
Use of English and Chinese in Alibaba’s Alipay Advertisements - mcenedella
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=35023
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hmwhy
I think the analysis may be interesting to readers who can't read Chinese, but
I don't think the author has taken the time to analyse the phrase in the
context of advertising, and I don't think the conclusion is at all surprising.

To begin with, I tend to disagree that the alternative the author suggested
("yīqǐ Zhīfùbǎo 一起支付宝") is catchier. Using "let's" in this context does forgo
rhythm but it's also a lot catchier when it's read out in an advertisement for
exactly the same reason—I would argue that people remember it because of the
sudden interruption introduce by the disruption in rhythm and change in
language.

In fact, if this multiscriptal advertisement was carefully designed (instead
of the designer thinking that it's simply cool), I would go as far as arguing
that they only want people to remember the second half of the phrase, "let's
支付宝".

As for the conclusion that "[Alipay] wanted to sound international, since
Alipay has global aspirations", as I mentioned earlier, I don't think it's at
all surprising.

Growing up in Hong Kong, multiscriptalism in advertisements has been around
for as long as I have been alive and the purpose, at least for as long as I
have been able to understand the purpose of advertisements, has always been to
either make a product appear to be hip and cool and/or international.

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jccalhoun
Are they trying to make "let's alipay" a slogan? if that were the case I would
definitely agree with you but with a single example it is hard to say for
certain either way.

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hmwhy
If you are referring to just the slogan for this particular campaign then I
would say yes (I don't think they are trying to make it a universal Alipay
slogan in all Chinese-speaking countries).

The calligraphic font used for the phrase in question in that advertisement is
commonly used for slogans or take-home message in modern Chinese
advertisements. The placement of the phrase also suggests that it's a slogan.

Other images from MTR Advertising[1] also seem to suggest that it's the
intended slogan of this campaign, too.

[1][https://www.facebook.com/mtradvertising/photos/a.15944807239...](https://www.facebook.com/mtradvertising/photos/a.1594480723929038.1073742656.103620803015045/1594480857262358)

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msvan
China is probably unique in that you can allude to ancient literature in
marketing materials and expect large portions of the educated population to
get it. Kids all over the country learn to recite old poetry from a very early
age.

~~~
barry-cotter
Every educated man would have been familiar with the Bible and classical
literature in Europe and the Americas until the 1960s or so. The western
world, Latin Christendom and its descendants, had a canon which could be
assumed common to all and alluded to for a long, long time.

Newton’s Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published in 1687.
Dante’s Divine Comedy was the first celebrated work of literature published in
the vernacular, in 1320. Latin was the sole official language in Hungary until
1844.

The West’s ignorance of history is really quite recent. Matriculating at a
university without Latin or Greek would have been impossible until at least
1880, conservatively.

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TazeTSchnitzel
I know that in Japanese, that language's equivalent of “let's” is very
frequently used, in fact it's a not even a phrase, it's a particular verb
ending in the grammar. Does Mandarin Chinese have an equivalent?

~~~
jarboot
The best equivalent to the let's verb conjugation in Japanese is adding 吧 to
the end of sentences.

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solidsnack9000
I could not follow why 「支」己 is to be translated as "Pay Pal".

不明白為什麼，把「『支』己」翻譯成「Pay Pal」。

~~~
jinqueeny
“支” means pay in several Chinese phrases, corresponding to Pay in “Pay Pal”;
“支”己 (zhi ji) is phonetically identical to 知己，which means good friends, thus
corresponding to the word Pal in “Pay Pal”. “支”己 is a coined word and here can
be considered as a good friend in payment, which is lexically similar to Pay
Pal.

~~~
solidsnack9000
Thanks. That was a great explanation.

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KON_Air
English translations on cheaper end, especially manuals for electronic
appliances tend to be awesome and Heavy Metal.

ONE MUST TAKE THESE STEPS TO ENSURE PLEASANT EXPERIENCE TO FOLLOW WHILE
HOLDING THIS PART INSTEAD OF DEATH BY PAIN OF ELECTROCUTION.

Hell yeah, it is just a 9v adaptor!

~~~
leggomylibro
Sometimes you get a consistently mistranslated word, too, like "order" ->
"baby" on an options page.

"Shop past babies"

"Track baby shipment"

"Create new baby"

"Return/Exchange defective baby"

I think it's funny and fun. And I like to think that people on the other end
of _my_ google translate monstrosities feel the same way.

~~~
mikeash
My favorite example of a weird mistranslation was an old Google Translate bug,
long since fixed, when doing Spanish -> English.

If you typed in “amistad,” it would spit out “friendship.” So far so good. It
even translated punctuation. “Amistad!” came out as “Friendship!” Adding
exclamation points to the input added them to the output. Amistad!! ->
friendship!! Amistad!!!!!! -> friendship!!!!!! But if you used exactly five
exclamation points, no more and no less, it would instead translate to
“murder!”

