Because English is a phonemic language: its alphabet represents sounds (sound-based) , which change over time as pronunciation evolves, leading to shifts in spelling and pronunciation. Chinese characters/Kanzi is a logographic (symbolic) language: its characters represent meanings (meaning-based) rather than sounds, so they remain more stable over time, even if pronunciations change...
@danielantony1882Ай бұрын
@@StephenYoung1379 Indeed so.
@kaiyuzheng7663Ай бұрын
@@StephenYoung1379 I am not sure this is necessarily true. Chinese characters usually have multiple meanings. It almost always retains the original meaning, but expands over time. Most Japanese usage (kanji) has similar equivalent in Chinese, but maybe rarely used nowadays or defunct or in a different context. For example, in the video the character 娘 means mom in northern China in conversational Chinese. The original meaning is young woman/girl, and is still used as such in 姑娘。It also has expanded meaning as in wife, e.g. 娘子. On the other hand, pronunciation of the Chinese characters is relatively stable if you consider dialects in southern China which has been less disturbed due to nomadic invasions. Hence, Japanese pronunciation of Kanji often don't sound that unfamiliar to a Chinese from the south. I have to add many Chinese explanations given in the video is pretty poor. It can be somewhat misleading.
@maggiemomo9259Ай бұрын
@@kaiyuzheng7663 For a casual video, it's ok. One thing to note as you may already know that written chinese in Classical chinese were largely unchanged over 2000 years, but how people spoke has changed especially regional difference. Northern dialects have significantly more numbers of compound words contributed into today's modern chinese. Since Kaiji in Japanese were adopted over a long period of time based on Classical Chinese, lots of meaning definitely varies.
As a Chinese, when I learned 手紙 means letter it's equally funny. I'd got this mental image of Japanese people writing letters on toilet paper 😂 I know it's not true but I can't help it.
麻將 is also written in 麻雀 as well, and actually 麻雀 is being used more commonly
@youness9302Ай бұрын
originally it is 麻雀 for sure,japanese keeps it。but Subsequent changes in Chinese word meanings, 雀 in the word 麻雀 sometimes it means the pines,so they change 麻雀 into 麻将。
some of japanese kanjis have different meaning is because they kept the meaning of ancient Chinese. So if you know some Chinese ancient poems or classics, you will find it much easier. For example, 颜色 in Chinese also means the Color of Face in this 9th century poem: 六宫粉黛无颜色。娘in China still keeps part of the meaning of daughter today in a word 姑娘。勉强also has the meaning of study if you know the meaning of 勉and 强。but all these meaning is difficult for a third country or Japanes people who do not learn Chinese classics. But they are much easier for Chinese people because everyone has to learn ancient Chinese classics or peoms at school.
@YummYakitoriАй бұрын
姑娘 usually just means a random young girl, not your daughter. 勉强 certainly doesn't have the meaning of study no matter how you put it. In Old Chinese classics it never carried the meaning of "study". 【子集下】【力部】 《唐韻》亡辨切《集韻》《韻會》《正韻》美辨切,𠀤音免。《說文》强也。从力,免聲。《廣韻》勖也,勸也。《增韻》勤也。《禮·表記》使民有所勸勉,愧恥以行其言。 又通作免。《前漢·薛宣傳》宣因移書勞免之。 又《谷永傳》閔免遁樂。《註》師古曰:閔免,猶黽勉也。
@freemanc6258Ай бұрын
天要下雨,娘要嫁人@@YummYakitori
@AkumaShinigamiАй бұрын
@@freemanc6258 but even here, 娘 refers to mother. Specifically a widow who wants to remarry
In fact, there are many Japanese quotations in Chinese, such as logic.Philosophy and police all originated in Japan.
@chao_oАй бұрын
感觉日本很多文字我都不用翻译,都看得懂。😂
@TrolllliumАй бұрын
As a Japan-born Chinese person who's living the US right now (trilingual) that was soooooo funny hahahaha 爆笑しましたwww
@cherrycandy18562 ай бұрын
Nakaka intelesado na itong video na ito sa lahat, dahil may aral ng iba pang mundo na ibat-ibang languahe , kaya ang tao na may intelesado dito.
@valyxevanylla2 ай бұрын
Here are some interesting differences during learning Japanese: 「結構」 日本語:Pretty much 中国語:Structure(構造) 「写真」 日本語:Photograph 中国語:High-quality portraits of Idol/celebrity(アイドル・有名人の高品質肖像写真) 「人間」 日本語:Human 中国語:Human world(人間の世界) 「大丈夫」 日本語:It's okay 中国語:Manly man(男らしい男) 「先輩」 日本語:Senior 中国語:Senior from long time ago(先人) 「是非」 日本語:By all means 中国語:Dispute(論争) 「情報」 日本語:Information 中国語:Intelligence(諜報) 「迷惑」 日本語:Nuisance 中国語:Confuse(困惑) 「靴」 日本語:Shoes 中国語:Boots(ブーツ) 「走」 日本語:Run 中国語:Walk(歩く)
@YummYakitoriАй бұрын
In some southern Chinese dialects today the word 走 does still mean run. It was the original Chinese meaning of the word; and 行 is the word for walk.
