Tag Archives: chinese dialect
Which dialects do you (not) speak?
Which dialects do you (not) speak? Do you regret not speaking a dialect? Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
MRT Station meaning: Yew Tee
Yew Tee is a Teochew phrase that was literally copied into English. It is written as 油池. In Mandarin this is pronounced as “yóuchí”, meaning “oil pond”. According to Wikipedia, Yew Tee used to be a village off woodlands road, … Continue reading
Filed under Singapore
Meanings of MRT station names
If out the languages spoken in Singapore you only speak English, you unknowingly miss out on a lot of meaning. An example is the MRT station names, which are often borrowed of Chinese dialects or Malay. This is an introduction – I’ll later post some examples in separate posts. Continue reading
Filed under Singapore
Mandarin – how it’s spoken in Singapore
This post describes how the Mandarin Chinese language is used in everyday life in Singapore. Who speaks it, for what purpose, and to which extent. Continue reading
Traditional vs. simplified Chinese characters
The topic of simplified vs. traditional Chinese characters can be confusing if you are new to the Chinese language. The difference between these two written forms of Chinese is not to be confused with the difference between the Chinese dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese: both can basically be written in either simplified or traditional characters. In this post, I’m giving some background as to what the difference is, why it occurred occurred and where each writing method is used. Continue reading
