Not so slow anymore... So the Olympic Games started today, with some of the women's soccer games being played, one of them being Sweden-China. Unless someone didn't know Sweden lost the game that ended 2-1 to China. I am personally not surprised, as Sweden always tend to lose when they are expected to win, (for some unknown reason many Swedes still think we are good at soccer?? It might be the Zlatan fever, or, people might still be clinging on to the fact that Sweden ONCE came third in the soccer world cup -1994 in USA- and therefore we should still be one of the top teams... anyways) and the Chinese team should be doing better now when they have finally got themselves a local coach.
In 2007, the same year as the women's soccer world cup was about to take place in China, a well-known (or OK, well-known in female soccer circumstances) Swedish coach named Marika Domanski-Lyfors was assigned the task of coaching the team to gold. Her career in China wasn't long lived however, as China lost too much during the world cup and Marika Domanski-Lyfors got sick of people having a say about her trianing/coaching methods and left the country soon after the world cup ended. I wouldn't bring this matter up unless it wasn't for the fact that Marika Domanski name was translated into Chinese as "duo man siji," which sounds exactly the same as "very slow driver," (though it is written differently). This I find kind of amusing, especially after a local media reporter asked in April, when she came onboard: "Can the slow driver speed up this clunker of a Chinese team?" (Apparently not).
In 2007, the same year as the women's soccer world cup was about to take place in China, a well-known (or OK, well-known in female soccer circumstances) Swedish coach named Marika Domanski-Lyfors was assigned the task of coaching the team to gold. Her career in China wasn't long lived however, as China lost too much during the world cup and Marika Domanski-Lyfors got sick of people having a say about her trianing/coaching methods and left the country soon after the world cup ended. I wouldn't bring this matter up unless it wasn't for the fact that Marika Domanski name was translated into Chinese as "duo man siji," which sounds exactly the same as "very slow driver," (though it is written differently). This I find kind of amusing, especially after a local media reporter asked in April, when she came onboard: "Can the slow driver speed up this clunker of a Chinese team?" (Apparently not).
Anyways, apparently it is not only the Chinese people that take on funny, English names (the girl 'Swallow' and my classmate 'Willing' are still my favorites!), but foreigners in China also get kind of weird names at times. I have worked with 2 Americans, whose Chinese names were 'Small bear' and 'big Tiger,' but there has to be some better ones around?! What about u guys? Got any funny, Chinese names to share?
I use my Chinese name in pinyin as my English name, hopefully it does not sound weird.
ReplyDeleteMy chinese name is not that different from 'Big Tiger'...it's Little Tiger.
ReplyDeleteI used it recently in the Chinese Bridge competition. I didn't notice any Swedish contestant although there was one Finnish contestant who went very far!
Loving the blog by the way!
Do all Chinese names have literal meanings? If so, what do they have to do with usually (animals, emotions, characteristics, etc)? Do you think they laugh at foreigners' "Chinese names" like we laugh at their "English names" ?
ReplyDeleteSarah -most Chinese names have meanings.. normally when CHinese people give expats Chinese names they try to make the Chinese name sound similar to the western, and therfore the Chinese name makes little sense... My boyfriend's name is Mikko, his Chinese name is Mi Ke, which basically means nothing... My Chinese name is You Na which I think means something like 'freidnly girl' and it also sounds quite similar to my real name, Jonna... I don't think Chinese people laugh at our Chinese names as much as we laugh at their English names though, mainly coz many of our Chinese names doesn't make any sense...
ReplyDelete尤娜？
ReplyDeleteit's the main character of the famouse Japanese video game "final fantasy 10", if the person who gave u the name is a twenty somthing guy, hmmmm..
and u do look a bit like the girl in the game.^^