"dojo" in Chinese?

[Sho]

Originally posted by Robinf
I thought doa was "way"

Dude, that's 'door' in Japanese.

[David Jamieson]

Tao / Dao (pronounced DOW) and Dao/Do (Pronounced Dough) are only confusing to us who have not learned the language. We read a spelling of the word and go into 'hooked on phonics' mode.
There is no other context for a non speaker, what are ya gonna do. (pronounced doo)

The tonal variations in Chinese are at least easier to 'learn' than say the context variations in English.

meat, meet and mete? Come on!!!

The easiest language to learn is the one that is most similar to your own. The hardest language to learn is the one that is most different from your own language.

One of the interesting things about transmission of Chinese to English, is that because of language barriers, concepts have been altered and even in some cases perverted out of proportion.
I'm sure the same holds true on the other side of the coin. The perceptions of the mainstream chinese in regards to the west are likely just a little skewed. At least as much as the western view of the Chinese mainstream is skewed.

It's all changing and soon we will speak 'Global Pidgin'

cheers

[GeneChing]

KL - You forgot to mention "d'oh!"

Actually it's a bit more complicated. Dao (sword) is first tone - a flat inflection. Dao (way) is fourth tone - a dropping inflection - buuuuut there are several other fourth tone "Dao" words. My little dictionary has six (the last six definitions I listed in my previous post.) There are four tones plus a neutral tone, but once you get past that, a word with the EXACT same pronounciation can have a completely different character and meaning. Mandarin has four tones, Cantonese has like six. To make things even more complicated, sometimes the Cantonese is the same, sometimes not - see our glossary for more on this.

[MasterKiller]

It's all changing and soon we will speak 'Global Pidgin'

Or until Shaolin-Do starts his Klingon Language Renaissance...

[Sho]

There are actually 9 tones in Cantonese.

[Surferdude]

karate in mandarin is "Koongshowdao"

[Sho]

Karatedo in onyomi ("Japanese-Chinese") would be kûshudô. The base definition of kû is sky ['sora' in kunyomi (original Japanese)]. Chinese denote it as empty (kong1).

[GeneChing]

Thanks for the correction Sho. Cantonese is really tough. Ironic that it dominates most CMA in the USA. No wonder we're all so confused...