審 - Shen3 - Examine, Investigate, Carefully, Try (in Court)

陪審團 - Pei2 Shen3 Tuan2 - Accompany Trial Group — Jury

Stephen J. Minutillo should not appear for jury duty on 8/1/2006.

數 - Shu4 - Number, Figure, Count, Calculate

數據 - Shu4 Ju4 - Number According To — Data

料 - Liao4 - Material, Stuff, Grain, Feed

燃料 - Ran2 Liao4 - Burn Stuff - Fuel

塑料 - Su4 Liao4 - Model Stuff - Plastic

香料 - Xiang1 Liao4 - Fragrant Stuff - Spice

顏料 - Yan2 Liao4 - Color Stuff - Paint

I read all the raves for Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby when it first came out, but haven’t been intested in Ruby until lately, when two strangely synchronous events occured: on the very same day, the new kid at work decided to give us all a presentation on Ruby, and Leonard’s Ruby Book (which squarely falls into the “hit” partition of Cookbooks, which have been hit or miss) finally finally finally shipped. So today I lazily browsed over and started to read the Poignant Guide. I hereby declare it THE NEW AWESOMEST THING EVAR!!!!!11!!!-(e^pi·i)!!! Words can’t describe. I’m giddy. It’s so good that I’m reading sections out loud to Jenny, who rather than feigning half-hearted interest, nearly broke down in tears at the story of Bigelow. IT’S THAT POIGNANT. Waste no time reading anything else on Ruby before reading this.

活 - Huo2 - Live, Alive, Living, Workmanship

復活 - Fu4 Huo2 - Recover Life — Resurrect

雅 - Ya3 - Elegant

雅緻 - Ya3 Zhi4 - Elegant Fine — Refined

噢 - O1 - Oh

喂 - Wei4 - Hello (telephone)

So the other day I was wrong wrong wrong and somehow posted an IMPOSTOR character. This is the real “wei like you say on the telephone”, accept no substitutes.

朱 - Zhu1 - Vermillion

Vermillion Flycatcher

唯 - Wei2 - Hello (telephone)

Wikipedia has a partial list of how to say hello on the telephone in other languages. Actually, I’m kind of suprised this isn’t more comprehensive!

闆 - Ban3 - Boss

老闆 - Lao3 Ban3 - Old Boss — Boss

樞 - Shu1 - Hinge, Pivot

To paraphrase Kotaku: worrying about stuck pixels is so last month. All the cool kids worry about cracked hinges now. After reading about this, I checked out our DS, and what did I find? CRACKED HINGE GET!

磨 - Mo2 - Sharpen, Grind

Or 磨 - Mo4 - Grindstone

磨擦 - Mo2 Ca1 - Grind Rub — Friction

鈴 - Ling2 - Bell

馬鈴薯 - Ma3 Ling2 Shu3 - Horse Bell Yam — Potato

I still can’t figure out why Potato is “Horse Bell Yam”, but I do find these two references that claim it was introduced by the Dutch to both Taiwan and Japan as the “horse bell yam” in the 17th century.

矛 - Mao2 - Spear, Lance, Pike

矛盾 - Mao2 Dun4 - Spear Shield — Contradiction

This comes from an old parable: An armorer in the state of Chu boldly claims to make the best weapons. “My shields are so strong, they cannot be penetrated by any weapon!” he says. “My spears are so sharp, they can pierce any shield!” he further says. An intelligent man asks, “If your spear is thrown at your shield, what then?” The armorer had no reply.

鬧 - Nao4 - Noise

鬧鐘 - Nao4 Zhong1 - Noise Clock — Alarm Clock

Also, 熱鬧 - Re4 Nao5 - Hot Noise — Lively

帽 - Mao4 - Hat, Cap

帽子 - Mao4 Zi5 - Hat, Cap

筆帽 - Bi3 Mao4 - Pen Hat — Cap of a Pen

丈 - Zhang4 - Ten Feet

姨丈 - Yi2 Zhang4 - Mother’s Sister’s Husband

This is what Jenny’s sisters kids are supposed to call me. I believe there is actually even a distinction between Mother’s YOUNGER Sister’s Husband and Mother’s OLDER Sister’s Husband, but I can’t get to the bottom of it right now (mainly because Jenny is already asleep).

旭 - Xu4 - Dawn, Rising Sun

No similarly evocative character for the setting sun, though.

嘴 - Zui3 - Mouth

嘴巴 - Zui3 Ba1 - Mouth

鳥嘴 - Niao3 Zui3 - Bird Mouth — Beak

拳 - Quan2 - Fist

拳擊 - Quan2 Ji1 - Fist Hit — Boxing

定 - Ding4 - Set, Fix, Determine, Decide

Another way to say it: 環球定位系統 - Huan2 Qiu2 Ding4 Wei4 Xi4 Tong3 - Surround World Determine Position System Whole — Global Positioning System

I got Jenny the “toy” she’s had her eye on for quite some time, and it arrived today. I was planning to wrap it and give it to her and then cruelly forbid her to open it until her birthday, which isn’t until next month! (The only way to keep it interesting when she knows what she’s getting.) But, the cosmos was against me… it turns out that today is ALSO her birthday, according to the SCIENTIFICALLY QUESTIONABLE LUNAR CALENDAR! Thus, I was forced to let her open it. It’s actually a really cool little machine, with a simple, responsive, and pretty well thought out interface. I worried about that before buying it, all the reviews focused on such superficial features (”customizable car icons!!!!!!!!”) and never said if the maps actually worked. They in fact do!

易 - Yi4 - Easy, Simple

SimplePie

龍 - Long2 - Dragon

龍蝦 - Long2 Xia1 - Dragon Shrimp — Lobster

龍捲風 - Long2 Juan3 Feng1 - Dragon Curl Wind — Tornado

恐龍 - Kong3 Long2 - Terrible Dragon — Dinosaur

具 - Ju4 - Tool, Device, Utensil, Equipment, Instrument

玩具 - Wan2 Ju4 - Play Device - Toy

鞍 - An1 - Saddle

I don’t think Chinese has the saying “Back in the saddle again”, but there is this saying that I like the sound of:

東山再起 - Dong1 Shan1 Zai4 Qi3 - East Mountain Again Rise — Make a Comeback, Bob Up Like a Cork, The Sun Will Rise Again

橋 - Qiao2 - Bridge

樣 - Yang4 - Model, Pattern, Appearance

樣機 - Yang4 Ji1 - Model Machine — Prototype

褲 - Ku4 - Pants

褲子 - Ku4 Zi5 - Pants

牛仔褲 - Niu2 Zai3 Ku4 - Cowboy Pants — Jeans

閒 - Xian2 - Idle

襲 - Xi2 - Attack, Raid

Indiana Jones marathon! All three in a row! Don’t ever let it be said that we only watch weird movies!

嘟 - Du1 - Toot, Honk

滑嘟嘟 - Hua2 Du1 Du1 - Smooth Toot Toot — Grimace

Grimace in a few other languages.

嘟 is also used in the name of 嘟嘟, the little white dog.

伊 - Yi1 - He, She

This seems to be a more archaic (or formal?) way of saying He/She than our good old 他/她. But, it’s still used phonetically:

伊拉克 - Yi1 La1 Ke4 - Iraq

伊朗 - Yi1 Lang3 - Iran