CHIN141 Chinatown project by Yi-Chia Chien

The second character from left is "为" in "因为," but it's traditional version of the character.

yc100 — 2018-10-14 20:25:34 UTC

This mall has a unique Chinese style decoration.

yc100 — 2018-10-14 20:26:08 UTC

The Chinese characters mean "Chóngqìng restaurant" but the English translation is "Chef Liu." Chóngqìng is famous for Sichuan cuisine.

yc100 — 2018-10-19 18:46:50 UTC

The Chinese characters “甜白菜” in the sign have the pinyin "tián báicài," which is very interesting because the "báicài" sounds very similar to its English translation of "bokchoy."

awh41 — 2018-10-22 03:01:18 UTC

This sign for coconut soda calls it "可可蘇打," (which has "可" from "可是" and "打" from "打球"); at first, the translation doesn't seem to make any sense, but its pinyin is actually "kěkě sūdǎ," which sounds very similar to Coco Soda, its English name.

awh41 — 2018-10-22 03:08:37 UTC

The use of Chinese calligraphy in the characters "功夫茶" in this mural at Kung Fu Tea is a very interesting and effective font choice because the combination of the calligraphy and the phrase kung fu ("功夫") gives off a unique sense of authenticity and tradition.

awh41 — 2018-10-22 03:21:00 UTC

jnh5 — 2018-10-25 16:39:13 UTC

This is a sign for Korean Yam New crop, or Korean sweet potato (it is in traditional characters)

jnh5 — 2018-10-25 16:39:46 UTC

This is 北京酸奶, or Běi jīng suān nǎi; Beijing style yogurt, but it is advertised as chinese style plain yogurt.

jnh5 — 2018-10-25 16:40:19 UTC

This is a hiring sign for a teashop advertising that you must be fluent in both English and Chinese: 中英文流利者佳.

mcw10 — 2018-10-29 01:47:19 UTC

This sign is interesting because for the days of the week, it uses “周”("zhōu") instead of “星期” ("xīngqī"), like we learned in class. Also, instead of “天” ("tiān"), the sign uses “日”("rì" ) for Sunday.

mcw10 — 2018-10-29 01:52:37 UTC

The translation for ”中”("zhōng") that we learned in class is "middle", but here it is used to mean the similar term "medium."

mcw10 — 2018-10-29 01:54:48 UTC

It is interesting that this noodle brand uses the traditional, not the simplified, characters for “妈妈”("māma"). I also thought it was interesting that the brand name translated to English is "mother".

Street sign

rjg12 — 2018-10-31 17:57:06 UTC

Many of the streets in Chinatown also have Chinese signs. I found this one interesting because it used the number associated with the freeway (八) rather than transliterating the name.

Mee Ho Bakery

rjg12 — 2018-10-31 17:58:52 UTC

I knew the characters on this sign - mei hao - but I found the English version interesting. Maybe this is a transliteration of the Cantonese?

MSG

rjg12 — 2018-10-31 18:00:49 UTC

This bag of MSG has four languages on it! Chinese, Vietnamese, English, and Arabic.

Teriyaki Marinade

mmn10 — 2018-11-02 22:55:36 UTC

I recognized the first character from "照片" and was confused as to why a character I associated with light would be on a package for marinade. However, it makes sense because the sauce is glossy and reflects light.

SODA ice bar

mmn10 — 2018-11-02 23:05:13 UTC

With Google Translate's help, I was able to figure out that this was a phonetic spelling for "cooling soda." Maybe the character 打 isn't just used because it sounds the same as "da" in "soda" but because the flavor "hits" your tastebuds?

Biscoff Cookies

mmn10 — 2018-11-02 23:16:19 UTC

I thought that it was interesting that there wasn't a phonetic translation for this, but rather its function was used as its Chinese translation: coffee biscuits.

Usage of Characters

jsh71 — 2018-11-03 23:02:34 UTC

The same character can be combined with numerous other characters to produce various meanings that are not necessarily similar. We have learned the first two characters of this restaurant's Chinese name in the context of dates and times: 星 from 星期 and 明 from 明天. However, the name of this restaurant has nothing to do with weeks and tomorrow. When 明 and 星 are combined, the meaning, bright star, is not related to times and dates at all.

Different Character Styles

jsh71 — 2018-11-03 23:18:11 UTC

As seen in the sign below, there appears to be two major styles of Chinese characters. One is a calligraphic style in which the characters resemble artistic paintings. In this style, which is seen in the top half of the sign below, character strokes are often blended together and written in such a way that they seem to be painted. For people such as myself who have very little experiencing reading Chinese characters, it can be difficult trying to identify characters that are written in this style because it is not easy to see the individual components that comprise a character. The second style, which is seen in the bottom half of the sign below is the style of Chinese characters that seems to be produced by a computer. All of the individual strokes are very clearly written, and the shapes of characters' individual components are more standard and conventional. For me, it is easier to identify characters that are written in this style because it is much easier to recognize the individual components of characters, and this is the style of characters that is used in class.

