How to translate @ into Chinese?

How to translate @ into Chinese?
Jul 18, 2006 21:44
RITA Points: Join Date: May 10, 2005 Status: offline	How do you pronounce it when you tell your email address to a Chinese whose English is not very good?? We like to use Pinyin in our email addresses, like: zhongguo.com.cn\|hujintao (don't send me email to this address please:P) If i tell my friends of this email address, i will say: Hu Jintao de Pinyin quan cheng * zhong guo dian com dian cn, the problem is how we say @ that * stands for in the above sentence? Does the sign of @ have a Chinese translation at all? What do you say if you tell the above email address to your Chinese friends, say, via phone. I heard people describe it as: 猴头符-monkey head symbol OR 圈A, but neither of them sound like translations. What else?

Jul 18, 2006 21:44

RITA
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How do you pronounce it when you tell your email address to a Chinese whose English is not very good?? We like to use Pinyin in our email addresses, like:
zhongguo.com.cn|hujintao (don't send me email to this address please:P)

If i tell my friends of this email address, i will say:
Hu Jintao de Pinyin quan cheng *** zhong guo dian com dian cn, the problem is how we say @ that *** stands for in the above sentence?

Does the sign of @ have a Chinese translation at all? What do you say if you tell the above email address to your Chinese friends, say, via phone.

I heard people describe it as: 猴头符-monkey head symbol OR 圈A, but neither of them sound like translations. What else?

Jul 18, 2006 23:48	#1
PINETREE Points: 2514 Join Date: Oct 9, 2005 Status: Offline	Why must you pose such a difficult question, Rita ?

Jul 19, 2006 00:42	#2
CALIFORNIA Points: Join Date: Jul 22, 2005 Status: Offline	I said AT:-)

Jul 19, 2006 02:41	#3
SOMEGUY Points: Join Date: Jun 4, 2006 Status: Offline	Couldn't you write it down and just ask them what to call it?

Jul 19, 2006 04:18	#4
MAY001 Points: Join Date: Sep 28, 2005 Status: Offline	I know some one call it A圈 or 猫头 (cat's head). Generally, I call it AT. Sometimes, I use this kind of expression. Take Rita's email address for example: My email is the Pinyin of 'hujintao'. And it is based at zhongguo.com.cn ^0^

Jul 19, 2006 05:59	#5
RUNNERMORE Points: Join Date: Apr 20, 2006 Status: Offline	I call it little mouse(小老鼠).@_@

Jul 19, 2006 20:09	#6
CALIFORNIA Points: Join Date: Jul 22, 2005 Status: Offline	猫头？小老鼠？ haha,the first time I heard of these names of @:-)

Jul 19, 2006 20:28	#7
CONNY129 Points: Join Date: May 25, 2005 Status: Offline	me too ,Cali, sounds interesting :) I just call it AT , not any problem at all

Jul 19, 2006 21:02

RITA
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Very interesting! Thanks for all of your input.

I did a little more search online and got the following info that may interest you guys/gals:

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That little "a" with a circle curling around it that is found in email addresses is most commonly referred to as the "at" symbol.

Surprisingly though, there is no official, universal name for this sign. There are dozens of strange terms to describe the @ symbol.

Before it became the standard symbol for electronic mail, the @ symbol was used to represent the cost or weight of something. For instance, if you purchased 6 apples, you might write it as 6 apples @ $1.10 each.

With the introduction of e-mail came the popularity of the @ symbol. The @ symbol or the "at sign" separates a person's online user name from his mail server address. For instance, uselessknowledge.com|joe. Its widespread use on the Internet made it necessary to put this symbol on keyboards in other countries that have never seen or used the symbol before. As a result, there is really no official name for this symbol.

The actual origin of the @ symbol remains an enigma.

History tells us that the @ symbol stemmed from the tired hands of the medieval monks. During the Middle Ages before the invention of printing presses, every letter of a word had to be painstakingly transcribed by hand for each copy of a published book. The monks that performed these long, tedious copying duties looked for ways to reduce the number of individual strokes per word for common words. Although the word "at" is quite short to begin with, it was a common enough word in texts and documents that medieval monks thought it would be quicker and easier to shorten the word "at" even more. As a result, the monks looped the "t" around the "a" and created it into a circle-eliminating two strokes of the pen.

Source: hao360

Jul 19, 2006 22:03

YEMMIE
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Join Date: Aug 17, 2005
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Hi Everyone,

@ in English is an abbreviation for the word "at". So, you would say, you can call me on the phone at 444-2319, or you can write me at 2304 Wisteria Drive, Charleston, S.C. 55029, U.S.A., or you can e-mail me at aol.com|yemmie. BTW, none of these are real addresses or phone numbers.

I do not know much Chinese but my language software translates "at" into 在. So I think that is what you would say if you were translating an e-mail address for someone.

I hope all of this helps, and if I am wrong in any of it, please let me know.

Jul 20, 2006 04:52	#10
LEMONCACTUS Points: Join Date: Dec 8, 2005 Status: Offline	What a cool question Rita and some really amusing answers ;) I always avoid this by writing down my email address or getting others to write down theirs.... whether English or Chinese friends... it's just easier. Funnily enough I use the @ symbol a lot when taking notes/sending a text as a quick way of writing the word 'at' !! Eg: see you @ home, or meet you @ the restaurant

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