17 February 2011

China

(non-tech)

Just had this pointed out to me for the umpteenth time, thought I'd share:

The Chinese word for America is 美國, pronounced meiguo, a transliteration which means literally "beautiful country". This would seem to be overtly flattering; however, the first character 美 (mei), though it does mean beautiful, is a vertical combination of the characters 大 (da) and 羊 (yang), meaning, respectively, "large" and "sheep".

Fun, eh? :)
Posted by at

31 comments:

  1. AssortedNewsFebruary 17, 2011 at 9:06 AM

    Weird, I never knew that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SeanFebruary 17, 2011 at 9:39 AM

    Haha, it's wild how the same characters can mean several different things.

    To answer your question, I've never tried a recumbent bike, by the way, but prefer the ability to stand up for the power, especially since I'm training for Criterium races this season!

    Garage Zoku

    ReplyDelete
  3. Robert FünfFebruary 17, 2011 at 9:44 AM

    lol Unfortunately, that's not far from the truth.

    http://robertfunf.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Zach RoanFebruary 17, 2011 at 10:07 AM

    And now I know slightly more Chinese thank you lol

    ReplyDelete
  5. bbmike15February 17, 2011 at 11:12 AM

    hmm
    ITS A CONSPIRACY!

    ReplyDelete
  6. ArceeFebruary 17, 2011 at 12:20 PM

    Sheep Country? Sounds about right!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2011 at 1:16 PM

    Chinese and their mystical meanings. But sheep country does sound about right.

    ReplyDelete
  8. StyronFebruary 17, 2011 at 2:50 PM

    First thing i heard about it, Lemme say this: CONSPIRACY TIME! THE SHEEP WILL TAKE OVER THE US. DEFEND YOURSELF AGAINST THEIR BITES&BAAAHHHSSS!!!

    Also, sheeps did 9/11(toosoon?)

    ReplyDelete
  9. ShutterbugFebruary 17, 2011 at 3:34 PM

    I knew that!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymouseFebruary 17, 2011 at 4:34 PM

    i'm from the large beautiful sheep country...lol. good to know.

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownFebruary 17, 2011 at 5:25 PM

    Baaaaa.... Just don't let any New Zealanders near us...

    Do you know why NZ natives wear sweatpants? Because sheep can hear a zipper being pulled down a mile away...

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousFebruary 17, 2011 at 7:51 PM

    I crossed off 1 from today's todolist. learn a chinese word today- america - beautiful large sheep.
    1 question in social n/w mark character starts off with reverence and kudos to China but China blocked facebook in 2010...Why?

    ReplyDelete
  13. ThuganomicsFebruary 17, 2011 at 10:38 PM

    the story behind most chinese words are so weird.

    ReplyDelete
  14. CrazyJuanFebruary 17, 2011 at 11:41 PM

    Haha, thats awesome. The Japanese just call it Amerika (アメリカ)

    ReplyDelete
  15. xazbaschbossFebruary 18, 2011 at 2:49 AM

    Social commentary and a language lesson? I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  16. T. BanacekFebruary 18, 2011 at 5:45 AM

    The Chinese think large sheep are beautiful??? Or am I confused? :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Quasar greenFebruary 18, 2011 at 11:10 AM

    the chinese language is really interesting

    ReplyDelete
  18. philFebruary 18, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    Haha! Large sheep country!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Mot BuchananFebruary 18, 2011 at 1:53 PM

    Amazing!
    I love stuff like that.

    I am beautiful and fluffy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. SkyBlueFebruary 18, 2011 at 3:39 PM

    sorry ;p...chinese do not really break words that way i think...at least not traditionally..beautiful simply means beautiful.

    http://skybluetrading.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  21. GFebruary 18, 2011 at 4:19 PM

    cool - everyday is a school day

    ReplyDelete
  22. Mike YangFebruary 19, 2011 at 4:52 PM

    @SIaT: I know, I know -- just thought it was funny. If it was written vertically you could make a visual pun out of it...

    ReplyDelete
  23. AbstractRealityFebruary 20, 2011 at 9:30 AM

    They call it beautiful country, then they come here and realize the truth

    ReplyDelete
  24. pennywiseFebruary 20, 2011 at 11:09 AM

    haha thats a interesting point.

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousFebruary 20, 2011 at 11:21 AM

    haha thats pretty sunny

    ReplyDelete
  26. tetcrhFebruary 22, 2011 at 9:54 AM

    very amusing.. Plurality of meaning is one of the most interesting parts of any language!

    ReplyDelete
  27. PekkaKFebruary 22, 2011 at 11:37 AM

    Sheeps are usually considered cowards...

    ReplyDelete
  28. HillDogFebruary 22, 2011 at 5:46 PM

    The chinese language is really beautiful. It is like music, you can interpret it in many different ways.

    ReplyDelete
  29. LifeHacksFebruary 22, 2011 at 8:56 PM

    well, china will need our country in 50 years to sustain their growth!

    ReplyDelete
  30. zepdragonFebruary 23, 2011 at 10:35 AM

    Lol, always love a good culture fact.

    ReplyDelete
  31. AnonymousMarch 5, 2011 at 9:28 PM

    It is fun!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)