A monk in 14th-century Italy wrote about the Americas

Post by uranusjr » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 2:31 AM UTC

prewett wrote: post #58

ummwhat wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The informal Chinese word for white people is "Lao Wai" which literally translates as "old foreign" (the formal word for foreigners is Wai gou Ren (foreign country person)). The explanation I was given for the informal word is that it means "the old foreigners, as in the ones we've known about since antiquity."

Lao is often use as a colloquial form of respect. So “ba” means “father”, so “lao ba” is kind of like “my old man”. “Lao ban” (ban meaning business owner / boss) is “boss”. Wives might call their husband “lao gong”. I think “jiu4” is old as in the opposite of new (xin1), as in Jiujinshan (San Francisco, literal, old gold mountain).

Post by jcims » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 2:41 AM UTC

interestica wrote: post #40

crakenzak wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> birds could be seen returning to the West Coast of England with twigs and leaves from somewhere. Are you saying birds were carrying twigs over the Atlantic from Americas -> Europe?? Genuinely curious as to if birds actually do that, seems pointless.

> seems pointless I'm more wondering about the effects of seed/life transfer. Doesn't seem feasible to me.

Post by dheera » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 2:48 AM UTC

prewett wrote: post #58

ummwhat wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The informal Chinese word for white people is "Lao Wai" which literally translates as "old foreign" (the formal word for foreigners is Wai gou Ren (foreign country person)). The explanation I was given for the informal word is that it means "the old foreigners, as in the ones we've known about since antiquity."

Lao is often use as a colloquial form of respect. So “ba” means “father”, so “lao ba” is kind of like “my old man”. “Lao ban” (ban meaning business owner / boss) is “boss”. Wives might call their husband “lao gong”. I think “jiu4” is old as in the opposite of new (xin1), as in Jiujinshan (San Francisco, literal, old gold mountain).

Post by EamonnMR » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 2:54 AM UTC

hadlock wrote: post #70

interestica wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> seems pointless I'm more wondering about the effects of seed/life transfer. Doesn't seem feasible to me.

Every year or two, people decide to fly from North America to Europe in a short range Cessna. They get the extra fuel tankage package, then hop from PEI to Greenland, Greenland to Iceland, then Iceland to.... Svalbard, or maybe somewhere in the Scotish Isles. From there it's pretty standard flight operations over local bodies of water. If a Cessna can do it, that's well within a bird's migratory travel distance.

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 25, 2021, 3:08 AM UTC

ummwhat wrote: post #59

kinghtown wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience living in Taiwan is that those terms may literally mean foreigner but their practical usage means white/western people. A native or black american would not be called that. Also, lao wai is the one they go for when they are angry or postering xenophobia amongst each other. I find it to be a needlessly othering term but I try to accept it as not said with explicitly bad intent.

The best summary of the word that I've seen is that its a lot like "gringo". Its status as pejorative or descriptive or even endearing depends on how it's said and the context in which it is said and on the person saying it. World of difference between "ey gringo, since when you drink tecate" and "what you doing in our neighborhood gringo".