Chinese Number Websites

#1

Post by bpierre » Sun, May 04, 2014, 12:48 PM UTC

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#2

Post by ytch » Sun, May 04, 2014, 1:13 PM UTC

When talking about QQ, does anyone remember ICQ? QQ uses number as ID mainly because it's a knockoff from ICQ at beginning

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#3

Post by gbraad » Sun, May 04, 2014, 1:31 PM UTC

"Why do Chinese websites use numbers in their domain names?" http://dashan.com/blog/culture/why-do-chinese-websites-use-n...

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#4

Post by Kiro » Sun, May 04, 2014, 2:16 PM UTC

Great article but I don't understand why the American friend refused to communicate with people whose email addresses consist of numbers.

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#5

Post by abrowne » Sun, May 04, 2014, 2:34 PM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #4

Great article but I don't understand why the American friend refused to communicate with people whose email addresses consist of numbers.

Hope she doesn't want to text anyone.

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#6

Post by darklajid » Sun, May 04, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

ytch wrote: post #2

When talking about QQ, does anyone remember ICQ? QQ uses number as ID mainly because it's a knockoff from ICQ at beginning

I still know my ICQ number by heart, but cannot remember my own land line and only recently managed to memorize my (company) mobile number.

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#7

Post by manifesto » Sun, May 04, 2014, 2:54 PM UTC

One reason why Chinese have less difficulty remembering and using these numbers than the western fellows might be the difference in pronunciation. In Chinese, all single digit number has the same structure: a consonant plus a vowel. For example, 7, in Chinese is pronounced as [ch-i:], while in English is pronounced as [ˈsɛvən]. Also, every digit takes the same time to pronounce. For example, a string "123456" is [yi:, er, san, si:, wu, liu]. That, in my experience, makes a long string of number easier to read out. And easier to read out means easier to memorize.

A side node: In China every kids in their elementary school if not kindergarten can recite the "table of multiplication". That is, they can remember the answer from 1 * 1 to 9 * 9. I doubt how many westerners can do so, due to the language difference.

Edit: The asterisk symbol is driving me nut.

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#8

Post by w1ntermute » Sun, May 04, 2014, 2:55 PM UTC

manifesto wrote: post #7

One reason why Chinese have less difficulty remembering and using these numbers than the western fellows might be the difference in pronunciation. In Chinese, all single digit number has the same structure: a consonant plus a vowel. For example, 7, in Chinese is pronounced as [ch-i:], while in English is pronounced as [ˈsɛvən]. Also, every digit takes the same time to pronounce. For example, a string "123456" is [yi:…

Memorizing the times tables (up to 12·12) is standard in American schools.

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#9

Post by w1ntermute » Sun, May 04, 2014, 2:56 PM UTC

But why is this phenomenon restricted to China? I haven't observed it with, for example, Japanese sites, even though they too use a non-Latin alphabet.

Re: Chinese Number Websites

#10

Post by manifesto » Sun, May 04, 2014, 2:59 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #9

But why is this phenomenon restricted to China? I haven't observed it with, for example, Japanese sites, even though they too use a non-Latin alphabet.

For the phenomenon of number string in email address, that's because they don't use QQ, an IM service from Tencent. For other numbers in domains, I think it's because number in Chinese are easier to pronounce, and easier to remember.