I think we could turn this into a fun exercise into seeing what Taiwan would look like if we made English names of various places based off of the Chinese meaning. This would also help us learn and exercise our understanding of the Chinese culture and sometimes, the why of place names in Taiwan. I moved the posts from Pinyin Wars VI to here. Posts from the Pinyin wars thread won’t be modified because it’s not fair.
Some suggested guidelines for easy reading first:
One name per post.
Put a Yes/No poll in your post.
No limit on posts.
If possible, write both the official name and Chinese name. Wikipedia often offers the Chinese name which can be copied and pasted if you aren’t able to type it.
Posts with a Yes winner will be put onto the list.
If two or more names for the same place win a Yes vote, then they will be put head to head in another poll.
If you don’t like it, you don’t have to post in this thread. Let’s keep it positive.
Any other discussion and banter would continue as normal. Let’s have fun talking.
Okay… but there’s a reason Hong Kong has actual English names for some of the locations. It’s futile to try and do that for all of Taiwan… They don’t even do it for all of Hong Kong.
Then there would be a sign here saying Peach Park, a sign there saying Peach Orchard, a website saying Peach Garden… and Mount or Mountain? Turtle or Tortoise?
I think this would be minimal at worst. Taiwanese have little desire to learn and understand Pinyin.
English they’re obsessed with. And many English terms for places are consistent. District is always 區
City is always 市
County is always 縣
Road is always 路
Village is always 里
Taiwan is always 第一
Etc…
Interestingly, it seems that the new looking bus stop signs in Tianmu are using English names for the stops. The 天母新村 stop is the Tianmu New Village stop.
Okay, so following that logic and your Peach Park City example, 園 is always park, as in 公園 public park, 花園 flower park, 動物園 animal park, 園先生 Mr. Park, 幼稚園 childish park, 校園 school park, 樂園 happy park, 葡萄園 grape park, 伊甸園 Eden Park…
Taoyuan is also established, and fortunately the romanization doesn’t vary unless you go hardcore WG (t’ao instead of tao) or something similarly niche.
But if you insist on translating it, why not Peach Orchard?
