Things are nice and tidy when English and Chinese march hand in hand, offering an equivalent word for everything the other throws out. But that can’t always be the case. In the not-so-rare times when there’s simply no translation or the entire paradigm is different, we actually get a peek into how the brains of…
10 minas, 100 talents, 1000 shekels. When these quantities show up in our Bible reading, we typically don’t pay a second thought and simply glance over onto the “juicy bits”. Okay, maybe you have more curiosity than me, but it took me 20 years to start caring about what these numbers actually meant in terms…
Every once in a while, we may hear a Chinese prayer that says something along the lines of “孩子禱告” or “孩子在袮面前” which can confuse some people. Who are these 孩子? Whose 孩子 are they? On that note, is that how you write “孩”? (Sorry, happens when I stare at something for too long.) TL;DR, “孩子” means “I”, and “孩子們”…
The Gospel Books in the New Testament have no shortage of Jesus’s teachings. To all Christ’s followers, they are the treasure troves of knowledge and guidance on how to be more like Him. Among them, certain sayings stand out like bundles of powerful and succinct sermons. Beatitudes [bee-A-ti-tyoodz] 天國八福 {tian1-guo2-ba1-fu2} from Matthew 5:3-12 is one of them. The Chinese name makes…
Speaking of incongruency between languages, the one that deals the most unease for me comes from Genesis 2:9. There we are introduced to two significant trees: 生命樹 Tree of Life分別善惡樹 Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Do you see the disparity here? Tree of Life gets 3 syllables in both languages. The other tree (because I’m…
Continuing with the awkward wrinkles between English and Chinese, let’s talk about “life”. In Chinese, we have the word “生命” for “life”, which describes the essence or state of being alive. We also have the word “生活“, which describes the act of living, the days that we live, or sometimes the lifestyles we adopt. Regrettably,…
Have you ever encountered a word that you simply can’t translate into another language? My personal bane is the Chinese word, “撒娇”. I have poured hours of discussions and research into this word and still, for the life of me, can’t find a good match. Go ahead, give it a try. If you manage to…
Interpreting numbers can trip up an interpreter more often than you may think, and in more ways than you may imagine. So, let’s look a bit closer at those numbers. Small numbers are no-brainers. If you sit through Lessons 2 to 5 of any language class, that should cover them. Problem occurs when you get…
Ah… Chinese New Year. It always brings me back to the chilled dry air permeated with a gunpowder smell, walking down the streets of red, where everyone seemed to be your friend that day. Nothing excites a little boy more than lighting up firecrackers thicker than his arm, or waiting for minutes for those million-pop firecrackers…
We know the birth of Christ divides the Western calendar into two eras, BC and AD, 公元前/後. I had always assumed that such a defining moment would fall precisely in 1 BC or 1 AD. Interestingly, no. The time of Jesus’ birth, according to current archaeological study, fell somewhere between 4-6 BC. By the time…