Posted on 01/18/2006 12:22:09 PM PST by Dr. Marten
All Things Considered, January 11, 2006 · Robert Siegel talks with Tian Tang, author of a Web site dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture. Tang posts photos of Chinese character tattoos that either contain errors or carry no meaning.
Tang says as a Chinese American, he felt it was his "duty and honor to educate the public about the misusage of Chinese characters."
A reader e-mailed Tang this photo of a friend's tattoo. It's supposed to read "bad boy" in Chinese, except the order of last two characters has been reversed. Courtesy Tian Tang
This is absolutely hilarious. The dumbutt kid gets stuff tatooed on his arm in a language he can neither speak nor read.
In reality, the real meaning of the tatoo comes pretty close, IMO.
What's Chinese for "Engrish?"
Dunno. It's too late in my life to learn Chinese, so I'll skip it. I have a few phrases in Hmong, since I have Hmong neigbors and I like to say polite things to the old grandmother who putters in her garden.
My favorite tatoos are the tramp stamps I see everywhere I go on the pretty young things. I don't care about the tatoo, but I love seeing their sacral dimples. They make me feel all nice in my britches.
This is link is to a funny video from a SNL skit about lower back tattoos...
http://www.drtattoff.com/tattoo-skit.php
HA-HA-HA. You made me laugh. You D.O.M. (dirty ol'man).
And just how much of a chance would he have stood with "Love, Honor and Obey" on his arm, instead? ;)
"You D.O.M. (dirty ol'man)."
Indeed. At my age, I've earned it.
So many of these tattooed clowns can't spell in English so what difference is it if they can't spell in Chinese? If they want to go around sporting a tattoo that says "I am a prune Danish", that's their business.
the new order translates to idiot !
I had fun with a young lady awhile back. She had a Chinese script tattoo on her arm. Several of us were at the bar reminiscing about our time in various Asian countries when we noticed it. She had also been listening in to our conversation.
We started laughing and talking about the tattoo – I wondered if she could read Chinese. You know how several people can get the same idea at the same time? When she came over we asked if she knew what the tattoo read – before she could answer someone told her it meant “cheap whore”. She left the bar in a hurry.
I wonder if she had it removed. None of us could read Chinese.
I know some Japanese due to my martial arts training. I saw a girl walk past me at a basketball game at UNC Charlotte a couple months ago with a Japanese symbol on the back of her right shoulder. I asked her what it meant. She said it meant "sexy".
I saved my laughter until she got out of earshot. She probably still doesn't know that she has the equivalent of "swine" or "dirty pig" written on her back. Tattoo guy obviously got tired of writing lies on fat white chicks and decided to have some fun :-)
Beat me to it. (The adamsheik page)
Almost as funny as Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" - literal translation "I'm a jelly donut!"
Ah, but the press was kinder then.
We're talking cream of the crop, here, intellectually speaking...
Yeah, he meant to say "My brother's a jelly donut"
That's hirrarious!
The following is from an email I received out lining 'new rules' for 06..
New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your azz. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.
LOL!
In Pinyin "English" would be written as: Yingguowen and pronounced more like Yin-gow-wen, which roughly translates to Hero Land Talk. So if you want an equivalent to "Engrish" try "Yingruowen".
jas3
p.s. America is Meiguo aka "Pretty Land", and France is Faguo...draw your own conclusions on France.....it certainly is easy to remember.
You, my friend are incorrect...and have swallowed hook, line and sinker an urban legend. The President said it correctly.
I read a story on a site dedicated to people who mess with Nigerian scammers and such, about a guy who teased a female co-worker about this very thing. He even quickly photoshopped a Chinese take-out menu to include a character that closely resembled hers to show her. He claims to have totally distressed the girl but later apologized.
Actually, I'm thinking about taking a local Chinese class. One of my close friends is Chinese and I'd love to be able to talk--what little I could learn in my old age--with her. But I think I'll leave tattooing to others. And art I never did understand.
I convinced a guy one time that the Chinese word for "chicken" (ji) is the same word for "cat".
LOL! And if you follow the line of sight of the camera, you'll end up at the right back ah chew....
Sorry darlin' - I speak it and although it's one of those niggly thangs, he did blow the personal emphasis. "ein" would have been fine in reference to a country, but not to a city.
No matter, they cheered and did not chuckle. Just be glad he didn't get a tattoo ;)
She smiled and said, 'Sure thing! This one on top means 'pretty' and the one below it means 'girl'. I nodded, with a blank look on my face. As soon as she departed, I turned to the guy on my left and said, "I didn't have the heart to tell her, but she got screwed by whoever did her tattoo. Her tattoo didn't say 'pretty girl'. It said 'ancient horse'."
You, my friend are incorrect...and have swallowed hook, line and sinker an urban legend. The President said it correctly
From what I understand, everywhere else in Germany a berliner IS a jelly donut. So while he may have been correct in Berlin the rest of the country heard "I am a jelly donut"
(But then I could be wrong. It's happend before. I think)
You've right. It's roughly the equivalent of saying "I'm a Hamburger" rather than "I'm of Hamburg".
I go back under the needle on Sat to get bolding and shading done on my new one.
Yep, I have a character display on my site that links to them.
It is a pretty neat site.
I saw a woman in the US with the name:
"Piao Ke"
(I.e. A John, someone that visits prostitutes) :-)
I saw one that said "A John", i.e. someone that visits prostitutes ("Piao Ke") on a woman no less :) She asked me what it meant, and I told her and she turned white. She thought I was joking -- I was at a Chinese restaurant, so i just asked someone else to tell her, same thing. Poor girl.
Actually the whole name is not "pretty country". it's America, The "Me" sound translated to that character. It's a short name for something that would have required 4 Chinese characters to translate.
One Chinese American tatooist got into major trouble for doing just this in Texas last year (he got sent to prison because it is actually FRAUD to give to customer something they didn't want :-))
He'd put on the skin:
"Dumbass Laowai"
"Cheap whore"
"Pig"
"Faggot"
"Fat pig"
He used the article (ein); if he had said "Ich bin Berliner," it would have been correct. However, everybody knew perfectly well what he meant, and Germans (particularly Berliners) loved it, error and all.
Meiguo is a short pronounciation for America ("me" in america in English pronounciation = Mei in Chinese). It's actually Ah- Mei- Li - Ka in the official name. If you were to translated United States of America, that's what it'd be. But for short, they used Meiguo because it does have the "beautiful" meaning, but it's based on pronounciation of America. In other words, it's a short name for USA.
Wearing an insult for life on your skin
Priceless!
Also, France is "Fa-guo" (Phonetic). It doesnt' mean LAWFUL country (the word for Fa means law, but it's a phonetic translation).
England, same thing. It doesnt' mean "heroic country". It's just the phonetic translation for "Eng".
Germany is "De Guo", in otherwords, it is not a "moral" country as the translation shows. It's because DEUTCHLAND is the name. DEU roughly translates to Deguo.
Spain - (Si Ban Ya) Phonetic based.
I am not sure if any country in Chinese translation would not be phonetic based.
Canada - "Ja na da" No real meaning here.
In other words, they're all phonetic based.
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