about what the AT MARK is called in different languages around the world, including here in Taiwan. She also quotes a professor named Karen Steffen Chung at National Taiwan University here, and a website run by www.herodios.com which lists hundreds of nicknames around the world.
Of course, they say the AT Mark here is called Shiao Lau Su, Little Mouse, …but …they neglected to say it is also called MICKEY MOUSE by many kids here too…using the English words! ACtually, they don’t use the English words, my mistake, they say : MI LAO SU and MI stands for MICKEY. [I, however, do say MICKEY MOUSE now. Learned it from my friends here. Go figure.]
as in "My email address is: Marlboro MICKEY MOUSE yahoo DOT com DOT tw
But “at” makes sense in a sentence/language context. I’m Pinky at Yahoo. I’m Brain at Hotmail. How does strudel fit in?
Yeah, yeah, I know. Language always changes. The signifier and the signified, and all that. But “at” makes sense to me. I know what people mean when they say “Little Mouse”, but it kind of loses the original meaning of how to read an e-mail address.
Afrikaans is spoken mainly by the decendents of Dutch settlers in South Africa. In Afrikaans, some people have begun to call @ “aapstert,” [monkey’s tail], also a term of endearment for someone who’s made a silly mistake. Note that Afrikaans is closely related to Dutch, where @ is called, among other things, “apestaart” meaning, of course, monkey’s tail.