Inconsistent Translations

jsh71 — 2018-11-03 23:53:10 UTC

Throughout Chinatown, there are numerous examples of Chinese restaurants and businesses that have chosen English names that are not actual translations of their Chinese names. The English names seem to be words and phrases that people who speak English can easily pronounce and remember, not necessarily words and phrases that are related to the business. However, in the case of Wells Fargo, an American company has done the same thing. Wells Fargo is a well known American company, and this particular Wells Fargo branch has a Chinese translation in order to fit in with the local community. The translation, however, is not a phonetic translation of Wells and Fargo as one would expect because Wells and Fargo are last names. Wells Fargo is translated to 富国银行, which literally means wealthy country bank. I noticed that three other banks all have Chinese names that consist of two characters followed by 银行, so this translation might not actually be too unusual, but I think it is interesting that like many Chinese businesses, some American companies have names in other languages that are not directly related to their names in their native languages.

Longer in Chinese

yc106 — 2018-11-04 01:04:33 UTC

The picture taken in the restroom of H-mart was interesting because compared to what is written in English, Chinese seems to be longer.

sea food restaurant sign

yc106 — 2018-11-04 01:09:51 UTC

My Chinese friend recognized the sign was written in traditional characters, and I wondered if the signs are usually in traditional characters.

newspaper vending machine

yc106 — 2018-11-04 01:12:17 UTC

The newspaper in the vending machine has the picture of President Trump as front cover but all the news was in Chinese

Chopstick wrapper

apb4 — 2018-11-04 04:02:23 UTC

I admit: I have absolutely no idea what these characters mean, nor could the friend who was with me (who speaks Chinese fluently but doesn't read much of it) recognize the characters. However, these demonstrate nicely the level of artistry and style that can go into characters.

Fish!

apb4 — 2018-11-04 04:14:32 UTC

This character outside of H-Mart apparently means "fish," but that isn't really what I expected even though this picture makes that meaning seem very obvious. In my defense, none of the other symbols had characters related to them anywhere on the wall.

Phone Fixer

apb4 — 2018-11-04 04:24:37 UTC

The sign on this cellphone repair center has what I consider an interesting stylistic choice that reminds me of T-Mobile even though I can't find evidence of any T-Mobile signs looking like that.

Matcha

southpawac — 2018-11-04 05:09:57 UTC

This is matcha flavored Pocky. The Chinese for “matcha” is 抹茶 (Mǒchá). Matcha is just the anglicized pronunciation of Mǒchá.

Jasmine Tea

southpawac — 2018-11-04 05:10:42 UTC

When I first saw this jasmine tea (茉莉清茶), I saw the 音为 and I was confused. I knew 因为 is “because” but they were using 音 from 音乐. I thought it was a play on words, but it turns out 音为 means tone. The direct translation of this seems to be something like “The tone of this jasmine tea is a gift”. Still, I was confused why they were referring to the tone of the jasmine tea instead of the taste and why there were musical notes in the background.

Po Sum On

southpawac — 2018-11-04 05:11:21 UTC

After translating the Chinese name of this (保心安) I realized that the pinyin for the Chinese name wasn’t Po Sum On. I thought that Po Sum On was a mispronunciation of “pour some on” since it is a medical oil. After looking further, I found that this is a Hong Kong product and Po Sum On is Cantonese. 保心安 is just the Mandarin translation of the actual product name.

Soul Inn Reflexology

brianking387 — 2018-11-04 21:16:47 UTC

The name of this massage spa in English is "Soul Inn Reflexology". In Chinese, the name (知足常乐) is a bit of a play on words. On the one hand, it means something like "Happiness consists in contentment", but it can also refer to how if you take care of your feet you will be happy. I really like that the English name can play off this as well (Soul/Sole).

Banks

brianking387 — 2018-11-04 21:23:27 UTC

As somebody else also pointed out, the Chinese names of banks often have nothing to do with their English counterpart. Here, East West Bank is 华美银行, which is literally "Gorgeous Bank". Fun fact: this bank was actually originally founded to serve the Chinese-American community in Los Angeles.

Bellaire Blvd

brianking387 — 2018-11-04 21:28:34 UTC

Bellaire Boulevard is one of the main avenues of Chinatown here in Houston. The Chinese name (百利大道) consists of two parts: 大道 simply refers to an avenue, and 百利 comes from the sound of Bellaire. Literally, though, the first two characters mean "hundred profit", which I think is an interesting tidbit.

Police Department

gjg3 — 2018-11-04 22:55:57 UTC

The english translation says Houston Police Department, but the characters read 中國城警察局, which literally translates to Chinatown Police Department. It's interesting how they decided it to label it as the Houston Police Department when Chinatown Police Department is not only more accurate, but also Chinatown as a word originated in the United States. Also, it is highly interesting to see that it is written in Traditional, and not Simplified Characters.

Sign in Restaurant

gjg3 — 2018-11-04 23:13:34 UTC

This sign roughly translates to: Newly Introducing, Sweet-sour plum juice. The translation is not what I find interesting, but what is and isn't including. The Chinese includes slightly more details about the drink, but does NOT include important information about pricing etc. Meanwhile, it is only in English that cost is covered, as well as additional practical information. So this is a scenario where knowing Chinese is far from sufficient.

