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Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Chinese Words On Maps - translating river




Problem
I have been trying to learn the Chinese words on maps for some time. You can easily pick up French and Spanish and Italian words, if you are an English speaker. Chinese - not so easy.

Answers
I keep writing down the names on Singapore maps of the MRT railway system, picking out the words which are repeated and the Chinese signs which are repeated.

I looked up Choa Chu Kang. It wasn't difficult. I just checked in Wikipedia. I used to have a book which translated street names. The street names and station names are often the same. Kang is a river. The word appears in three different stations.

I also, by chance, happen to know the Chinese sign for river. It looks like the two parallel lines of a road, with  an undulating third line up the middle like a meandering boat.

Chinese - English
kang - river

English - Chinese
river - kang

Wikipedia has pictures of Chinese pictograms.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

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