Koneko Posted August 16, 2004 at 03:37 PM Report Share Posted August 16, 2004 at 03:37 PM Why the Chinese Hanzi for "Great Man", ie, 大丈夫, becomes "No Problem" in Japanese Kanji? More interesting examples also include Chinese meanings Hanzi/ Kanji Japanese meanings True Colour 真面目 Serious Hand paper 手纸 Letter To cut a hand 切手 Stamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geek_frappa Posted August 17, 2004 at 01:53 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 at 01:53 PM this is interesting.. how do you say that in japanese? and i do remember seeing in class that "book/novel" is a strange combination of Hanzi and Japanese characters... or am i mistaken? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claw Posted August 17, 2004 at 03:40 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 at 03:40 PM "Emergency exit" is 非常口 (literally: extreme/unusual mouth) in Japanese. I found that out while reading one of the safety cards on an airplane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted August 17, 2004 at 05:28 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 at 05:28 PM 口 just means an openning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xuechengfeng Posted August 17, 2004 at 05:43 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 at 05:43 PM I'm getting frustrated learning Japanese because the borrowing the Hanzi and they don't even use half the ones I know for certain words, they use alternate ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yonglan Posted August 17, 2004 at 07:29 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 at 07:29 PM 勉強 is the favorite such example of my Taiwanese friends. 非常口 has it's orginis in the classical language as do many Japanese meanings for kanji -- so look there (or a _good_ Chinese dictionary for archaic meanings). For instance, to understand 非常口 without even looking in a dictionary, just look at the first line of the 道德經‧ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian_Lee Posted August 17, 2004 at 09:49 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2004 at 09:49 PM Read earlier thread related to this topic: http://www.chinese-forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=718 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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