Shipping Sign

gjg3 — 2018-11-05 01:08:20 UTC

I'm not 100% sure what this sign is supposed to be for. It says 百泰旅游 which directly translates as 100/numerous safe tourism. Similar to other examples listed here, this is one where they use a lot of interesting adjectives to describe the business. Numbers are often used to emphasize how extreme an adjective is, and I believe it is the same in this case here. This kind of naming convention is extremely uncommon in English naming.

Supermarket Logo

hrb4 — 2018-11-05 02:41:10 UTC

I found it interesting to see an example of a Chinese logo involving Chinese script – it appears that a J was intentionally worked into the characters in the logo for Jusgo Supermarkets. As someone whose brain is normalized to the Roman alphabet, this logo, although not overly creative, was cool to me.

Peanut Bag

hrb4 — 2018-11-05 02:42:33 UTC

I found this advertising to be particularly noteworthy as the character portrayed on the packaging is wielding an assault rifle. Of course, a public relations decision like this in the United States would destroy a company. However, apparently that is not the case in China.

Dried Plum Products

hrb4 — 2018-11-05 02:43:21 UTC

I thought it was interesting how all the packages are labeled “dried plum” in English, but their individual flavorings are written in Chinese. To an American consumer, it is impossible to determine what flavor each dried plum product is.

Tea Shop

zcc3 — 2018-11-05 03:11:59 UTC

Walking around, I spotted this tea shop and I thought the logo was nice. The characters translate to 清茶 means tea and 达人 means talent or talented person. I thought the characters would almost directly translate to "Tea For U/You." So, the English name and the Chinese name/description doesn't really match up. Also, knowing that 四 sounds like death may also be relevant to why the number four wasn't used in the English name.

King Flavor

zcc3 — 2018-11-05 04:15:38 UTC

I thought the sign was very eye-catching. The character's translate to "delicious favor" which if directly translated would probably be an awkward name for a restaurant in English, so I understand why they used a name that to emphasize deliciousness.

Dental Office

sj43 — 2018-11-05 04:18:46 UTC

中兴(zhōngxīng) 牙科(yákē)is a dental office. At first, I thought zhongxing was a person's name, but found out that zhongxing meant to rebuild and re-prosper. It is indeed a good name for a dental office.

Tofu village

sj43 — 2018-11-05 04:23:53 UTC

豆腐村 (dòufu cūn) is a Korean restaurant located in Chinatown. It has a name the name doufu cun, which sounds almost identical to Korean pronunciation of tofu village.

Bank

sj43 — 2018-11-05 04:26:38 UTC

American First National Bank is translated to 美国第一国家银行. However, its Chinese name is 恆豐銀行 héngfēng yínxíng . When I used translator to translate the name, the result was "Bank of Nova Scotia", which was very interesting because Scotia Bank is in Canada.

New York Life

jjk7 — 2018-11-05 04:27:05 UTC

This sign peaked my interest because it is a very simple and direct translation of the American company "New York Life". This differs from some of the other signs I observed in Chinatown where the translation was not quite as straightforward.

Supermarket

jjk7 — 2018-11-05 04:29:47 UTC

This sign caught my eye because of the "big" and "central" characters that appear in the Chinese name of the store, neither of which appear in the English translation of the store's name.

First Central Dental

jjk7 — 2018-11-05 04:36:16 UTC

The "First Central Dental" sign is another example of straightforward translation, as we can see the "middle" character along with two characters typically associated with dental work

Gao's Kabob

zcc3 — 2018-11-05 04:37:14 UTC

This restaurant's sign was really cool and I could read two of the character's so that's a win in my book. The other two characters "烧烤" means barbecue. The word kabob probably doesn't have a Chinese translation.

Street Sign at the corner of Clarewood Drive and Corporate Drive

msh16 — 2018-11-05 05:30:08 UTC

Unfortunately I didn't get the best picture of this street sign, but the top sign, which says "企業路," translates to "Corporate Road," which makes sense considering the road's English name is "Corporate Drive." However, the lower sign, which says "武德街," does not directly translate to "Clarewood Drive," but instead to "wǔdé street." I find it more likely that the Chinese name is attempting to mimic the sound of "wood" in "Clarewood," as more direct translations like "valiant morals" or "military morals" doesn't make as much sense in this context.

Dragon Fruit

ac107 — 2018-11-05 05:42:05 UTC

Dragon Fruit was an item that caught my eye because it had a special offer and was a hot buy. The characters "火龍果" break down to "fire dragon fruit". I find it odd how the Chinese version includes "fire" but the english version isn't "fire dragon fruit". Also the dragon character is traditional instead of simplified which threw me off.

Odd Sign

msh16 — 2018-11-05 05:43:50 UTC

I've been trying to figure out this sign since I've gotten back from Chinatown... The sign corresponds to the restaurant just inside to the left, as the same five characters appear on the door into the restaurant (not shown). Google Translate says "何處覓小館" means "Where is the small hall?" which doesn't seem to make much sense. I find it strange that a restaurant would be named with a question. Perhaps it means something similar to "Where one seeks a small establishment," but it's a bit of a mystery to me.

