Margaret Waterman
- Q. Gen.
*****
I found this useful tool www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/radicals.php
for decoding Chinese radicals, but didn't quite manage to decode the book title. siu2
zyu2 zi2 was what I came up with (Cantonese transcription) which turned into "Little
Master", but I don't trust that! Ed Vielmetti
You are really close to the title of the book. It means the same thing, only expressed
differently.
BTW is doesn't matter if you use a Cantonese or a Mandarin translator. All the
dialects of Chinese are written the same. They are just all pronounced differently.
This is possible since Chinese is baed on pictograms which themselves convey no
phonetic value.
When I was in Taiwan, I watched some soap operas. I was surprised to find them
closed captioned. I thought that maybe the deaf-people's lobby had managed to have
that done. Then I realized that the captions were because many people watching the
show could not unsdertand what the actors were saying, but they could all read the
captions!
Suggestion: Use the tool I give. - Q. Gen.
*****
That was easy, but fun. Thanks for the pointer to the Chinese translation tool. It will
be very useful. Brett Payne
N.B. Hope the puzzle wasn't too easy. Since I speak and read Chinese to some
extent, I am familiar with "how things go". In preparing the quiz, I looked at
Chinese proverbs, Chinese monuments, quotes from the Bible and more...but I could
not get any of them to work with the Chinese Notepad translator. It seems to have a
limited vocabulary. (It didn't have the character for "There is" or "There are". You
also had to have a version of the Notepad that could do combinations. Sometimes
just translating a single word doesn't work. That's why I picked the Notepad that
converted what you draw into a typed version of the character so you can use it in
Google Translate.
Besides, I wanted everyone to understand that Chinese, like other languages, is not
that hard to learn. After all there are 2(?) billion children under five that do quite
well at it! - Q. Gen.
And I think you demonstrated that very well. Until today, I completely disregarded any
thought of trying to translate from Chinese - it didn't even occur to me as a practical
possibility. Brett Payne
*****
What a fun quiz! Thanks for the link to this website. I think I figured it out, although
my calligraphy skills with a mouse are seriously deficient. And a big thank you to
www.imdb.com Patty Kiker
*****
Now, as for the bonus-bonus question (the closing statement in your e-mail), I can't
make up my mind. It's something like, 'Enjoy using the Internet' or, 'Enjoy a drink'.
Either one works for me. Carol Farrant
N.B. How about just plain "Enjoy!" - Q. Gen.
*****
Steven Warner played the Little Prince in 1974. Unless we think of the pilot, the
narrator, as the main character in which case it would be Richard Kiley. But Bob
Fosse and Gene Wilder stole the show as the snake and the Fox. Ahh... did you know
that Richard Burton was originally pursued for the role of the narrator?
Nelsen Spickard
*****
My 5-year-old granddaughter Caitlin watches a show on Nichelodeon called "Ni Hao
Kai-lan" all about a little Japanese girl and throughout the show they teach new Japanese
words ... pretty interesting! Elaine Hebert
*****
Bonus: The Island - Michael Bay. This was a fun puzzle. Luckily I had some books on
the Chinese language to help
me out. Carl Blessing
No, the answer to the bonus is not The Island. Try that link and see if you can
figure it out! - Q. Gen.
I think I should have stayed with my first instinct. When I first saw the character, I
immediately thought “Birds” and that, of course, led to “Alfred Hitchcock”. I looked in
a book of Chinese characters for it. Unfortunately, I used the word on the next
page…which was “Island” and which has a connection. According to the book, “Sea-
birds often nest on mountainous rocks that emerge from the sea. Hence a bird (鳥)
over a mountain (山) gave the concept for island: 島.” (Fun with chinese characters,
the straits times collection 1, The Straits Times, 1980). I was close, but no cigar.
