A Question for Those Fluent in Chinese

[Jean-Francois]

Oh, it happens all the time. In Hong Kong, a lot of Chinese would use Engeslesh to replace that particular word. But if the person is bad in Engeslesh, then in most situtations another word with the same meaning or sound will be applied. For example, if I forgot how to write prostitute (妓) in Chinese, I would use the word chicken (雞) instead. How can a hooker be related to a chicken?

Well, there are two school of thoughts, as usual ...
For Mandarin-speaking people, the words prostitute and chicken have the same pronounciation (or very similar ???).

For Cantonese people, it is more about the common characteristic of the meanings between 妓 and 雞. According to some Hong Kong guys, prostitutes in general sound like a chicken when they are working ... Cuck! Cuck! Cuck! Cuck! Cuck! Yeah ... something like that ...

Is there more pressure to learn all the kanji ?

Well ... different folks, different strokes. Some Chinese actually think it is fun to learn as many kanji as possibe.

For us, it is not that hard. We have our own traditional memorizing method.
For example, the word 醋 itself is combined by two different kanji, left and right. Anyway, 醋 means vinegar, but it also has the connotation as "jealousy," probably due to the sourness in vinegar.

Okay, in a love reationship, the applying of a proper amount of vinegar 醋 can create the effect of acohol 酒 , making your singnificant other feel important and get high and dizzy. However, if a lover has overdosed the vinegar 醋, it can lead to a big mistake which is 錯 in Chinese.

Again, vinegar 醋 itself is combined by two kanji, and its use can go different ways, left 酒 or right 錯.

[Glenn]

Oh, it happens all the time. In Hong Kong, a lot of Chinese would use Engeslesh to replace that particular word. But if the person is bad in Engeslesh, then in most situtations another word with the same meaning or sound will be applied. For example, if I forgot how to write prostitute (妓) in Chinese, I would use the word chicken (雞) instead. How can a hooker be related to a chicken?

Well, there are two school of thoughts, as usual ...
For Mandarin-speaking people, the words prostitute and chicken have the same pronounciation (or very similar ???).

For Cantonese people, it is more about the common characteristic of the meanings between 妓 and 雞. According to some Hong Kong guys, prostitutes in general sound like a chicken when they are working ... Cuck! Cuck! Cuck! Cuck! Cuck! Yeah ... something like that ...

Heh, now that's pretty interesting. That's something that us westerners don't have to face, although we end up with a lot of misspelled words. Either way it's not such a good thing.

[Dream Time]

if I don't know a word in Chinese,then I will use English

For example, if I forgot how to write prostitute (ﾂｧﾂｲ) in Chinese, I would use the word chicken (ﾂｻ) instead. How can a hooker be related to a chicken?

also

the word chicken (ﾂｻ) is for female prostitutes
the world for male prositutes,is duck (魘ｨ)
however,I would prefer to call them 'prostitutes'