Reflexology

jms29 — 2018-11-05 05:46:18 UTC

The bubble characters were unexpected. I thought they looked interesting though I wonder if that would make them hard to read. The last character seems to not have enough room so there is some overlap with the strokes. Also please let me know if you can't view the image: I can only view it when I click on it.

Brightmed Pharmacy

msh16 — 2018-11-05 06:05:41 UTC

This sign immediately caught my attention because I recognized "康" from my Chinese name, "宋维康." I know that 维康 means "stay healthy," so I guessed that 康 on its own means "health," and it does! The sign from there seems rather straightforward in its translation, going from literally "Health Bright Pharmacy" to "Brightmed Pharmacy."

Star Snow Ice

jms29 — 2018-11-05 06:05:48 UTC

In this image, the Chinese characters translate to "Bright star ice snow" as opposed to what the English says. Perhaps stars are referred to as bright stars or maybe they didn't feel like "Bright star" sounded as good in English.

pgk2 — 2018-11-05 06:07:14 UTC

I found this sign interesting because when each of the translations of the individual characters are looked at together it doesn’t make much sense. It’s only when you translate they all together that the message comes across.

pgk2 — 2018-11-05 06:08:13 UTC

I thought that this sign was interesting because I thought that the first character would have to do with eating or food and it ended up translating to “product”

Texas Pure Water

jms29 — 2018-11-05 06:09:50 UTC

I believe this was translated literally but it was hard to tell what characters they meant to use since the lights did not have all of the strokes. I know the first two characters say Texas and the last means water but I am unsure about what the third character means.

pgk2 — 2018-11-05 06:17:23 UTC

This sign was unique because it has dentist written in Chinese, English, and Spanish. Also, since it was a bit blurry I wasn’t able to translate all of the characters but it does seem like it is not a direct translation of “Dentist Dr. John K. Ho”

Red Bean Rice Ball

ac107 — 2018-11-05 06:23:12 UTC

I chose this because the picture seemed aesthetically pleasing with the shade of red. Anyway, I broke down the characters "桂冠豆沙汤圆". When google translated to English it says, "Laurel Bean Dumplings". The middle two characters translate to dòushā which is bean paste and the last two characters (which are traditional) translate to glutinous rice balls. I still can't figure out what the first two characters means. The pinyin is guìguàn, but it keeps translating to Laurel. Who is Laurel? Wait- I just realized Laurel is the Brand hahahahhaha. Anyways, pretty straight forward translation, but the traditional Chinese characters threw me off again.

Lychee Coconut Jelly

ac107 — 2018-11-05 06:31:43 UTC

I chose this product because I love lychee, and I love coconut, and, I love jelly, so it was perfect. The translation is pretty straight forward. The first two characters "荔枝" mean lychee (and sound like lychee lìzhī)! The middle two characters are traditional "風味" and mean "distinctive flavor". And then the last two characters are a bit odd. The second to last character "椰" is the first character of two for coconut. But the second character of coconut "子" is missing. Instead, the product jumps to guǒ (果 Fruit) which is the first character of Jelly (果冻). But I am confused why the second character of jelly and the second character of coconut are both left out.

Gong Cha

ap4aaron — 2018-11-05 06:37:34 UTC

This tea brand is unique due to its usage of the ancient version of the Chinese character 茶 rather than the traditional or simplified version. The first character 贡 ("Gòng") uses the traditional rather than ancient character and is translated as "tribute".

Bombax Ceiba

ap4aaron — 2018-11-05 06:48:47 UTC

This tree was at the entrance to a Chinese restaurant. The tree is famous as it's flower is the official flower of Guangzhou. The text underneath it ("Gōngxǐ fācái") is interesting as it is literally translated to English as "I wish you to get rich" but it really used as "Happy new year!". It is also on a red background, which signifies fortune and joy, traditionally used a lot in Chinese new year.

Pool House

vag3 — 2018-11-05 06:53:16 UTC

This pool house is named “英皇娱乐” in traditional characters, which is unique alone. However, the name of uses the 英 character which refers to English, and then follows with “grand recreation”. This is interesting as they’re referring to pool as an important English recreation/entertainment.

Noodle Store

vag3 — 2018-11-05 06:57:25 UTC

This sign was in the window of a noodle store and says 天天见面, or “every day see noodles”. I found it very funny as the English translation they put is noodles every day, but the 见 character gives it a bit of a different flair. I also liked this sign as it was written entirely in characters we have seen in class before.

FuFu Cafe

vag3 — 2018-11-05 07:05:08 UTC

This photo was intriguing to me because of the more artistic nature of the characters, due to the fact they are traditional. The name, 京苑, means Beijing Garden, and is quite different than the English name of FuFu Café. Perhaps this is to appeal to people from the Beijing area.

Laughing Buddha

ap4aaron — 2018-11-05 07:11:18 UTC

This photo was interesting to me because of the placement of
福 on the Buddha. Since this is the laughing Buddha who was known for his big belly, they put the character 福 on his belly which can be translated as "good fortune".