Hi, I'm Chinese and I think this video is very interesting, particularly that you got a Malaysian guy as the Chinese speaker, but he probably understands some words differently than I would, for example I would explain 勉強 to be an adverb "barely", as in 勉強合格 "barely passed" (an exam or something). Also small correction: the pinyin for 老婆 is "laopo" not "laofo"
@nanaholic01Ай бұрын
勉強 has both meanings so you are both correct. eg 不要勉強 is “don’t force it” which is the one they are talking about in the video.
勉強 is more on reluctantly. Barely passed is like "Oh you almost didn't made it, anyways congratulation!", but 勉強合格 sort of like "actually u shouldn't made it, but we let you through..." kind of...
@catharinemiyabi32422 ай бұрын
老师=先生やから、老は何となく尊敬する相手に使うんかなあって分かるけど 婆は解釈一致ムズいなあ
@さくさく-o1y2 ай бұрын
面白かったです。節句やお正月などの伝統行事の違いも聞いてみたいです。
@JamesHui522Ай бұрын
"勉强" have multiple meanings depending on context. The meaning of "forcing someone to do something" is quite a rare use case. The more commonly seen meaning is to describe that you can "barely" achieve something, but emphasizes that you can actually do it if you try hard enough. For example: "我勉强可以举得动100公斤的哑铃” means "I can barely lift a 100kg dumbbell." So I think this is why Japanese turned that into studying.
Japanese is actualy very easy for Chinese speakers. Those kanji, although their meaning are totally diffrent, but if u split in to individual charactors, you can figure the whole meaning like 80-90% for a Chinese speaker. But still there are tricky one such as 「勉強」勉 means working out of capacity or putting in a hard work, 強 means hard or strong, put together its no way near "learning", also 「無料」無 means none or not included,料 means ingredients, for Chinese speaker, the 料 can hardly be connect to 料金 in Japanese. I read some books from Japan, even without knowning some of the kanji words in Japanese, just by how its posisioned in a sentence and knowning the Chinese meaning of it, I had very less occasion that I have to open a dictionary.
@realinneАй бұрын
i don't really leave comments but it's surprising and nice to see Byron there 🥺 been following his channel ages ago but then i guess he stopped updating after moving? Then algorithm brought me back bc I'm learning Japanese these days lol
15:16 Interesting. In Thailand I remembered that Mahjong always translated to Thai words that means "Sparrow Card" (or sparrow gambling game). But the first time I heard of it is not from Japanese show but the Hong Kong movies instead. You should know those famous gambler Hong Kong movies. Does that means Hong Kong was using the same character as Japanese back then?
@MiguoziАй бұрын
Because it is just sparrow. Literally all Chinese use 麻雀 (like Hokkien, Cantonese or Hakka) except Mandarin.
@danielzhang1916Ай бұрын
@@Miguozi that is a southern term, maybe because of the bird tiles, no one says that in the north, it's always just mahjong
@killeryuan08Ай бұрын
Some Japanese kanji have ancient Chinese meanings when modern Chinese people doesn't use it very often. Like "可憐", Chinese people would use an old saying "楚楚可憐" to describe "adorable" or "must be protect".
@zebanglvАй бұрын
If you wish to be everyone's best friend, start by reducing prejudice and prejudice against those around you.
@album_mАй бұрын
Actually a lot of them have multiple meanings in modern Chinese. Kanji or we can say Chinese character were spreaded to Japan very long ago so actually some old meanings of kanji are still the prime meaning in Japanese but already not in Chinese, which means these old meanings still exist in modern Chinese but only take place in specific context like written context or old style context. Some words mentioned in the video are combined with 2 kanji or muti kanji, it's more like Japanese still adopts meaning by each kanji which is the old way in Chinese, but in modern these are regarded as one word of kanji compound and this term of word formation was spreaded from Japan in modern times. So thats just mutual influence
I was just as confused as you were as Chinese finding out that they actually mean something completely different in Japanese😅. Let me say this episode is quite 面白 😂
@bunkaku13682 ай бұрын
ポールぅ!!(ファンです) 見てたら突如挟まれた絶チルが懐かしすぎて横転
@WSNofHillLaoheАй бұрын
To trace how hanzi/kanji words evolve through time is always facinating to me. We still use some loan kanji words from industrialized Meiji Japan.
