Here’s A Map Of European Countries With Literal Translations Of Their Chinese Names

“Yes, I InterRailed from Lawland to West Classtooth. I had a splendid couple of weeks.” Oct. 20, 2014

Alan WhiteBuzzFeed Staff

 

This map comes from blogger Haonowshaokao. He told BuzzFeed News:

This is not a serious translation by any means – I’ve translated the names in a pedantic, literal way, character-by-character, which wouldn’t make sense to most Chinese people.

I don’t want to make fun of Chinese people or the Chinese language, it’s just a funny way for me to remember the names of countries as I learn the language. Chinese people don’t really think of America as Beautiful Country or the UK as Brave Country any more than we think of Turkey as a bird. Any language unlike your own looks strange from the outside, but I hope people can use this as a stepping stone to learning Chinese rather than laughing at it.

My wife (an actual Chinese person) helped make it, and it’s as much hers as it is mine.

Sweden and Switzerland are the wrong way round. This was a mistake, but I’m leaving it in as people do tend to confuse the two as they have similar names in Chinese.

Russia is just Russia because I wanted to call Belarus White Russia – this is both the literal Chinese name and the literal old English name, and the Chinese name, Bai E Luo Si, sounds just like the real name. Which is pretty neat.