Character Food

awm5 — 2018-11-05 10:10:11 UTC

I thought it was really cool how they were able to integrate the food itself into the characters on the packaging! The text, leng dong mao dou jia, translates to frozen beans :-)

Cool Text

awm5 — 2018-11-05 10:17:08 UTC

I thought it was really interesting to see how other languages also utilize different fonts to change the impact of what they say. Here, the use of bold brings a lot of attention to the packaging. The characters are, ma la, and together they mean spicy! Interestingly enough the first one by itself means numb... I guess you shouldn't eat too many of these then.

Mistranslation

awm5 — 2018-11-05 10:19:08 UTC

While walking through the grocery store, I was shocked to notice that one of the characters was completely missing from the sign on the food. The first character, yang, which actually means foreign by itself is, in fact, the first character of artichoke. If the reader needs a little bit more of a hint, they can simply look at the food itself to figure out what it is!

Eyelash translation

lmg11 — 2018-11-05 15:55:35 UTC

These characters translate directly to "bright and pretty window curtain," which I found humorous as a phrase until I looked down and saw that this was a store specifically for eyelash extensions. I knew that many languages use similar words for eyes, lights, and windows, but I enjoyed the description of lashes as curtains for the window of someone's eye.

Character variation

lmg11 — 2018-11-05 16:05:32 UTC

This translates to "Yi Zhou M.D. Family Medicine Clinic." I noticed that the character for jiā is written differently from the way we learned it--the last two strokes are connected to the top of the fourth stroke instead of the side of the sixth. Also, this was the first time I recognized the traditional version of a simplified character we've learned (醫 instead of 医).

Bubble letters

lmg11 — 2018-11-05 16:13:47 UTC

The translation here is "21st Century Communication," but it took longer to figure that out than usual because the font was difficult to read. I found it very interesting that the designer made some of the strokes overlap, though it shouldn't have been surprising since that's how bubble letters work in English. I just hadn't considered that relatively complex writing systems could have as much room for creativity.

sj43 — 2018-11-06 06:40:42 UTC

favorite_border 0 당신의 아바타 댓글 추가

hrb4 — 2018-11-07 05:46:31 UTC

白菜” in the sign have the pinyin "tián báicài," which is very interesting because the "báicài" sounds very similar to its English translation of "bokchoy." favorite 1 2 comments Joseph Hubner 13d I disagree with your analysis, báicài does not sound like bokchoy Rebecca Godard 6d "Bokchoy" actually comes from the Cantonese word for the same vegetable! Your avatar Add comment This is 北京酸奶, or Běi Joseph Hubner 12d This is 北京酸奶, or Běi jīng suān nǎi; Beijing style yogurt, but it is advertised as chinese style plain yogurt. favorite_border 0 1 comment Amy Huyen 11d Maybe they chose to advertise it as Chinese yogurt instead of Beijing yogurt because China is more likely to be known by customers than Beijing. Your avatar Add comment This is a sign for K Joseph Hubner 4d This is a sign for Korean Yam New crop, or Korean sweet potato (it is in traditional characters)

Bakery!

mpt2 — 2018-11-12 15:43:18 UTC

“xīn xīao chū lú, gang shì nǎ chá

miàn bāo, zhēng bāo, kā fēi

dàn tǎ, xī bǐng, xǐ qìng dàn gāo.”

my friend said that the writing here (the words here) were “very cantonese”, especially noting that the last figure (bottom right) is meant to mean wedding cake, but that “there’s no good way to translate it in Mandarin.” A google translate input yields the translation “Zhaoqing Cake.” I think this points to the diversity of the groups in Chinatown, and of Chinese speakers throughout the world.

Office Sign

mpt2 — 2018-11-12 16:02:45 UTC

“lái fǎng kè rén, qǐng zhì diàn

dūn huáng dì bǎn

yíng yè shí jiān: měi tiān

11:00am – 6:30pm”

visitors, please call

Dunhuang floor

Open Business Hours, everyday.

I think it’s interesting the size of the numbers versus the size of the characters. to my eyes, the characters are really tiny, and they would need to be larger (top to bottom) than the arabic numbers to be readable, but here they are the same size. this was a trend I noticed a lot with the signs, I think it says something about the conceptual literacy that people have, and how it’s different from our early-stage component-based memorization schemes.

Bake Shop?

mpt2 — 2018-11-12 16:15:02 UTC

好好吃

目雲鳳爪?

I can’t Identify the first character. Google translates it as “Eye cloud.” I know the last character means “feet”, so it’s up in the air what kind of feet they are. this was a Six Ping, a Bake Shop, so I’m curious about the accuracy/meaning of Chicken feet here. What caught my attention in particular was in this person’s handwriting, the curves in the place of outer boxes, like in the character fèng, and in chī, it goes to show there’s a lot of variety in how people write this language.

Home spicy noodles

jmp11 — 2018-11-13 18:21:48 UTC

In chinese, the name for the plate of these noodles is 家常辣面 which means "home spicy noodles". I find it strange that they ommited the word home from the english translation to "spicy vegetable lo mein". I also find it strange that vegetables are not included in the chinese name.

