Archive for the 'Linguistics' Category

Cantonese Input Method for OS X 10.5.X

Published by
James
at 23:46 HKT Oct 29, 2008 in Linguistics and Computing. 0 Comments

I am using FCIM, and I find the Sidney Lau Distribution works better for me.

The installation of FCIM however is a little confusing.  Here is what I did…

1  Download either FCIM here

2  Unzip the folder

3  Copy the FCIM file into the “Home/Library/Input Methods/” folder

4  Restart the computer

5  Go to System Preferences -> International -> Input Method  and select FCIM

6  Use keyboard short cut Option.Command.Spacebar to select the Cantonese Input Method

More info on Chinese Input Methods here.

Are you a bore or are you bored?

Published by
James
at 11:45 HKT Oct 10, 2007 in Linguistics and Thoughts. 2 Comments

I can’t help but wonder when people put “([name] is) very boring” in their Facebook status field, do they really mean by that or do they actually mean “very bored”?

In Cantonese, “我很悶” splat into 3 separate English words might be “I”, “very”, “bore”. Whereas in English, “I am very boring” (or, I am a bore) means “我係大悶蛋” while “I am very bored” means “我很悶”.

Having said that, I’m afraid I might have just revealed that I am a bore.