Mashing-up Google’s “Song of the Grain”
China’s bloggers are having a field day with Google’s new Chinese
name. Postshow showcases a few visions of what the new logo might look
like (link):
And pundits are coming up with all sorts of riffs on what other Google
apps might be called in Chinese. It’s hard to translate Chinese puns
into English, but they’re based on the fact that each Chinese character
stands for a single syllable, and each syllable has multiple characters
which are pronounced in the same way (homophones). So that there are
many ways to say what sounds like “GuGe” in Chinese, but is written
with entirely different characters. “Gu,” for instance, could be
written with characters that mean “aunt,” “ancient,” or “bone.”
Then expand that to all the ways that “Google” is used. Joy Chan speculates:
“Google News” could be 谷牛, which is pronounced Gu Nee-oh–but means
“Google cow”. Or “Google Earth” could be 谷耳丝 (Gu Ar-sih)–which,
literally translated, means “Google ear shreds” and sounds like a new
kind of wood ear or other fungus.
Chinese Google is Song of the Grain
At Virtual China, my Institute for the Future colleague Lyn Jeffery tells the back story of 谷歌 (“song of the grain”), the Chinese name for Google. (In an earlier post, Lyn follows the fun that Chinese bloggers are having with the Google logo and riffin…
Lynn
Is there a mandarin word for CUBICLE yet? Here in Taiwan, the papers just say “office desk” or OA for office accessory, term from JapanEnglish maybe.
But could there not be a new word coined for CUBICLE in Chinese, such as KU BAO KER or something to approximate the English sounds of CU BIH KUL?
Do you know if this has been done yet in China?
An email cafe in Taiwan is called WAN KA, for wan lu cafe, but in China mainland, the term is WAN BA for wan lu bar……
BUt what about cubicle? There SHOULD be a Chinese word for it, but so far, everyone says such a word has not been coined yet? Shall we?
Not “shreds”, “threads”
Danny — threads might be a bit better, you’re right. But to my mind, it could be shreds or threads. Long thin pieces of things, in any case. And I thought ear shreds sounded better than ear threads.
In our office (Shanghai), cubicles are referred to as simply 座位, 小卧室, or “cubicle.”
Alainna, thanks.
Do the newspapers in Shanghai use that word too, in writing?
Other readers told me: for cubicle in Chinese Mandarin:
区壁屋
”Ju bi wu”
Literally, sector, wall, hut
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”GE LI JIAN” = ”isoation room”
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the dictionaries I have don’t seem to be updated, so both Japanese and
Chinese only recognize the term ”cubicle” in terms …..of a place to sleep.!
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As for the name for a cubicle in japanese or chinese… well, you might just
want to use an appropriate word that already exists. How about “cage”?
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in China, we just call it “GE LI JIAN”.I am not sure about it.
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little bed closet? = 小卧室
Alianna, what does ” 座位” mean? How to prounouce it? “DZO WEI”? and it meaning, literally?
What do you think about the idea of coining a SOUND WORD from the English “cubicle” such as KOO BAO GER” or something
I think I like KU BAO GE as a loan word in Mandarin from English. However, as I am not a fluent speaker of Chinese nor a citizen of either Taiwan or China, it will be up to people there (journalists, editors, students, chat rooms, etc.) to decide what they want to call a cubicle. However, since none of the curren terms seem to accurately describe a real cubicle, I vote for loan word usage of KU BAO GE.
Japanese write KYU BEE KURU in their katakana syllaby, and this stands for cubicle, but I am told that this term does not mean the office cubicle but another kind of cubicle, for sleeping, such as in a capsule hotel. That tiny sleeping compartment is also called a cubicle. So then, what do the Japanese computer geeks and office workers call a cubicle in nihongo? Anybody know?
A Taiwanese friend of mine in Taiwan, who is a grad student in computer science at Chung Cheng University, told me today via email:
“As we told you last week, when you asked, “Cubicle” could be pronounced as a loan word from English, such as “Ku Bao Ge” in
Chinese.
It’s true, we don’t have any exactly identical vocabulary in
Chinese language for CUBICLE.
The term “座位” has wide range of explanations in Chinese language.
For example, the seat in classroom we call “座位”.The seat
in a bus, a taxi, and a train we also say “座位”.
In our graduate student lab at CCU, we say “座位” when we speak of the “cubicle” we work in individually.
But I also like the idea of calling such office furniture “a
cage”. The reasons I like this word and use it to
describe the concept of cubicle in Chinese is that “cage”
explains vividly the meaning of cubicle in which
someone is “detained” in his office and can’t get of
out it arbitrarily. I may use the Chinese term for “cage” in some informal
settings, like talking with friends.”
– Joseph
Joesph adds: “But….Wow!!! There are maybe hundreds arrangements !
For example, I may write these three Chinese characters like
” 酷(Ku) 保(Ba) 歌(Ge)”
or “庫(Ku) 保(Ba) 歌(Ge)
or “褲 (Ku) 保(Ba) 歌(Ge)”
or “褲(Ku)保(Ba) 哥(Ge)”
There are too many possibilities. Many Chinese characters prounce Ku,
Ba, and Ge respectively.
One thing I am one hundred percent sure of is : no Chinese or Taiwanese people will
know what those three Chinese characters stand for in KU BAO GE…”
Back to square one!
Yet another Taiwanese poster notes:
“A good word for cubicle would be bird cage or NIAO LONG. Just as we say to be free as a bird means freedom etc, then to be cooped up in a cubicle all day would be like being stuck in a bird cage. So we could call a cubicle a NIAO (bird) LONG (box).”
[My opinion is that “Niao Long” is the best choice for cubicle in Taiwan Chinese.
All the while we say someone is “free as bird”.
If someone sticks in his/her cubilic and can’t go out, his/her mind just
like a bird is kept in the case without freedom.
So I think the “Niao Long” can faithfully describe the behind the sceences
meaning of cubilic.]
There’s more. Plenty more!
Translations for: Cubicle
Nederlands (Dutch)
slaapkamertje, (kleed-/ pas-)hokje, cel
Français (French)
cabine, cabinet, box, cellule, cabine de bain
Deutsch (German)
n. – Alkoven, Kabine
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. θαλαμίσκος, καμπίνα, χώρισμα, διαμέρισμα
Italiano (Italian)
cubicolo, spogliatoio
Português (Portuguese)
n. – cubículo (m)
Русский (Russian)
кабинка
Español (Spanish)
n. – cubículo, caseta de baño
Svenska (Swedish)
n. – hytt, sovcell
中国话 (Simplified Chinese)
n. – 小卧室
中國話 (Traditional Chinese)
n. – 小臥室
日本語 (Japanese)
n. – 小寝室, ほぼ方形の小部屋, 更衣室
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مقصورة صغيرة ( في عنبر نوم مستشفى مثلا)
עברית (Hebrew)
n. – תא, חדרון
before being called CUBICLE DESKS, they were called CARREL DESKS, and were seen in libaries, where they were called study carrels. remember?
Danny — great question! I have no idea what “cubicle” is in Chinese. But the high-end furniture companies must have a formal name for them…
Hi Lyn,
I have asked around in China and Taiwan, and there is no real good name for cubicles in Chinese yet. They often say SMALL BED CLOSET for that kind of office arrangement, but I feel that does’t do the trick. Can you ask someone you know to COIN a better word for CUBICLE in mandarin?
It needs to be done. Soon. Someday. If anyone wants to do it.
Friends have suggested saying KU BAO GE for the sound of cubicle and using it as an English loan word. But how do Chinese people feel about that?
Comments?
Danny —
“格子间” is technically the word, but we mainly use “座位” in our office. 🙂