Carl Blessing
*****
I *think* I drew the Chinese characters correctly - it took a little bit to get the hang of
it but it was fun. :)
The name of the book is "The Little Prince" [note: I had to read this one in French class
way back when so I always hear the words "Le Petit Prince" in my head]. It was made
into a movie in 1974 and starred Steven Warner as the little prince.
The other movie is "Bird" from 1988 and directed by Clint Eastwood - one of my fave
actors/directors who turned 81 last week. Or - I guess it could also be "The Birds",
made in 1963 by Alfred Hitchcock since you said it was well-known? lol - my Chinese
character drawings were pretty sloppy so hopefully I am close. :) Nicole Blank
Actually I had to read it in French too! Le Petit Prince - I can still hear my teacher
pronouncing it.
Yes you are right about the bonus. It's funny, but in Chinese they don't have
singular and plural nouns. I forgot about that. I meant "The Birds" but "Bird"
could also be right. Plural is usually denoted by using a particle next to the noun.
- Q. Gen.
Glad I at least got the word 'bird' correct. lol It took me a long time to draw that
character and kept getting examples that didn't match the quiz one at all. I thought it
looked like an elephant though. :) Nicole Blank
| XXX |
Q1 Classic Book "Little Lord Fauntleroy"
Q2 There have been several movies. Main character assumed Cedric.
1914 - Edward Viner (one of last movies in Kinemacolor)
1921 - Mary Picford (also played his mother)
1936 - Micky Rooney (best known movie)
1980 - Dick Schroder
bonus - Eagle's Claw 1978 martial arts film directed by Lee Tso Nam (who has acted in
quite a few movies)
I tried your suggested web page and couldn't understand it. I found a chinese character
directory at www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html whose radical/stroke look up page
showed the characters by number of strokes. Pick one that looks correct and get it
translated. The book came out as little, royal, child. In the list of best 100 classic
books, "Little Lord Fauntleroy" the only title with little and royal possibilities. The bonus
symbols translated as claw and bird. Googling movie + claw brought up Eagle's Claw.
Since my wife and I have been doing martial arts for a couple of years, I looked no
farther. Very interesting quiz.
Arthur Hartwell
*****
You answer is very interesting!
Q2 There have been several movies. Main character assumed Cedric.
1914 - Edward Viner (one of last movies in Kinemacolor)
1921 - Mary Picford (also played his mother)
1936 - Micky Rooney (best known movie)
1980 - Dick Schroder
bonus - Eagle's Claw 1978 martial arts film directed by Lee Tso Nam (who has acted in
quite a few movies)
I tried your suggested web page and couldn't understand it. I found a chinese character
directory at www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html whose radical/stroke look up page
showed the characters by number of strokes. Pick one that looks correct and get it
translated. The book came out as little, royal, child. In the list of best 100 classic
books, "Little Lord Fauntleroy" the only title with little and royal possibilities. The bonus
symbols translated as claw and bird. Googling movie + claw brought up Eagle's Claw.
Since my wife and I have been doing martial arts for a couple of years, I looked no
farther. Very interesting quiz.
Arthur Hartwell
*****
You answer is very interesting!
and the titles were not literal translations, so it was kind of tricky figuring out some of
what they were.
There was one movie that I just could not make sense out of.
So I thought I might have better luck asking her the names of the star in the movie.
The translation of western names has to go by sound. Also since each sound normally
has four characters associated with it (depending on intonation), when you translate the
name of a person or product, you have some leeway in picking how it is expressed in
Chinese.
For example, 7 Up is written as 7 Happiness (but someone would phonetically read it as
'Chee' (which means seven) and then something that sounds like Up but means
Happiness. 'Bulova' as in bulova watches is translated into three characters that sound
like Bulova but mean something like 'dependable', 'reliable' etc.
The hotel clerk tried to read me the name of the actor in the movie, which was maybe
six characters long. (Sometimes a syllable in English might translate into two characters
in Chinese if the sound is kind of complicated). It took me a while, but I eventually
figured out that she was trying to say 'Schwartzennegger' and the movie was The
Terminator.
