It’s very funny to me doing Duolingo modules on foods because it’s like, 豆浆 is a specific type of Chinese donut. And it’s just called that. It’s called doujiang. But like, we’re learning a language here we can’t say that 豆浆 translates to doujiang. But it doesn’t mean donut either it specifically refers to the type of pastry called 豆浆. So the “translation” they chose is “deep fried dough stick” which takes four whole word taps to put into a sentence. It just feels like calling a chocolate cake “cocoa bean confectionery spread coated baked flour sugar batter.” Like its a description…
[tʃæɑ̯rˠɣæːst]
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linguist & software engineer in Lenapehoking; jewish ancom trans woman.
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in reply to @shel's post:
I think ur thinking abt 油條 lol 豆漿's soy milk
but yeah I've also seen it translated as oil stick bc 油 = oil, 條 = stick, which is p funny bc that doesn't tell you what it's an oil stick of. like saying "cocoa bean confectionery confectionery spread coated baked" baked what??
I’ll have to keep an eye on my Spanish course for translations like that! I know most Duo courses don’t have the videos on the learning path yet, but that feels like it would be a good way to talk about specific foods like this. Or maybe in one of the stories, Zari and Lily go to the pastry shop or something like that.