@danielzhang1916Ай бұрын
interesting how Japanese never updated the meaning like Chinese today
@PeterLiuIsBeast2 ай бұрын
I think a few things are inaccurate. 娘 on its own means mother but in compounds it still has the mean of girl such as in 姑娘。 The term 老婆 can still be literally taken as old and "old lady" so we have terms such as 婆婆 for grandma/mother-in-law (depends on dialect) or a term like 巫婆 for a witch (巫 means something like shaman or witch so literally something like shaman lady). 颜色 does mean color but the word 色 on its own also means color its just than it also can be used to describe that something is "colorful" hence a bit 18+. And 结束 in both languages is a concept of tying together so in literary Chinese it could be used to signal packing things up so hence it is now used in modern times as ending. Japanese must have used the concept to exemplify the packing idea and extended its meaning to mean union or something.
@nanaholic01Ай бұрын
老婆 is strictly taken as slang for wife only. if you want literally “old lady” you would say “老婆婆” instead.
The term 老婆 was actually originated from HK Cantonese and spread to Mandarin speakers through HK movies which became popular in China in 80s/90s. Previously Chinese referred their wife as 愛人.
@danielzhang1916Ай бұрын
that's not true, my parents and grandparents never used 愛人, I have never heard anyone say that
@valyxevanylla2 ай бұрын
Fun fact that Cantonese shares the same meaning of 麻雀 with Japanese, but it's also means すずめ。
Interesting, it seems that in different regions, Chinese has different ways of expression. In mainland China, "爱人" basically only means "spouse." The term "study / learning" is more commonly understood as "学习", while "读书" literally means "reading books" or refers to the act of reading a specific book.
@张蛋疼Ай бұрын
In Classical Chinese, "可怜" (kělián) conveyed both the meanings of "pitiable" and "adorable." However, over time, the meaning of "adorable" gradually fell out of use. Interestingly, the term may have undergone an opposite development in Japanese.
@张蛋疼Ай бұрын
The expression "看病" (watch illness), meaning "to see a doctor," likely originates from a simplified and fixed phrase. The original expression might have been something like "我要找医生看看我得了什么病" (I need to find a doctor to seek what illness I have).
@张蛋疼Ай бұрын
The term “邪魔” (xié mó) is typically used in the fixed phrase “邪魔外道” (xié mó wài dào), meaning "heretical and demonic ways." If one wants to specifically express the idea of a demon, it is more appropriate to use terms like “恶魔” (è mó), “魔鬼” (mó guǐ), or “鬼怪” (guǐ guài).
@张蛋疼Ай бұрын
we don't use the term "无料" (wú liào) to describe whether someone has talent or ability. Instead, we say “没有料” (méi yǒu liào) or “有料” (yǒu liào). While the literal meaning is the same, "无料" is not commonly used in this context.
勉强 in Chinese doesn't mean exactly "being forced to do something". It has a perfect direct English translation in fact: reluctantly...
@Kurionef.t-fb3iw2 ай бұрын
シャンプーちゃんが乱馬くんに対して「我的愛人(ウォーダアイレン)」って言ってたもんな〜。
@ggf925Ай бұрын
“老” is sometimes a meaningless prefix in Chinese, such as 老婆(wife, 婆also referring to female), 老师(teacher, same meaning as 师),老虎(tiger, same meaning as虎). This prefix makes monosyllable to disyllable, which is more easy to understand in conversation.
勉強 actually has a double meaning in chinese, "asking people to do something they are not willing to, but not forcing." ie: your friend wants to go to a place where you don't wanna go, you don't have to go, but since he/she is your friend, you go unwillingly. the second meaning of "勉強" is just passed or just qualified. ie: i passed my driving test, but just. Or, i was so close to fail my exam but I manage to get a just pass.
0:04 I can explain how the Japanese got “mom” and “daughter” wrong when they began to adopting the Chinese language into the Japanese language, from a Chinese perspective. 「 娘/ 娘亲」 individually meant mother, that is correct, but if we add another Chinese character to that, we can get daughter, and that is 「 姑娘/guniang 」, which means for “miss” and “daughter” as well. So, perhaps when the Japanese back in the days started to learn the Chinese language and then adopted it into theirs, they probably didn’t do it well enough to differentiate or fully comprehend ( my guess)😂 the rest of the characters seems to be in a very similar situation, and there is also a chance where the Japanese only adopted the sounding part of the words ( which is that there is also a possibility that they learned from other local dialects in China.) that’s also my theory.
@supingwang4449Ай бұрын
you are right, 姑娘=女儿,娘亲=母亲,娘子=妻子,娘娘=尊贵的女性称呼,娘在古代汉语不是母亲的含义,是代表了女性,和别的词组成代表不同的女性身份
@danielzhang1916Ай бұрын
it seems like Japanese never updated the meaning, so it leads to a lot of confusion, or they changed it to mean something totally different