Back to Little Lord Fauntleroy.
If this was the answer, the title in Chinese would be more than just three characters.
'Little' would go straight into Chinese as would 'Lord'. But 'Fauntleroy' would be at least
three if not more characters long.
This is a round about way of telling you your answer is fascinating, but
To use the website I suggested, draw a character on the poad with your mouse. There
will be several suggestions below in Chinese. Click on the right one. It will appear in the
box to the left.
After you've done this for all three characters in the title of the book, copy and paste
them into Google Translate and see what you come up with.
You will have a big laugh!
Quizmaster General
*****
Corrections to my entry
Q1 The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte-Exupery
Q2 There were two movies one in 1974 and one in 2005. Steven Warner played the
Little Prince in both pictures.
Using Google to translate the characters gave the two word title Little Prince. Made a
difference.
Arthur Hartwell
what they were.
There was one movie that I just could not make sense out of.
So I thought I might have better luck asking her the names of the star in the movie.
The translation of western names has to go by sound. Also since each sound normally
has four characters associated with it (depending on intonation), when you translate the
name of a person or product, you have some leeway in picking how it is expressed in
Chinese.
For example, 7 Up is written as 7 Happiness (but someone would phonetically read it as
'Chee' (which means seven) and then something that sounds like Up but means
Happiness. 'Bulova' as in bulova watches is translated into three characters that sound
like Bulova but mean something like 'dependable', 'reliable' etc.
The hotel clerk tried to read me the name of the actor in the movie, which was maybe
six characters long. (Sometimes a syllable in English might translate into two characters
in Chinese if the sound is kind of complicated). It took me a while, but I eventually
figured out that she was trying to say 'Schwartzennegger' and the movie was The
Terminator.
Back to Little Lord Fauntleroy.
If this was the answer, the title in Chinese would be more than just three characters.
'Little' would go straight into Chinese as would 'Lord'. But 'Fauntleroy' would be at least
three if not more characters long.
This is a round about way of telling you your answer is fascinating, but
To use the website I suggested, draw a character on the poad with your mouse. There
will be several suggestions below in Chinese. Click on the right one. It will appear in the
box to the left.
After you've done this for all three characters in the title of the book, copy and paste
them into Google Translate and see what you come up with.
You will have a big laugh!
Quizmaster General
*****
Corrections to my entry
Q1 The Little Prince by Antoine de Sainte-Exupery
Q2 There were two movies one in 1974 and one in 2005. Steven Warner played the
Little Prince in both pictures.
Using Google to translate the characters gave the two word title Little Prince. Made a
difference.
Arthur Hartwell
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| The Chinese Stroke Counter submitted by Margaret Paxton |
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| Milene's Alternate Way of Solving the Puzzle |
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| If you have a picture you'd like us to feature a picture in a future quiz, please email it to us at CFitzp@aol.com. If we use it, you will receive a free analysis of your picture. You will also receive a free 30 Best Photoquiz CD. |
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| If you enjoy our quizzes, don't forget to order our books! Click here. |
| Quiz #308 Results |
| Answers to Quiz #308 June 5, 2011 |
1. What is the English name of this classic book? 2. Who played the main character in the movie and in what year? |
| Idea for this quiz submitted by Quizmaster Emeritus Daniel E. Jolley. |
| Bonus: What is the English name of this well-known movie and who directed it? |
If you'd like to use a fun website that can help you translate Chinese into English, click here. |
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| Comments from Our Readers |
| Congratulations to Our Winners! Brett Payne Karen Petrus Margaret Paxton Patty Kiker Angel Esparza Nicole Blank Tish Olshefski Joshua Kreitzer Carol Farrant Nelsen Spickard Daniel E. Jolley Carol Blessing Carl Blessing Milene Rawlinson Margaret Waterman Arthur Hartwell James Waring Talea Jurrens Alan Lemm Ed Vielmetti Robert Edward McKenna |
| I found another website you might like which translates Chinese to English, www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html . I found the stroke-count feature very helpful. Margaret Paxton |
| Other Interesting Ways to Solve the Puzzle |
It looked like the chinese translated roughly to "small tiny insignificant king ruler royal
offspring child" hence the deduction.... Main character? The Prince -- Steve Warner.