Old Place

jmp11 — 2018-11-13 18:23:34 UTC

I find it interesting that in chinese, this place is named 老地方, which translates to "old place". I wonder why in chinese culture restaurants would be named old place.

Open everyday

jmp11 — 2018-11-13 18:29:25 UTC

I find it interesting that the words "open everyday" in chinese characters would be tian tian which means day, and include a character of a door being open.

Tasty Point

bcj2 — 2018-11-14 02:47:06 UTC

So I looked up the meaning of these characters and the pronunciation is " Dǐng Diǎn" for which I could only find the translation "Tripod Point". The second half checks out but I am unsure what the first character is really getting at. Perhaps it is not a Chinese character?

Police House

bcj2 — 2018-11-14 02:59:20 UTC

I found this sign on the side of a small wooden hut where a policeman might watch over a parking lot. The bottom three characters say "Jǐngwèi shì" which translates to "police guard room" The English below is a very literal translation, but the characters are very complex! I found a replacement for the second character "卫" which is much easier to write.

Fung's Kitchen

bcj2 — 2018-11-14 03:15:16 UTC

After having an amazing meal experience at the acclaimed Fung's Kitchen I wanted to know what the sign on the front said! It translates to "Fèng chéng hǎixiān jiǔjiā" or "Fèng chéng seafood restaurant" Feng Cheng must be the name of the family or first owner of the restaurant. What is interesting to me is jiǔjiā meaning restaurant. Individually these characters would mean alcohol and family and it seems strange that the combination would be a place to get food.

GoGo Ice

pt22 — 2018-11-14 03:33:09 UTC

This ice cream/shaved ice store is called 果果冰谷 (Guǒ guǒ bīng gǔ) in Chinese. This translates to "fruit fruit ice valley" which is interesting because I initially thought "Go Go" meant that they made the shaved ice quickly or that you could take it with you on the go. The fruit translation makes sense because they have a lot of fruit flavored items on their menu.

Matcha Hello Panda

pt22 — 2018-11-14 03:41:58 UTC

We saw this Hello Panda snack in a Bubble Egg restaurant, and it was interesting because it was matcha flavored. The Chinese characters on the box says "抹茶" (Mǒchá) which means "matcha" in English. The second character (茶) is one that we learned which means "tea."

Chopsticks from Hmart

pt22 — 2018-11-14 03:48:03 UTC

We bought reusable chopsticks from Hmart because they seemed like they'd be very useful. They each had a paper wrapping with Chinese characters on them. I'm not sure if I got the second character correct, but I think it says "手仿刂" (Shǒu fǎng dāo). 手 means "hand" which makes sense, but 仿 means "imitation" and then 刂 seems like the radical for "knife." It might mean that you should cut off the paper wrapping to be able to use the chopsticks.

Homely Restaurant

nv8 — 2018-11-14 17:16:19 UTC

In English the name is translated to Xiong's Place. The direct translation from chinese characters is "old place". While this is definitely not a direct translational, both convey a sense of homeliness and suggest the restaurant food style will be more simple and homely. We went in to find out!

Homely Restaurant - Inside

nv8 — 2018-11-14 17:19:06 UTC

The restaurant and food was indeed very homely! I had V5 - "mixed vegetables with egg-deep noodle soup". I got a friend to translate the chinese characters (they look complex and are traditional I believe). The literal translation is big pot-stewed noodles. The English translation serves a more ingredient/descriptive purpose. I imagine this is a classic dish in Chinese cuisine.

Tea House

nv8 — 2018-11-14 17:23:11 UTC

Read My tea house in English and thought I would be able to find all the characters "hui", "wo" and "cha". Instead of house they used place in chinese (this sounds less warm - wonder why they would do that). While the cha character is used, it is typographically slightly different (the top is broken up). I wonder if this is stylistic or practical?

Uyghur Bistro

creamcup97 — 2018-11-14 17:55:49 UTC

This restaurant which presumably serves food from the cuisine of the Uyghur ethnic group is called Uyghur Bistro, and I think it is interesting that the Chinese name is Wéi wú er rén, which directly translates to "Uyghur people" the jiā adds on the fact that it is a "house".

Namja Ramen

creamcup97 — 2018-11-14 18:02:10 UTC

This ramen is Japanese, however the characters at the front of the packet are in Chinese, and they are characters that we have learnt in class. The first character is nán, which directly translates to "male", and zi (tone 3), which translates to "son". This is interesting as the word doesn't seem to make any sense, but it is probably the closest phonetic equivalent for "Namja"

Dumpling

creamcup97 — 2018-11-14 18:12:42 UTC

This is the word for dumpling in Chinese, found on the aisle sign in a supermarket. The word is jiǎo zǐ. The "zǐ" character, which I know means "son", gives me a hint that dumplings are an extremely important aspect of Chinese culture, as they may be treasured as one would a son. Research tells me that dumplings are often used to symbolize wealth during Chinese New Year.

Coffee

ebf4 — 2018-11-14 21:27:51 UTC

I noticed that I could read the last two characters, which are kā fēi. I learned that the first character 熱 was actually traditional Chinese, and that the simplified 热 means "hot."

Jusgo supermarket

mfh21 — 2018-11-14 22:12:09 UTC

I found the first picture interesting because of the J in the middle of the character. This was the logo for Jusgo supermarket in Jusgo plaza. I thought it was interesting that this store mixed the english alphabet with chinese characters for their logo. The J obviously stands for Jusgo but I couldn’t interpret the rest of the logo. The first character looks like the character 百 (bǎi) and the last character contains the rén reticle, but I couldn’t find out what it means.

Golden Time wafers

mfh21 — 2018-11-14 22:13:11 UTC

The second picture I found interesting is a pack of cookies. I thought it was noteworthy because the brand of cookies is called Golden Time but in Chinese it doesn’t have any of the words we have learned for time. I think the word that is actually written is 时代 (shídài) which means era. A better English translation might have been Golden Era.

Lay's chips

mfh21 — 2018-11-14 22:13:43 UTC

The last photo I found interesting is a bag of Lay’s chips. The translation they have on the bag is 乐事 (lèshì) which means fun or enjoyment. This also sounds like the way the word Lay’s is pronounced in English. I thought it was interesting the makers of these chips decided to translate Lay’s since it is already such a famous brand and they also decided to do a cool play on words.

Bellaire Boulevard Sign

ebf4 — 2018-11-14 23:44:44 UTC

This is a street sign for Bellaire Boulevard in Chinatown, where the first two characters, Bái Lì, are simply used because they sound similar to the English "Bellaire." The second two characters are "Dà Dào," which mean "Boulevard."

Meats/Noodle Restaurant

ebf4 — 2018-11-14 23:46:13 UTC

This sign in Pinyin is "Yún tiān shāo là miàn jīa," which translates to a type of Chinese restaurant that serves meats roasted on spits and noodles. The characters are actually in Traditional Chinese, rather than Simplified Chinese. I learned that this depends on the region of China the chef or restaurant owner is from, as some regions use Traditional characters while others use Simplified characters.

First Central Dental

bsc21 — 2018-11-15 01:41:36 UTC

I found this picture interesting because the meaning of the characters align pretty well with the name of the business. This business is First Central Dentistry. Zhōng means central, xìng means interest, and yákē means dentistry. In this chinese name, there are no characters implemented to make to the chinese name sound the english name.

Best Telecom

bsc21 — 2018-11-15 01:50:27 UTC

This sign is written in traditional characters. I found this surprising because most of the businesses and stores used traditional characters as more for decoration. In this case, the characters are not written calligraphy and uses a basic print that many video and electronic stores use. This store looks a little bit on the older side, and I wonder if this shop was established before simplified characters became popularized over traditional.

Sushi

dt19 — 2018-11-15 02:04:15 UTC

A sushi place with Chinese characters above it. Sushi translates directly into 寿司. This is an example of a word that doesn’t originate in China but 寿 translates to life and 司 translates to secretary. Those are both words with good connotations. Therefore, it demonstrates the idea that Chinese translations have two important criteria.

Sachima

dt19 — 2018-11-15 02:04:56 UTC

This depicts sachima which translates to 沙琪玛 in Chinese. The last word in the only word I see in traditional form. This is another example of Chinese pronunciations translate directly into English.

Oolong

dt19 — 2018-11-15 02:05:29 UTC

Oolong came into the English language from the Chinese name, 乌龙茶, but specifically in the picture, the traditional form, 烏龍茶. I found this very interesting because in English, we just use a new made up word to express the pronunciation of the same words in Chinese, whereas in Chinese translations of English words take into account both the pronunciation and the characters that represent good things.

Midland Reality

trf3 — 2018-11-15 02:55:15 UTC

美联地产 means Midland Reality. I think it may be a transliteration of “Midland,” because the pinyin for 美联地 is mei3lian2de. 产 can mean property, hence Midland Reality. I think the font may be a reflection of the owner, whose family could have immigrated before Simplified characters became standard or could be of Taiwanese descent.

Seafood Restaurant

trf3 — 2018-11-15 02:56:32 UTC

This picture uses scripty, traditional writing. This may be to demonstrate a home-style restaurant. The name of the restaurant in Chinese is 东海，meaning “eastern sea.” The subtitle is 海鲜酒家，literally meaning “sea fish alcohol home.” 酒家 is another common way to say restaurant, and 海鲜 reflects the cuisine.

Ethan's Snack Bar

trf3 — 2018-11-15 02:57:19 UTC

In this picture, Ethan’s Snack Bar is called 东北小吃，炸串。This means Northeastern Snacks, Fried Skewers. I think it's interesting that the English name reflects the American custom to name a place after a person, meanwhile the Chinese name reflects the niche of the restaurant. Advertising a specific type of snack, 东北的小吃和炸串，may be a more effective way to attract customers from that part of China.

Korean Cosmetics

bsc21 — 2018-11-15 03:56:08 UTC

The english name of the store is different than the direct translation of the Chinese name. The English name is just cosmetics, but in Chinese it directly translates to Korean Cosmetics. It might be more effective in attracting customers since it just expresses it is a cosmetics store instead of a Korean one within China town.

