On Jan 30, 8:54Â*pm, Mydnight > wrote:
> > Fried Rice with Egg
> > Actual: 蛋炒é¥*
> > They write: 旦少�
>
> > Flat Noodles with Beef
> > Actual: 牛肉河粉
> > They write: 牛河分 (Cantonese simply call it 牛河)
>
> Don't really see how this fits in as an example. Â*Your first example,
> the first one is the "fan ti" script that is still used in Hong Kong
> and Taiwan. Â*The "chao" character wouldn't be written as "shao" no
> matter in what restaurant you go unless your server is really
> uneducated; which isn't too uncommon in China. Â*You gave an example of
> how they sometimes abbreviate the language in the second example.

Please read what Lew wrote.
My first example is not in fan ti script. Please look at the
characters. If 蛋 is a fan ti for 旦, you need a new teacher. 炒 is the
same fan or jian ti, é¥* is written in jian ti, not fan ti. So which is
in fan ti?
'no matter in what restaurant' - unless you have been to all the
Chinese eateries in the world, you can only say 'in the restaurants
I've been to', which is not exhaustive. I just ate last week at Xiao
Nan Tian in Hongkong and watched the waiter wrote Nian Gao 年糕 as 年高。
The second example is the same, 分 written for 粉
Most times it is not that the waiters are uneducated. They substitute
one character for the other with the similar writing or sound in order
to expediate things: they write it fast and pass it on to the kitchen.
They do this for efficiency.
What is more horrifying is when the literate do it in their published
works, and one I can name on the fly is Teaparker. In several books by
him the pages are peppered by characters which share the same sound,
or similar strokes, but mean differently. Waiters do it to make their
job quicker, but a writer?