But Bob Fosse and Gene Wilder were pretty doggone awesome **** Bonus movie
question: The Birds [???] as directed by Alfred Hitchcock??? This was a little harder
to tie down as a rudimentary Chinese character review suggested "bird, pigeon, collect,
assemble wild duck, teal". I didn't get around to using the Chinese-to-English website
you suggested -- wasn't in the mood for smart solutions, I guess....!!!
[Plan b, of course, would have been to go with the translator. but it required a
download and i wasn't in the mood to check out the download security.... guess I was
just being lazy...]
Searched thru a couple of Chinese alphabet posters for the appropriate characters/
letters/words. It gave me general meanings of the words, and the rest was logic/luck.
Like I said, not the easiest way in the world to do it, but I wasn't in a hurry and ended
up finding the right characters.
Chinese Proverb: You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your
head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair.
Karen Petrus
offspring child" hence the deduction.... Main character? The Prince -- Steve Warner.
But Bob Fosse and Gene Wilder were pretty doggone awesome **** Bonus movie
question: The Birds [???] as directed by Alfred Hitchcock??? This was a little harder
to tie down as a rudimentary Chinese character review suggested "bird, pigeon, collect,
assemble wild duck, teal". I didn't get around to using the Chinese-to-English website
you suggested -- wasn't in the mood for smart solutions, I guess....!!!
[Plan b, of course, would have been to go with the translator. but it required a
download and i wasn't in the mood to check out the download security.... guess I was
just being lazy...]
Searched thru a couple of Chinese alphabet posters for the appropriate characters/
letters/words. It gave me general meanings of the words, and the rest was logic/luck.
Like I said, not the easiest way in the world to do it, but I wasn't in a hurry and ended
up finding the right characters.
Chinese Proverb: You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your
head, but you can prevent their making a nest in your hair.
Karen Petrus
| Here I go, cheating again (I know, "There is no such thing as cheating" or some such comment). I asked a parishioner who speaks and reads Chinese what the characters say. From there on it was a breeze. The bonus question is interesting. The character, according to my friend, is Bird. I assume you are meaning the film "The Birds" directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I asked my friedn about whether the character is singular or plural. He said to make it plural another character is needed, either a specific number, or something to make it many birds, etc. I tried your website to translate Chinese but needed to update my java and ran out of time. Milene Rawlinson ***** Marvelous! You are right, there is no such thing as cheating. And you did good at getting around your java-old computer. The title of the movie is indeed "The Birds". But according to the website I took it from, the title in Chinese is only one character. Your friend also told you right - Chinese does not hve singular and plural nouns. Sing/plural is usually denoted by a separate particle apprearing with the noun. Same for singular and plural verbs. The particle incidentally depends on the shape of the thing denoted by the noun. So the particle to denote more than one chopstick is different from that used to denote more than one cup. Your friend of course is the expert and Chinese, like all other languages, has so many exceptions to each rule. He may tell you something a little different, but this is my rough understanding based on my own limited experience with the language. I think though that the people who advertise the movie in Chinese may have just used one character to make the name short, and perhaps more dramatic. -Quizmaster General |
Answers: 1. The Little Prince 2. Steven Warner played the title role in both the 1974 and 2005 movies. 3. Either "The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock or "Bird" by Clint Eastwood. (See discussion about Chinese singular and plural nouns below.) |
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| Chinese Translation Notepad |
| The hint points to the Chinese handwriting/mousewriting website at: www.purpleculture.net/chinese-handwriting-input/ |
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| For More Fun Try Guessing the Name of This Well Known American Product |
| The site allows you to use your mouse to sketch a character on the mousepad. The image shows the first of the characters of the quiz phrase. Several possible characters will appear below your sketch. Pick out the one that corresponds to the one you drew. Note that this character will appear in the large box to the left. |
