7
votes
Accepted
Is there a politically neutral Chinese term for Greater China that is acceptable to all Chinese speakers?
maybe "大中華區". most multinational corporations used this term to describe the regions you mentioned.
such usage is correct, in context of nowadays, or recent decades. historically, taiwan was ...
- 15.1k
5
votes
What's the difference between 主任 and 主管?
When "主管" is used as a noun, it is usually a title for a position in a private company, who is in charge of a department, e.g., "人事部门主管". It is a very general word, sometimes informal. But if there ...
- 411
5
votes
Size of vocabulary of highly educated Chinese person
What differentiates Chinese characters from English words is that most Chinese characters are not only words but also morphemes.
e.g.
In the English word unlikely, there are three morphemes, un, ...
- 401
4
votes
Mandarin in Hunan Province
According to some sources citing the Ministry of Education, diffusion of Putonghua （普通话）in the country has reached 70% in 2015.
The biggest issue that you might face in Hunan (and in almost any ...
- 5,452
4
votes
Size of vocabulary of highly educated Chinese person
It is unlikely you can find any satisfactory statistics. What you get is most likely the vocabulary list for learning Chinese languages (or with other subjects) by the education department of ...
- 1,994
4
votes
How do I say 'excuse me'?
In Mandarin Chinese, "Excuse me" is translated into "抱歉" normally.
If you want to ask for a random person's help, these words are also useful:
对不起 dù bù qǐ
不好意思 bù hǎo yì si
不好意思，打扰一下 bù hǎo yì si，...
- 41
4
votes
Accepted
Exactly how bad is it to call a family member by their given name?
Calling a family member of the older generation by the first name only is taboo. You must address your parents and grandparents with appropriate honorific or pet name e.g. /爸爸，媽媽/ 公公，奶奶
Calling a ...
- 77.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Why is Mainland China referred to as "大陸" (大陸)?
It's due to the one-China policy (一中原則).
Both CPC (中國共產黨) and KMT (中國國民黨) think there is only one China.
Both refer their own places as countries, PRC and ROC, respectively.
Both treat the other side ...
- 1,463
3
votes
how to translate this slogan '向前一小步，文明一大步' and the like in almost every public toilet in China
The quote from your title:
'向前一小步，文明一大步。'
which literally translated to: "One small step forward, (is a) big step for civilization"
Is kind of a paraphrase of Neil Armstrong's "One small step ...
- 533
3
votes
Does anyone knows a 'Leo' surname transliterated from the 劉/刘 characters?
The Wikipedia page for Liu says:
劉 / 刘 (/ljoʊ/ or /ljuː/;1 romanised as Liu, Lau, Leo, Ryu, Yoo, Lew, Lieu, Liou, Liw) is a Chinese surname. Liu as transcribed in English can represent several ...
Mou某♦
- 35.7k
3
votes
Exactly how bad is it to call a family member by their given name?
I don't know how others think, so I just talk about my own experience. I have never seen any Chinese person express his/her anger or contempt over an elderly relative by calling the latter's name, ...
- 2,020
2
votes
Mandarin in Hunan Province
The usual Hunan accent to Mandarin is very distinct and can be hard to understand for non-Hunanese people. My own grandmother, for example, has a heavy Hunan accent when speaking Mandarin, which ...
- 424
2
votes
Insults in Chinese
First level: 笨蛋，傻瓜/Dumb-ass(Sha Gua)
Second level: 脑残/Brainless/Retard(Nao Can)，二B(Er B)，傻B/傻Ⅹ(Sha B/Sha Cha)
I am not going to translate the last few, they are basically comparing people to ...
- 881
2
votes
Size of vocabulary of highly educated Chinese person
Chinese characters are different from words in phonographic languages.
A Chinese character is equivalent to a word in, say, English in the sense that it is the smallest unit with a meaning.
However, ...
- 495
2
votes
Learning the Chinese Language
I am afraid there is no universal answer to your question. Generally speaking becoming fluent in Chinese depends on how much time and effort do you plan to put into it. Obviously the more the better. ...
- 185
2
votes
What's the difference between 主任 and 主管?
主任
director; head; supervisor
~
主管
in charge; be responsible; a person in such a position
a person in charge of a department = department head
The two terms are just different ways of referring '...
- 77.1k
2
votes
Please some Help me translate this
无出生证明原件，声明书上姓氏有误，须更换新声明 - 张
No original birth certification document, surname in the clarification does not match, please submit a new clarification document - Zhang
- 3,089
2
votes
how to translate this slogan '向前一小步，文明一大步' and the like in almost every public toilet in China
向前一小步， 文明一大步。
靠近方便, 贴近文明。
What they both want to say is: Please pee in the urinal, not on the floor.
They just say it in a very discreet Chinese way.
- 17.4k
2
votes
Accepted
How do you translate "misalignment spacers"?
"High misalignment aluminum spacer" is named 高偏差铝垫片.
So, "misalignment spacer" is 偏差垫片.
- 1,974
2
votes
Is the accent in the south that different?
对@王肖明的回答表示同意， 普通话基本上每个地方都不会差别太大；但是总体而言大城市的普通话普及度会稍微高一些（如北京上海苏州杭州天津等），如一定要追求普通话标准性，那还是建议往北面北京东北这一块儿跑，但实际不是很受影响。
To sum up, it doesn't matter that much since most cities speak mandarin in daily ...
- 316
2
votes
Is the accent in the south that different?
The person who said beijing is closer to standard mandarin is not wrong. However it is important to note that among billions of people, very few of them actually speak standard mandarin. That is ...
- 1,586
2
votes
Is the accent in the south that different?
University professors are required to pass Putonghua test at some level so at universities accents are more or less not a problem. Regional universities may have more local professors. In that case ...
- 4,485
2
votes
Accepted
What about the meaning "actually" for 所 mentioned in many dictionaries?
I couldn't recall any in either Modern or Literary Chinese. Consulting a bunch of authoritative dictionaries confirms it (see the entry screenshot in the next section).
I really recommend against ...
- 4,485
2
votes
What about the meaning "actually" for 所 mentioned in many dictionaries?
Whether "所" means "actually"? Is that meaning really used in Modern Chinese?
My answer to your question is No. The word "所" does not mean "actually" in any ...
- 3,610
1
vote
Is there a politically neutral Chinese term for Greater China that is acceptable to all Chinese speakers?
NO, there is no one single term that would satisfy everyone.
Just take another country we all know, which is called:-
England, Great Britain, British Isles, United Kingdom......
- 3,597
1
vote
Is there a politically neutral Chinese term for Greater China that is acceptable to all Chinese speakers?
I agree that "大中華區" is quite common for this issue. There are other expressions such as 兩岸三地(中、台、港) or 兩岸四地(中、台、港、澳)
"大中華區" is a bit vague to me, because it might include Chinese speakers in ...
- 41
1
vote
Is there a politically neutral Chinese term for Greater China that is acceptable to all Chinese speakers?
中國大陸和台灣 / mainland China and Taiwan
Obviously Taiwan is not located inside mainland, so restricting China to mainland China may meet your purpose
- 470
1
vote
Learning the Chinese Language
All it takes is effort. You can start by learning the phrases first without minding the characters that much. There's a video on Youtube explaining how sentence mining works. You can view it here. At ...
- 121
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible