How do you say “hike” and “hiking” in Chinese?

[Jim]

They actually use 远足 at my daughter's preschool when they're only going for a wander round the village or not much further. 近足 would be more accurate.

[imron]

14 hours ago, Moshen said:

If you're talking about the touristed sections of the Great Wall, that is not hiking. 

I've done hiking along several non-touristed sections of the Great Wall, and there are various Chinese hiking clubs that go on hikes on those sames sections of the walls (not great big tour-groups with people following someone with a flag and a microphone, but people who are actually interested in hiking, going hiking).

[Lu]

13 hours ago, Tomsima said:

So what about 'hitch hike'?

Youdao says 搭便车. (In Dutch it's 'liften', in case that's what you asked.) It's a completely different concept, so not surprising that the word is also not related at all.

[abcdefg]

On 7/26/2019 at 10:00 AM, NinjaTurtle said:

It is very common for my students to say "mountain climbing" when they really mean "hiking". (It is common for them to say, "I went mountain climbing on Saturday" when I know they didn't!)

 

What I almost always hear in Kunming from my Chinese friends is 爬山 pa shan -- even when it was just a walk in the hills involving no special preparation or gear. If challenged or questioned closely, they will then use other terms to modify or explain the meaning more precisely, as given above by other posters. 

 

Also, as a tourist in China I also often hear 爬山 applied to the famous scenic mountain hikes such as Huangshan 黄山 or Taishan 泰山。These are walks up and  then down a paved walkway with steps and siderails along the trails. Maybe benches for resting and stopping places to admire the view and shoot selfies.  

[889]

"English doesn't have a single word for 'remain silent, not speak' ('zwijgen')."

 

Mute works fine for me.

[Lu]

4 hours ago, 889 said:

Mute works fine for me.

'Mute' can be a verb, but then it's transitive (is that the term?). You can mute the tv, but you can't just mute.

Consider:

* 'She yelled and screamed at him, but he continued to mute.'

* 'Mute, now! Or else they'll hear us!'

[Insectosaurus]

2 hours ago, Lu said:

'Mute' can be a verb, but then it's transitive (is that the term?). You can mute the tv, but you can't just mute.

Consider:

* 'She yelled and screamed at him, but he continued to mute.'

* 'Mute, now! Or else they'll hear us!'

 

I'm not a native so I might be completely off here, but how about quieten? Perhaps it can only be used as becoming quiet, rather than remaining quiet.

[889]

"English doesn't have a single word for 'remain silent, not speak' ('zwijgen')."

 

That's what you said. Nothing there about a verb, was there.

 

"He stood there mute, unable to reply."

 

"The defendant was mute throughout the trial."

 

[Lu]

7 hours ago, 889 said:

"English doesn't have a single word for 'remain silent, not speak' ('zwijgen')."

 

That's what you said. Nothing there about a verb, was there.

As far as I know, 'remain' and 'speak' are verbs (as is 'zwijgen', but it's reasonable that you didn't know that). But if it was unclear: I did mean that English doesn't have one verb for 'to remain silent, to not speak'. I am a non-native speaker of English, perhaps that's the cause of me not expressing myself in a way that was clear enough for you.

[Moshen]

Quote

but how about quieten? Perhaps it can only be used as becoming quiet, rather than remaining quiet.

 

You are correct that "quieten" means "becoming quiet." It cannot mean deliberately being quiet.

 

Lu is absolutely right in her claim about English not having one verb for the German "schweigen" or the Dutch "zwijgen."

 

When I went to double-check that I had the right German for Wittgenstein's use of the word "schweigen" and why it was so hard to translate into English, I found an article that would seem highly esoteric if you hadn't studied the philosopher (I studied with one of his disciples), but I can extract a few points here:

 

Quote

 

...there are obviously several reasons why one might keep one’s mouth shut. On the one hand, one might have nothing to say. On the other hand, having something to say, (a) one might not be able to think of the words in which to say it; or (b) one might wish not to say it on some particular occasion or perhaps ever; or (c) one might be forbidden to say it, or have sworn not to do so. The Greek Mysteries were mainly of this last sort: there was a communicable doctrine, but it was esoteric, and insiders were enjoined not to speak of it to outsiders. (It is said that when one of the Pythagoreans revealed the incommensurability of the square root of two, the others threw him off a cliff.)

 

Schweigen (‘be silent’) has elements of all these senses in German but, especially in conjunction with darüber, also some additional overtones. One of the overtones is musical: schweigen as used of a musical performance is to end or to cease: it stands for the falling-silent at the conclusion of a work – for completion, for satisfaction, also perhaps for regret. It is a powerful last word for a book whose structure, according to Erik Stenius, is musical. ... Schweigen however also stands for a sort of civilised reticence: there are things one doesn’t say, that one doesn’t draw attention to, that one passes over in silence.

 

 

All that in one word?  Certainly, yes.  That is why language is so fascinating to many of us on this board!

[Insectosaurus]

Swedish too has such a word, albeit it does not seem quite as wide in application as Schweigen. "Tiga", which also is an intransitive verb, and one of the largest Swedish dictionaries translates it it as "be (remain) silent, keep silent". Perhaps it has the same origin, but I couldn't find something suggesting that. I guess all languages have such phenomenons, I have heard several times that the Swedish word "lagom" has not equivalent in English. Googling around I found it described as follows:

 

Quote

Lagom is “Just enough,” “Not too much or too little,” “Just right,” “Enough to go around,” “Fair share.” It indicates balance. Lagom doesn’t have the negative connotation of “sufficient” nor does it claim perfection.

 

[889]

I think non-native speakers do tend to be more attuned to grammatical classifications. To my ear, you were just looking for a concise word to express that condition.

[NinjaTurtle]

On 8/12/2020 at 8:11 AM, abcdefg said:

What I almost always hear in Kunming from my Chinese friends is 爬山 pa shan -- even when it was just a walk in the hills involving no special preparation or gear

 

Please forgive me if I am repeating myself, but is this also the word for real mountain climbing, which requires using one's hands (to grab rock face  or dig in to dirt) to climb up a mountain?

[Jim]

25 minutes ago, NinjaTurtle said:

the word for real mountain climbing

That's more usually 登山 in the context of e.g. an Everest summit attempt.

ETA: see https://baike.baidu.com/item/登山/6176955 or http://cmasports.sport.org.cn for example

[Dawei3]

On 8/11/2020 at 8:09 AM, Lu said:

Dutch doesn't have a single word for 'like'/喜欢. We have to work around it

There can be several levels of this:   a language may not have a precise word for the concept and require multiple words to convey the same idea.  In other cases, a word may be relatively precise in one language and have more meanings in another (i.e., mountain climbing in English has a more narrow meaning than 爬山 in Chinese). 

 

For new concepts, other words may evolve to fill that gap or the language may borrow words from others.  A fun example (and this is specifically for the other Monty Python fans I've seen post to this site):  Why is junk email called "spam" in English?  What does the "meat" called spam have to do with email?  

 

The book "The Etymologicon" related the story of one of the first computer viruses:  It would trigger computers to print, on-screen,  an endless loop of the lyrics to the Monty Python song  "Spam".  And thus this word evolved to describe needless emails.   (the programming language "Python" also derives from MP, albeit for unknown reasons)

 

Chinese friends often ask me "what is the word for...."  and sometimes I can't think of just 1 word.  I have to "work around it" to describe the same thing in English.  

 

Sometimes, the English words lack the same "ring" as in Chinese.  For example, while I can translate 很麻烦 in multiple ways into English (that's annoying, what a bother, what a hassle...), I prefer the Chinese word and wish I could use it with my English speaking friends.  Situations like this can trigger vocabulary sharing  between languages when enough people speak the same 2nd language.      

 

  

[abcdefg]

Here's an example of current language use in mountain climbing: (It's also a pretty good movie with top cast and great scenery.)

 

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/59183-%E6%94%80%E7%99%BB%E8%80%85-the-climbers/ 

 

The titile of the film is 攀登者 pandengzhi. English translation "The Climbers." 

 

I saw it on the big screen in Kunming. Don't know about its availability as a download. Most of it was filmed in Tibet. Directed by Tsui Hark 徐克。

 

Here are some clips: https://movie.douban.com/video/104243/

 

[NinjaTurtle]

22 hours ago, Dawei3 said:

while I can translate 很麻烦 in multiple ways into English (that's annoying, what a bother, what a hassle...), I prefer the Chinese word and wish I could use it with my English speaking friends. 

 

We have the same word, 面倒くさい (mendokusai) in Japanese, and I have had the same difficulty trying to find a single, suitable translation into English. (I usually teach “what a hassle.” to my students. I do not teach the much more conversational term "a pain in the xxx" to my students.) To make things worse, Japanese dictionaries use the word "troublesome" which in my opinion is not conversational. Do Chinese dictionaries use the word "troublesome"?

 

[NinjaTurtle]

22 hours ago, abcdefg said:

Here's an example of current language use in mountain climbing

 

This gives me an idea for a classroom activity. I write 爬山 and 登山 on the board and ask the students to explain the differences. Will these two words give Chinese students the distinction  I am looking for?

 

 

 

[imron]

Also consider adding 攀岩 for rock-climbing.

[NinjaTurtle]

7 hours ago, imron said:

Also consider adding 攀岩 for rock-climbing.

 

If I write 爬山, 登山, and 攀岩 on the board, will these words give Chinese students the distinctions  I am looking for?