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winter_north铁杆木虫 (职业作家)
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Is it a Mahua or a Twisted noodle?
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When we speak English as non-native speakers, we meet a lot of objects which have not their own words in English, because these objects do not exist in the USA or UK. So, we face a problem, how to call these things?  In Pinyin, or try our best to translate these names into Engllish? I have read a book entitled Campus English, in which there are many English translations of Chinese things, such as, Mahua was Twisted noodle.  Of course, I can not agree with this translation. Because, at first, Mahua is not noodle. Mahua is made with leaven dough (we call famian in Chinese), but noodle is made with unleaven dough. Furthermore, the Mahua has been fried in oil before serving. Another translation is steamed bread for Mantou. The difference is that this translation is already accepted by the public.  When we read English, we often find many non-Enlish words from other language, such as Arabic, Spanish or Russian. However, only a very few words are from Chinese, and they are often invented by the Britishs or Americans according to the Chinese pronouciation. Examples include typhoon, tea. I think the tradition of trying to translate things in English is the reflection of the humility of us in front of another culture. If you call it a Mahua, perhaps at first time, a foreigner does not know what it is, but after many times, they will know. And gradually, they will also call it a Mahua.  Another example is Chaomian. If you translate it into English, how will you address it? Fried noodle? Of course it is not fried. How to translate the Chinese word Chao into English precisely? Once I met an Amrican who teaches English in China, he has some supermarket advertisements from USA. In one ad, there is a food called "Choumien noodle". At first sight, none of we Chinese knows what it is. But later, I think, this is a different spelling of Chaomian noodle, perhaps this spelling is from Taiwan. It seems the spelling of "Choumien" is already accepted in USA. For languages, there is no reason why you say so, it is only a habit. So, if you use it more often, it will be accepted.  Why do I prefer the Pinyin to word by word translation? Because it is simple to spell, and at least, the Chinese people know what you refer to. And another aspect of this topic is, my increasing awareness of the existence of our Chinese culture in this world. We should be more confident, we should contribute more words to the world language, English! So, use Pinyin when we talk about one object which only exists in China, and there is no Enlish name for it!  |
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