cursing in chinese = dumb idea
POSTED BY: ladyhawk3
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2015 21:57
VIEWED: 47868
PAGE 2 of 2
Quote:
Originally posted by ladyhawk3:
if Joss Whedon ever does another series, he doesn't have the characters curse in Chinese again. First of all the actors don't even try to get hit tones when speaking Chinese, so if you're a chinese person watching the show it literally sounds retarded.
I just don't think it sounds very menacing to curse in Chinese ... not that I know how. Now cursing in Japanese sounds mean ... Cursing in German or Afrikaans sounds pretty fierce too.
While the Anglo-Sino plot is interesting, it does make it tough for the use of Chinese characters. I would have preferred an Anglo-Russo or even an Anglo-Nippon background ... but it is what it is.
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Quote:Being polite in German sounds pretty fierce.
Originally posted by SgtLobo:
Cursing in German or Afrikaans sounds pretty fierce too.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Naoe:
I I mean, in English, if we called someone a "turtle," they'd just stare and be very bewildered. In Chinese, that's equivalent to "bastard." Just doesn't sound the same, does it?
Not only that, but the characters used for a lot of the writing was actually Japanese. I'm just lucky the character meanings carry over. I can read Chinese, but I'd need to install a new tongue to be able to speak it. Ha ha... complex.
Welcome, Samurai...
The geta racks are over there, are you a otoko no ko? Tea? Please don't let my ramblings in other areas scare you, I'm actually quite sane a good third of the time
Some animals don't translate well, but Turtle definately means slow, and ostrich means denial, and leech,well, you get my point. We use 'em just not as much...
There are sooo many things about translating Asian culture to English which are very complicated, I think at some point Joss just had to go with what felt and looked best, not what was the most representative.
And just a tongue transplant? You are doing well, as I would need a brain transplant as well
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Quote:
Originally posted by piratenews:
But it IS creepy. Like the future is far more terrifying that were were led to believe. Too bad the future is now.
That's what Joss was doing... not trying to say Commie China is 'cool'. Perhaps that's why none were in the show? Maybe that's why the Chinese owner of Fox, Deng Wen Di Murdoch, banned FF before it's first epp?
In fact, Commie China has a recent history of cannibalism, during it's "Cultural Revolution". School teachers were considered especially tasty. Reavers were made by the jew banks in NY and UK who founded Communism with the British Fabian Socialists. Now the Chinese just eat babies, thanks to mandatory abortion ordered by sodomite jew Heinz "Henry" Kissenger Knight of the British Empire.
Gruesome discovery in China: Aborted baby as herbal soup
http://greenteachat.com/2009/05/17/baby-aborted-and-eaten-afterwards/
http://www.abortiontv.com/Glitch/AbortedBabiesSoldAsHealthFood.htm
http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/04/02/cannibalism-in-china-acceptabl
e-if-for-health/
Reavers... jew banksters made them
"I am not a crook!"
-Old Dead Guy, a/k/a Tricky Dick, who opened the West to Commie Chinese invasion
Ughhhhh, you're still on here? Didn't you say the world would end in 2010?
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Quote:
Turtle definately means slow
The Chinese swear for turtle doesn't have much to do with slowness. >_> It's more to do with what the turtle's head and neck looks like and how it withdraws into the shell/sheathe. In other words, translates to a vulgar term for male human anatomy.
Then turtle's egg, which is probably the more common curse than turtle by itself, translates to offspring of the vulgar male human anatomy, or people also more simply translate it as "bastard."
I had no problem with the Chinese. I understand the grim future that Joss was trying to imply - making the characters polyglot with Spanish or French or German or African languages doesn't have the same impact as suggesting that China and America/Britain basically divvy up the whole world before humanity abandons ship. And Russian would have really only worked to the same impact in the Cold War.
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Quote:
Originally posted by ladyhawk3:
if Joss Whedon ever does another series, he doesn't have the characters curse in Chinese again. First of all the actors don't even try to get hit tones when speaking Chinese, so if you're a chinese person watching the show it literally sounds retarded.
You say that like it's his go-to method of having characters curse, and there was no other rationale behind it.
Pretty weird complaint, really.
As for Chinese people and pronunciation - language and pronunciation changes over time. Who's to say that in a few hundred years, that isn't how things may be pronounced?
Excuse me while I soak in all these sweet, sweet conservative tears.
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I totally agree with Tujiaozuo on this one. I personally like the use of Mandarin being used in "Firefly" along with English, it adds a unique flavour to the series and I can see how over time the pronunciation would come across somewhat warped or devolve into a kind of slang.
Ali D :~)
"You can't take the sky from me!"
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i think its a great way to keep its pg-13 rating unless you know chinese
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