What Is Your Country's Name in Chinese?

Today I explored the friend list of my facebook account to have a deeper understanding to my online society, and also reviewed all of my acquaintances on that social network. To be honest, I usually feel sorry to my friends since I am not such an activist to join fantastic parties and events organised by them. Therefore, I am going to ‘contribute’ more to them by means of intercultural communication on my own way, as a kind of compensation to every ‘escape’ I made when I was invited to share their fun J   

Well, if a language, like Chinese, is to be promoted to others, it may be initialised by introducing how the others’ motherlands are called by Chinese people. In fact, every country has its name represented prudently by us translators since it seems a quite formal and serious issue to demonstrate a new country and its people to his/her nationals. Any controversial or improper translation or title may lead to unfriendliness, even some conflicts that nobody wants to occur.

As counted, all of my friends on facebook come from thirty (excluding China Mainland and Taiwan Area) countries across the world. Now I am going to display what those countries are, how people in China call the countries in daily life with both Chinese characters and Romanised Chinese ‘Pinyin.’ The translation here are brief/abbreviated names, rather than the full names or formal names because people prefer an easier way to mention them.

1.       Armenia                               亚美尼亚                            Yà Měi Ní Yà

2.       Austria                                  奥地利                                 Ào Dì Lì

3.       Belgium                                比利时                                 Bǐ Lì Shí

4.       Brazil                                     巴西                                      Bā Xī

5.       Bulgaria                                保加利亚                            Bǎo Jiā Lì Yà

6.       Canada                                 加拿大                                 Jiā Ná Dà

7.       Denmark                              丹麦                                      Dān Mài

8.       Estonia                                 爱沙尼亚                            Ài Shā Ní Yà

9.       Finland                                 芬兰                                      Fēn Lán

10.   France                                   法国                                      Fǎ Guó

11.   Germany                              德国                                      Dé Guó

12.   Greece                                  希腊                                      Xī Là

13.   Indonesia                              印尼                                      Yìn Ní

14.   Japan                                     日本                                      Rì Běn

15.   Latvia                                    拉脱维亚                            Lā Tuō Wéi Yà

16.   Lithuania                              立陶宛                                 Lì Táo Wǎn

17.   New Zealand                       新西兰                                 Xīn Xī Lán

18.   Norway                                 挪威                                      Nuó Wēi

19.   Peru                                       秘鲁                                      Bì Lǔ

20.   Poland                                   波兰                                      Bō Lán

21.   Portugal                                葡萄牙                                 Pú Táo Yá

22.   Republic of Ireland             爱尔兰                                 Ài Ěr Lán

23.   Republic of Korea                韩国                                      Hán Guó

24.   Romania                               罗马尼亚                            Luó Mǎ Ní Yà

25.   Russia                                    俄罗斯                                 É Luó Sī

26.   Spain                                     西班牙                                 Xī Bān Yá

27.   The Netherlands                  荷兰                                      Hé Lán

28.   The UK                                   英国                                      Yīng Guó

29.   The USA                                 美国                                      Měi Guó

30.   Turkey                                    土耳其                                 Tǔ Ěr Qí