windows translating
 

ok this doesn't really concern linux except for the fact that solving my problem will help me to install linux.
i have a chinese version of win xp pro installed, but i can't read chinese!!
does anyone know of a translating program where i can find out what these chinese characters mean? im seriously having so much trouble with it. i keep getting my bilingual friends to translate for me but they are getting very annoyed with me. please help me out!!

First, I think it's funny that you're in China and don't know the language!

But really, if you want less grief from your translator friends, it's because you're not paying them off.

How come you don't know Chinese tradition Zhou?

Re: windows translating
 

I don't know how to help with translating, but I wonder why you need to know what Windows says to install Linux? Can't you just d/l the necessary files you need to install whatever distro you want, without needing to know Chinese?

yah, i could do that, but there are things like partitioning my drive i will do from windows before linux is installed. it will be difficult to do this if its all in chinese.

ive only been in china for 2-3 months, since leaving canada. and im learning chinese, slowly.......

O that 's funny
I'm chinese here in Ireland
if you have any question about chinese
print it out and I will translate for you free

:-))))

cool, will do. hey, what does "zhou yi" mean?
by any chance, do you know tony?

haha
zhou yi means something mythical, I think it may be a historical science of china. With this knowledge you can forecast the whether and people's life
I am not good at english, it is difficult for me to explain it even in chinese. Few people in china know zhou yi nowadays.

tony??
Is it your friend in ireland
Absolutly not

how did you pick that name?

tony is a friend of mine who left taiyuan, shanxi a month ago for ireland. thought maybe YOU were him. hehe.

i chose zhou yi because it perfectly matches my english name, joey (joe-y)

Of course, you are aware of the fact that there are to major forms of chinese. I belive they are Mandarin and Traditional, and they are as apart as american and russian. Just thought I would mention it :-)

actually, there are several different dialects spoken in china, like over 10 that could all be considered their own language seeing as how they are so different. mandarin and kantonese are 2 major dialects spoken in northern and southern china respectively.

yes so many dialects. because china have such long history.

Actually, I believe that most linguists agree that they are really only two that can be considered individual languages (Mandarin and Cantonese, as you said), with all others being dialects of one or the other (Like how someone from London [especially East End] and someone from Liverpool have trouble understanding one another, but they are both considered to be speaking English). Although I think I remember hearing that there's a minority of linguists that think Sichuan (四川) should be considered it's own language.

You must be another chinese
glad to see you here
but what you sail I don't agree
There are so many other dialects like Shanxi Shanxi
just because they have different annouce.
As you say Contonese just because it has the pronouce standard of itself