like, is Zhao Yunlan who knows Da Qing is both cat and human thinking 他 and saying 它? and so on).

[trobadora]

A case for "TA" if ever I saw one! *g*

[nnozomi]

You are not kidding! 🐱