Can't Name Your Kid @ In China
from the probably-a-good-thing dept
China has decided that a man cannot name his kid "@" because it can't be translated into Mandarin. The man argued that since it's on every keyboard, an exception should be made. However, hopefully the kid will be thankful he doesn't need to go through life with such a... um... name? Either way, I would assume that, at some point, someone has figured out how to translate @ into Mandarin, because there are an awful lot of Mandarin-speaking people with email addresses.
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I'm sure Dorpus will know
Since (s)he seems to know everything related to Asia, but maybe the translation is "Shift+2"?
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it's interesting
It's interesting article. Early time,I had convinced my parents to use Email keep communicate with me who are living in south China, I tried to teach them pronounce "@" on a email address once if they're going to tell other people their email address. By the end, they find out their own way, they called "@" in Mandarin "xiao er duo" which means "small ear" or "little rat with tail". they told me that most of their friends use this same meaning-translate to call that little "@" as well.
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Man, being that stupid when naming your kid is bordering on child abuse...
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Re: it's interesting
So this child's Chinese name would've literally translated to "little rat with tail"? I think this kid should become a great fan of Chinese administration for sparing him that fate. :-)
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