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| Repeat this step for all three of the characters in the quiz phrase. Next, highlight the phrase in the box on the left and copy and paste it into Google translate. |
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| Click here for answer and to read an interesting story about how the English name was translated into Chinese. |
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| I know that I am Oh so late, to send you this note, Buy my son who is working in Taiwan, Just sent me this vote.... 1. The Little Prince 2. Steve Warner, 1974 3. The Birds.... My continuing love to the Quiz Master Robert Edward McKenna Quiz Poet Laureate ***** It's nice to hear from you! If only in passing. So you had the answer And were not really guessing. My undying love back I vow not to forget You are ever and always Quiz Poet Laureate! Colleen Fitzpatrick PhD Understudy to Quiz Poet Laureate Robert Edward McKenna |
| Special Note from the Quiz Poet Laureate Robert Edward McKenna |
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| Thanks for the link to the stroke counter. That turns out to be the most important thing when you use a hard copy Chinese Dictionary. The radicals (building blocks of more complex characters and combination phrases) are listed in the dictionary according to the number of strokes. A character composed of radicals will be listed under the primary radical, usually on the left or at the top of the composition. (I've spent many hours figuring this out. I read and speak Chienese to some extent. My writing is rudimentary, though.) That's interesting you came up with Bird. I was looking for The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. This provides some insight into the language. There are no singulars and plurals in thhe grammar. All verbs are the same - not conjugated. The number (singular or plural) is often implied by the context, or by particles (called collectives(?)) That are used with a noun and a number. These collectives usually depend on the shape of the noun, so a collective for a cup is different from the collective for chopsticks. There is no word for 'we'. 'We' is expressed as the word for I with a particle. Same thing for you (singular, plural) and they (he, they). There is no difference between 'he' and 'she' and sometimes they leave the pronoun out all together. The simplicity in grammar is made up for by a language depending on pictograms. You have to memorize them, as they have no phonetic value. Seems hard, but there are maybe 1B school children under the age of 10 who have figured out how to do it. Besides if you think about it, when we read in English, we really read shapes and not individual letters. That is probably more than you need to know... Quizmaster General ***** I'm glad you like the character dictionary. I tried the website you linked to, but I could not get my computer to cut and paste the idiograms, so I had to find something else. I've always been fascinated by China. My father was there at the end of World War II and was convinced that China was the beginning of all things. Fun puzzle! Margaret Paxton |
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| Chinese names for American movies can be found here. Little Lord Fauntleroy is given as Google translates this as: Go figure! (Using the "Pronouce Phonetically" gives "Xiǎo jué ye" (Shau che ye). The phrase does not sound anything like the English translation! |
Chinese is a very interesting language.
Very conceptual, based on pictograms.
Your answer is interesting because you
have the concept of the book's title but
not the right book.
Nouns in Chinese are expressed as single
pictograms or combinations thereof. So
the title could have up to three words
(and you are right it has three).
Each pictogram represents one syllable.
This brings up how western names are
handled. I once was in Tianjin, China
and decided to go to a movie one night. I
asked the hotel clerk to look in the local
paper and tell me what movies were
playing in the area.
The names were in Chinese, of course,
Very conceptual, based on pictograms.
Your answer is interesting because you
have the concept of the book's title but
not the right book.
Nouns in Chinese are expressed as single
pictograms or combinations thereof. So
the title could have up to three words
(and you are right it has three).
Each pictogram represents one syllable.
This brings up how western names are
handled. I once was in Tianjin, China
and decided to go to a movie one night. I
asked the hotel clerk to look in the local
paper and tell me what movies were
playing in the area.
The names were in Chinese, of course,
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