Blind Chinamen

SJF   Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:21 am GMT
I do think there is a unpleasant discrimination in the topic.
Since we all know what "Chinamen" means, do not use this word if you want to discuss with Chinese people.
Would the moderator please delete or lock this?
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:38 am GMT
Do the chinese have dictionaries? If so, how are they organized?
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:38 am GMT
It means men who are from China. There's nothing discriminatory about it.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:39 am GMT
<<Do the chinese have dictionaries? If so, how are they organized?>>

No. No, they don't.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:43 am GMT
seriously?
Dan   Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:09 am GMT
<Just like phonemes, they aren't vital at times. But I'm turned off immediately when someone writes in the wrong order, which is like spelling a word wrongly.>

Even if I managed to get the character looking correct?
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:16 am GMT
<<seriously?>>

No, not seriously. I was being sarcastic. If you really want to know, yes, of course they have fucking dictionaries. The way they're organized depends on the dictionary, but the most traditional way is indexing the characters by stroke count and radical.

The radical of a character is the character's primary component. There are around of 200 of them, but in practice you don't need to know nearly that many most of the time. It can be hard to identify what part of the character is the radical sometimes, though.

Some modern dictionaries make it easier by putting the characters in alphabetical order based on their pinyin transliterations.
Xie   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:05 am GMT
That's racist!
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:08 am GMT
Don't worry Xie, it's the fucking anti-Hispanic troll who seems to hate the Chinese too.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:09 am GMT
What's racist?
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:20 am GMT
What are the odds that this post was from the real Xie? (25% ?)
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:22 am GMT
How is Xie pronounced? Ksie?
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:32 am GMT
<<How is Xie pronounced? Ksie? >>

I imagine it's completely unpronounceable by us Westerners.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:35 am GMT
Well, there must exist a unique best approximation... just project the particular Chinese phenomes onto an orthonormal basis for the phenom-space of English.
Guest   Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:51 am GMT
<<What are the odds that this post was from the real Xie? (25% ?)>>

The real Xie never replies with anything but long-winded, somewhat incoherent blocks of text. It can't be him.