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New users, please check out some of the other Stack Exchange sites to increase your reputation. – xiaohouzi79 Aug 16 '11 at 2:00

60 Example Questions (7 closed)

active newest votes

up vote 1 down vote

added by Sebastian Godelet Mar 23 '11 at 0:57

up vote 1 down vote

added by Sebastian Godelet Mar 23 '11 at 1:10

i think this belongs to stackoverflow – J-16 SDiZ Apr 13 '11 at 6:17

up vote 0 down vote

added by Douglas S. Stones Jun 19 '10 at 5:24

closed as off topic by Gelatin, Georges Duplessy, Lars Andren, random, Mark H Jul 17 '10 at 7:14

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	These types of questions don't provide information of lasting value, and if allowed on the site would permit hundreds or thousands more just like it. Suggest people use their profile to indicate their willingness to act as a study partner, or to indicate they already have one. – Chris W. Rea Jun 19 '10 at 14:25
	Sounds good... but you can still expect zillions of these types of questions. – Douglas S. Stones Jun 20 '10 at 23:23
	Exactly why this is a great example of an off-topic question and should be mentioned in the site FAQ as such :-) – Chris W. Rea Jun 21 '10 at 1:02
	I actually don't see a lot of this kind of question on language forums. – Master Of Disaster Jun 21 '10 at 9:10
	Yes. It's good if they mark it in their profile, bad if they use the Q/A format to digress into personal stuff. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 22:03

up vote 0 down vote

added by KennyTM Jun 19 '10 at 14:18

closed as off topic by Gelatin, Georges Duplessy, zephyr, Douglas S. Stones, Chris W. Rea Jun 21 '10 at 1:06

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Actually, I think this is quite on topic. Have any of the people who voted off-topic actually been to China? Don't you know how many foreigners embarrass themselves by having really dumb Chinese names? Nevertheless, it's phrased wrong. It should be something like, my name's John Doe, and someone said my Chinese name should be 'x' -- how does this name sound to a Chinese person? – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 21:57

up vote 0 down vote

added by Lars Andren Jun 23 '10 at 3:13

You are 100% correct mr Otaku, thank you for pointing me to that question. – Lars Andren Jul 12 '10 at 1:26

up vote 0 down vote

added by ixtmixilix, edited by WikiSpeedia hang-around Apr 17 '11 at 18:16

closed as off topic by Don Kirkby, Geoffrey Zheng, dta, dusan, Tianyi Cui Dec 8 '10 at 7:06

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

up vote 0 down vote

added by Ciaocibai Jan 27 '11 at 22:04

up vote 0 down vote

added by Ciaocibai Jan 27 '11 at 22:12

up vote 0 down vote

added by xiaohouzi79 Feb 11 '11 at 2:49

up vote 0 down vote

added by Sebastian Godelet Mar 23 '11 at 1:23

@Sebastian - This is a great question. However, it is more than likely that translators already have a tool (possibly even just the dictionary) that is definitive for all and any word. This could lead to many 'check the dictionary' type answers, which should be avoided. – xiaohouzi79 Apr 7 '11 at 5:36

up vote 0 down vote

added by Sebastian Godelet Mar 23 '11 at 7:01

up vote 0 down vote

added by FUZxxl Apr 5 '11 at 19:57

up vote 0 down vote

added by Caleb Apr 12 '11 at 12:51

up vote -1 down vote

added by Master Of Disaster Jun 17 '10 at 8:19

closed as off topic by Douglas S. Stones, Cary Chow, Chris W. Rea, Steve Kuo, Georges Duplessy Jun 19 '10 at 17:35

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	This is a question that is likely to stir up a lot of trouble... – Douglas S. Stones Jun 20 '10 at 23:46
	@Douglas: You are right. This is meant to be an "off-topic" question, one which isn't suitable for the group, and wouldn't be allowed, so you can vote for it as "great off-topic example". – Master Of Disaster Jun 21 '10 at 2:18
	The question is phrased in a bias way, implying that simplified characters is an "upgrade". None the less, it's a great topic. – Steve Kuo Jun 21 '10 at 16:40
	the question could easily be asked in an even more neutral way (i understand ‘revert’ and ‘update’ here in a historical, not a judging sense), but as such i believe it is worthy of discussion. the non-trivial differences between character usage in hong kong, taiwan, japan, and china mainland are a linguistic topic and concern learners and natives of these areas alike. – flow Jun 23 '10 at 17:52
	Agree with @flow: a question as "how did the characters used in mainland, HK, and TW evolved and what are their respective merits" would be right on-topic and largely politically neural. – Geoffrey Zheng Sep 21 '10 at 6:34

