Rev and Styles

A Buddhist group overseeing the construction of the world's tallest bronze Guanyin statue in Tai Po says the surrounding monastery will be a non-profit- making complex that will help followers reflect as well as promote Buddhism to the general public. A Buddhist group overseeing the construction of the world's tallest bronze Guanyin statue in Tai Po says the surrounding monastery will be a non-profit- making complex that will help followers reflect as well as promote Buddhism to the general public. The Rev Sik Kwok-kwong, who chairs the board of directors of Tsz Shan Monastery Ltd, said there will be no niches for the dead in the temple and that no individual is involved in the project.

As you may see, Rev is the abbreviation of reverend which is a style of addressing most often used as a prefix to the names of Christian clergy and ministers. This was a practice borrowed from Christianity by Jodo Shinshu in Japan and has been used in Buddhism since the early 20th century. The ordained monks and nuns were addressed as Maha Thera in the Theravada branch or Sakya in Chinese Mahayana branch. The title was translated to Venerable before borrowing. Theravada, which literally means the ancient teaching, is one of oldest Buddhism school in India. It is conservative and closed to early Buddhism. Analytical approach is much preferred in this school. Mahayana, which literally means great vehicle, is another old Buddhism school in India and is practiced in China, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, and Japan. It is a loosely bound collection of many teachings with large and expansive doctrines.

Style of addressing is a common tradition in academia and royal family. E.g. His/Her Magnificence is for the rector (president) of a university. His Most Reverend Excellency is for diplomats. Your Worship - Justices of the Peace (Magistrates) in the United Kingdom, usually by solicitors. His/Her Majesty in royal families.

For ordinary people, we mainly use mister, miss and mistress. After the feminism prevails, we can only use Mr and Ms.

German terms in Railway

What is Eisenbahnknot​enpunktweiche? Eisenbahnknot​enpunktweiche is railway junction switch. You can decompose this whole german (compound) noun into several parts.

Eisen = Iron 

Bahn = Road
Knoten = Node
Punkt = Point
Weiche = Switch

Eisenbahn means railway. But wait! Eisen is iron and Bahn is road. It is same to the combination of Chinese character 鐵路 (tie lu). Funny!

What is Triebwagenzug?

Trieb = engine

wagen = wagon = car

zug = train

Triebwagenzug means railcar.

Triebfahrzeug means trains and Localmotiven mean localmotives.

Auskunft means information. Preise means rating and Buchung means booking.

Einfache Fahrt means single journey where Fahren means go.

Hin- und Rückfahrt means return journey. Hinfahrt means outward. Rück means back.

Abfahrt means departure. Ab-fahrt literally means from-go.

Ankunft means arrival. An-kunft literally means to-future.

Unabsehbaren Folgen

[German] Die Angst vor einem Börsencrash und unabsehbaren Folgen für die Konjunktur hat Spitzenpolitiker weltweit zum Handeln getrieben. 

[English (My own translation)] The fear of a stock market crash and unpredictable consequences for the economy has driven world leaders to action. 

• Angst means anxiety or fear.
• Börsen means stock exchange.
• unabsehbaren means unforeseeable
• absehbaren  means foreseeable
• sehbaren means dictable
• seh means see
• Folgen means Follow, aftereffect and consequence

[German] Auch die Europäische Zentralbank und die Finanzminister der G7 kündigten rasches Handeln an. 

[English (My own translation)] In addition, the European Central Bank and the G7 finance ministers called for urgent action.

Past tense of the verb: (Wir/Sie) kündigten ... an
Present tense : ankündigen

It is one of examples of German separable prefix verbs. They can be compared to English verbs like "call up," "clear out" or "fill in." While in English you can say either "Clear out your drawers" or "Clear your drawers out," in German the separable prefix is almost always at the end, as in the second English example.

Confused German Words

There are some German words that look alike. For example, das vs dass and denn vs den. Das means 'the' and dass means 'that'. Denn means 'because' and den means 'the'.

Chinglish

'People Mountain People Sea'
should be 'full of people'

'ding'
should be 'bear', 'endure'

'You will very like it.'
should be 'You will like it very much.'

'I am sales.'
should be 'I am salesman.'

'add oil' = 'Gas geben' (in German)
should be 'hang in there', 'keep going', 'step on it', 'step on the gas', etc

carton
sounds like 'carten'

carbon
sounds like 'carben'