"你喜欢吃中国拉面还是日本拉面？"
Translation:Do you like eating Chinese ramen or Japanese ramen?
30 Comments
Chinese ramen??? I get why the word was used but I don't like the usage here haha
Lamian is one very specific noodle dish. There are a gazillion other Chinese noodle dishes which are never called 拉面. It should accept "lamian" or "Chinese lamian" or "pulled noodles".
"Do you like to eat Chinese ramen or Japanese ramen?" should also be accepted...
I have two theories for the problematic wording of the Chinese here.
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拉面 is Chinese for lamian, pulled noodles; and Japanese for "ramen". Both the dishes and the words are surely related but are no longer at all the same, other than both being noodle dishes. In China you would only get "ramen" at a Japanese restaurant.
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Some English speakers use "ramen" to mean "instant noodles" and the person who wrote this one might have intended to ask whether somebody prefers Chinese or Japanese instant noodles.
In either case it makes perfect sense to qualify the terms in Chinese as 中国拉面 and 日本拉面, but in English "Chinese ramen" is puzzling and "Japanese ramen" is redundant.
I answered it as 'Do you like Chinese ramen or Japanese ramen', without 'eat'. Not the most accurate, but definitely appropriate in everyday usage.
do you like eating chinese or japanese ramen should be accepted, you dont need to repeat it in english for the same meaning
yeah there's a lot of sentences like that on duolingo where it's both accepted and not accepted so it's confusing af. I really wish they'd fix that
Setting aside the problem of what 拉面 means in Chinese vs Japanese, I typed "Do you like eating Chinese or Japanese ramen." It's a little more natural to say it that way in English especially when you set up two adjectives to describe one noun. An example might be "Are you a fan of the American or Canadian hockey team?" rather than saying "Are you a fan of the American hockey team or the Canadian hockey team?". In the first example it's implied that both countries have a hockey team.
Granted, I understand that the literal translation in this case would require me to use "ramen/lamian" for both halves.
Well actually ramen is an English word, that comes from a Japanese word, that itself comes from a Chinese word.
ramen is japanese, lamian is chinese. seems strange to call it chinese ramen. If we are using a generic word i think noodles would be better. Also if we are supposed to use a shared word "ramen" why would it not accept the more common english grammar "chinese or japanese ramen" removing the repeated word?
just saying "noodles' isn't enough. I've been in Taiwan for six or seven weeks now and there are lamian shops around here and I've eaten noodles many times but I haven't yet eaten lamian or ramen here.
With these questions with 还是 I never know if it is meant inclusive or not? Could the answer be "yes"? Or does the asker want to hear a choice of one of the two or a preference?
Eating is unnecessary imho as they are both foods, so it should be accepted as 'Do you like Chinese noodles or Japanese ramen?'
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English would not repeat ramen. If you are going from Chinese to English, "Do you like eating Chinese or Japanese ramen", needs to be accepted.
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can this sentence also mean "do you prefer chinese ramen or japanese ramen"?
I'd like to hear from a native Chinese speaker, but from what I can find, the usual way to say "prefer" is 比较喜欢.
Just like in English the context would tell you if you're being asked to choose between the two, or if they want to know if you like one, both or neither.
I think you'd probably get punched if you called noodles ramen any Chinese restaurants, either in America or mainland China. There's a history there.
Well here in Taiwan you can get both the Japanese ramen and Korean ramyun but nobody would call the Chinese lamian "ramen".
Do you like eating Chinese or Japanese ramen? This sounds much better in English BUT in my opinion 拉面 is very different to ramen