up vote -1 down vote

added by Chris W. Rea Jun 19 '10 at 0:34

	This is borderline, I voted for off-topic. It's very specialised and likely of interest to only one person (although if a quick answer is given, it would quickly move off the front page). However, it could be rephrased "How do I use the term "full of" in Chinese? For example, 'My hovercraft is full of eels'." which would be of interest to a broader audience. – Douglas S. Stones Jun 20 '10 at 23:31
	@Douglas: LOL. "My hovercraft is full of eels" is actually of interest to many people, all of them Monty Python fans. Enjoy: youtube.com/watch?v=IN9mP2_1A-c ... About 45 seconds in. – Chris W. Rea Jun 21 '10 at 1:01
	Oh I see, jokes on me, I guess (: – Douglas S. Stones Jun 21 '10 at 2:44
	I agree with Douglas S. Stones, I wouldn't suggest this as an on-topic question. – Master Of Disaster Jun 21 '10 at 9:09
	I've revised and removed My hovercraft is full of eels and replaced this with an obvious placeholder phrase or sentence. That's really the kind of question I'm referring to. The Pythonism was a placeholder. – Chris W. Rea Jun 21 '10 at 11:30

show 1 more improvement suggestion

up vote -1 down vote

added by Ciaocibai Jan 27 '11 at 22:01

Likely to come up and tolerated on the site so not clearly off topic, but should not be the focus, so not a good on-topic example. – Caleb Apr 12 '11 at 12:47

up vote -2 down vote

added by Master Of Disaster Jun 17 '10 at 8:18

宫保鸡丁 - 麻辣豆腐 - 酸辣汤？ – Moak Jul 10 '10 at 18:19

I assume you meant four characters, or that you're trying to write an intentionally off-topic question. Anyway, the people who voted this on-topic really haven't been to China, have they? This is the sort of question that has no answer. Even if it did have an answer, it's not really about the language. It's like saying, 'why do all the English swear words only have four letters'... Well, some do. Some don't. My favorite dish has three characters, and my second dish also has three. But the vast majority have four, as Moak points out. So it's either off-topic or not a good example, in my book. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 22:06

up vote -2 down vote

added by ixtmixilix Aug 2 '10 at 21:41

closed as off topic by Xiè Jìléi, Luser, Edle, Tianyi Cui, Erik van Brakel Jan 8 '11 at 22:01

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

up vote -4 down vote

added by Master Of Disaster Jun 17 '10 at 8:18

	Nobody likes my question! – Master Of Disaster Jul 18 '10 at 1:57
	There, there. :-) – Chris W. Rea Jul 18 '10 at 2:24
	OMG Chris Rea, you are everywhere I go! – Master Of Disaster Jul 18 '10 at 15:56
	How about "You're so much bigger than your action figures! Except for you, Mantis." – xiaohouzi79 Feb 11 '11 at 3:27

up vote -4 down vote

added by Cary Chow Jun 18 '10 at 18:39

closed as off topic by Douglas S. Stones, Georges Duplessy, Chris W. Rea, Lars Andren, Mark H Jul 17 '10 at 7:14

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

In my opinion, any question with "Which nationality is better?" or similar is 100% off topic (and likely to be offensive). – Douglas S. Stones Jun 21 '10 at 1:04

Yeah, I agree. It's not technical enough. It's too much about opinion... A better way to phrase it would be: 'which colloquial strains of Chinese are closest to the spoken standard of xiandai hanyu?' So, in that case, you could say, 'Dongbei in the mainland... not southwestern, not southern... beginning at Dongbei and ending somewhere in Qingdao.' There's fact in that, because the question is more specific. – ixtmixilix Jul 31 '10 at 21:54

This is an inflammatory question and an answer to this question would offer no value to anybody, only personal prejudices. – mariachimike Sep 27 '10 at 17:19

And saying that Taiwanese pronunciation is not much different than other south Chinese speakers nearby... – Sebastian Godelet Mar 23 '11 at 1:25