King Bakery

cw73 — 2018-11-15 04:36:20 UTC

The Chinese characters mean "good day child bakery" but the English translation is "King Bakery." This is interesting because there is no way to get "king" from this translation.

Ozarka Spring Water

cw73 — 2018-11-15 04:58:26 UTC

The Chinese characters mean "drink use water" but the English translation is "Ozarka Spring Water." This is interesting because this is indicating that the water is drinkable. Do the Chinese only view bottled water as drinkable water?

The Chinese characters mean "A vegetable" but the English translation is "AA Choy." This is interesting because the second A makes it have an "ah" sound which isn't close to the way it should be pronounced in Chinese.

cw73 — 2018-11-15 05:09:30 UTC

New Macy Salon

jp68 — 2018-11-15 05:36:14 UTC

I think these Chinese characters hold two meanings. The first meaning is just the translation: New pretty string (which I think can be interpreted as hair maybe?). The second is that the last two characters Mei xi has no meaning, but is just used to pronounce the English word "Macy".

Dragon Fruit

jp68 — 2018-11-15 05:36:49 UTC

I thought that Dragon Fruit in Chinese would just be "Long guo" which is just dragon fruit. But it was interesting how they put another character huo in the front to emphasize fire dragon

Kiwi

jp68 — 2018-11-15 05:55:52 UTC

The first two characters mean yellow gold. This is interesting since I thought only the second character is required to say gold, but Chinese use yellow gold. This shows that they like to use two characters. Also, the third and fourth characters are qiyi, which means strange, weird. Although most of the characters that are just used to pronounce words have no meaning, this one actually is a real word so this was very interesting.

香槟芒果 Champagne Mango

mk65 — 2018-11-15 05:58:19 UTC

I realized that for every names of the fruit it has a Chinese character 果, which means "fruit." For this champagne mango, I could see that Chinese pinyin sounds very similar to English - xiangbinmangguo

大纪元 Epoch Times

mk65 — 2018-11-15 06:07:37 UTC

I have found this Chinese newspaper corner in front of Hmart. Epoch is defined as a distinctive period of time in a history so Epoch Times would stand for a newspaper with numerous notable events. Chinese for Epoch Times is Dajiyuan, which means the great century - English and Chinese meanings are very similar. Also, my Chinese friends told me that this is a radical anticommunist newspaper.

美聯地產 Texas Midland Realty

mk65 — 2018-11-15 06:47:00 UTC

I could first recognize that 美 would mean something related to 美国 (meiguo) because it has Texas in its name. Then, I asked my Chinese friend for the next three letters: real estate. Thus, it meant American Real Estate whereas English translation stated it to be Texas Midland Realty. My friend also told me that it was in traditional characters, and the majority of Chinese words in Chinatown is in traditional characters. In simplified version, it can be written as 美联地产.

Lion 狮子

rtn1 — 2018-11-17 20:18:49 UTC

I was very surprised to find ancient Chinese text in Chinatown. It's there as decoration, but I am surprised they have the English and Vietnamese translation but not any simplified. On the right half of the character, you can see what resembles 狮 (shī) in 狮子 (shīzi). I also found it fascinating that shīzi sounds very similar to the vietnamese word for lion on the right, sư tử.

美而廉 MERRYLAND

rtn1 — 2018-11-17 20:33:01 UTC

美而廉 translates to beautiful and inexpensive. I couldn't figure out why the place was called Merryland until I said "Měi ér lián" over and over and realized

it was actually a transliteration from chinese to english, instead of english to chinese.

Crown Seafood 金冠 Restaurant

rtn1 — 2018-11-17 20:51:47 UTC

金冠 (Jīnguān) translates to Golden Crown, which does not completely match Crown Seafood Restaurant. Due to the mixed text and design of the sign, the name of this restaurant is not very clear. I think they designed this expecting people to know english and mandarin or just english.

Vision Center

jesuscisneros7 — 2018-11-25 07:06:43 UTC

视学 translates to vision study and 眼科 translates to ophthalmology. I found it very literal as it is a place to get ones eyes check. I was confused as to why they would have two different sets of characters to describe the same profession though. Is it for aesthetic appeal?

Pain Relief Center

jesuscisneros7 — 2018-11-25 07:14:52 UTC

跌打足療中心 translates to beating pedicure center. I also found another character that could make it mean beating foot disease center, regardless I was still confused as it is a location for pain relief and the similar characters seem to define it as a beating of something related to a foot. On another hand it makes sense as some ancient beliefs within certain cultures would try to rid the body of disease through the feet, but also maybe I'm thinking to hard and it was just like a chiropractor who beats the body into alignment.

Lucky

jesuscisneros7 — 2018-11-25 07:31:35 UTC

At Hokkaido, a Japanese restaurant in Chinatown, there was this little statue I found cute. From the little knowledge I have on Chinese culture I know that usually statues or banners are used as tokens for desires. For example on this little statue there are the characters for 開運. This means lucky, so I'd assume this is a wish to bring luck to the restaurant. However, I am confused as how random combinations form words like I usually expect them to relate but the individual characters here mean open and transport so maybe I just need to get used to it.

香槟芒果 Champagne Mango

jms29 — 2018-11-27 22:46:11 UTC