• DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    In Chinese (I mean like most dialects), North Pole is just 北极 (“Northern Extreme”), South Pole is 南极 (“Southern Extreme”). Arctic is just 北极 with the extra character 地区 meaning area (“Northern Extreme Area”), Antartica is 南极洲 (“Southern Extreme Continent”).

    There’s no weird etymology involving bears lol

    Maybe we should let someone from China or Taiwan contact the aliens?

    • Kushan@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      5 days ago

      Someone once told me that the Chinese word for penguin translated to “business goose” and I cannot tell you how crestfallen I was when I looked it up and found out it wasn’t true.

      • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        5 days ago

        I mean “企” character by itself isn’t really a word, but maybe the person thought of 企业 (Enterprise/Bussiness), which I would say technically that person isn’t like lying, just a misunderstanding of language.

        But then again, I’ve only attended primary school grade-levels in China, so I’m no word expert either.

      • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        5 days ago

        Tbf she was an alien-worshipping cultist (cult wasn’t technically founded at the time, but she had the mindset of a cultist)

        • scratchee@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 days ago

          She sorta was the cult leader, iirc the aliens didn’t understand humans and trusted her organisation to decide how to get things done (at least until they finally realise how humans actually work and decide to just shut it all down), so the cult was probably her idea

    • Flax@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 days ago

      Maybe we should let someone from China contact the aliens?

      FTFY

  • OhStopYellingAtMe@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    Took me too long to remember “Arctic” and “Antarctic” and I kept wondering how “North Pole / South Pole” translated to “Bearlandia / NoBearlandia”

  • Dicska@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    4 days ago

    This joke would be rather hard to translate to my language because we use the same word for dirt (as in, ‘soil’ - in fact, in certain cases for actual soil, as well) as for Earth. Or ground.

    We only have a separate word for the unclean meaning of dirt, or a compound word containing dirt to denote soil.

    I can easily imagine this as an actual attempt from a beginner English speaker from home.

    • Kirp123@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      ·
      5 days ago

      Arktos means bear in Ancient Greek and the name Arctic comes from Arktikos which could be translated as near the bear. One theory is that it was named because of the Ursa constellations (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor). Antarctica just means opposite of the Arctic.

      The scientific name for Brown Bears is Ursus Arctos. Ursus means bear in Latin while Arctos means bear in Ancient Greek so their name translated is Bear Bear.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      5 days ago

      Yep. It’s Towards-bear-land, and Against-towards-bear-land.

      IMO, nobody every made it clear if it’s (against-towards)-bear-land, what would be away-from-bear-land, or against-(towards-bear-land).