Study Chinese Online: Some Transliterated Chinese Words

With the development of Chinese economy and Chinese culture, the number of people who is willing to learn Chinese has increased a lot.

To memorize the Chinese characters is not easy for many people especially those phrases that do not have a complete equivalence in English. Actually, there are also many transliterated words coming from foreign countries. Maybe you can find some relevant words in your native language. Comparing Chinese language and your native language is also a good way to study Chinese.

So, in this class, we are going to talk about some transliterated Chinese words.

The earliest frequently used transliterated word may be “酒吧(jiu3 ba1)”. As we all know, there is no such a place in ancient China. We had inn and hotel at that time, but they were not equal to the “bar” in western countries. Later on, according to the pronunciation of “bar”, the Chinese word “吧(ba1)” come into existence. And now, “清吧(qing1 ba1)”, “酒吧(jiu3 ba1)”, “咖啡吧(ka1 fei1 ba1)”, “网吧(wang3 ba1)” and some other places have attracted many Chinese people’s attention. “吧” is usually interpreted as a place that can gather a lot of people who want to skill their time or do something they are interested in.

Another typical transliterated word is “麦克风(mai4 ke4 feng1)”. It is also introduced from western countries. The original word is “microphone”. Sometime, you will hear people say “我的麦坏了(wo3 de5 mai1 huai4 le5)”. That may make you puzzled. What does the “麦(mai1)” mean? Actually, it is an abbreviation for “麦克风” in daily communication. You need get used to some common daily expressions, which is important for you to study mandarin.

There are many other examples such as “拷贝(kao3 bei4), means copy”, “T恤(xu4), means T-shirt”, which will be presented in our following online courses. You can study Chinese online by yourself anytime when you are available. 

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