# Some of the 3D billboards look so real!



## yuechu

大家好！

I recently saw some videos of the new 3D billboards, and I wanted to say that "Some of the 3D billboards (of waves, cats, whales, etc.) look so real!".
Would anyone know how to translate this into Chinese?

Thanks!


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## SimonTsai

有些立體看板 (像海浪、貓、鯨魚之類的) 看起來就跟真的沒兩樣!

In everyday conversation, some of us may prefer to say '3D 看板' rather than '立體看板'. '3D' in Mandarin is pronounced '三滴', and some people may mispronounce the '看' with the first tone.


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## ovaltine888

几可乱真
栩栩如生


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## yuechu

Oh, I didn't realize that there was also a Chinese word for 3D! Thanks for the translations, Simon!

Thanks for your translations as well, Ovaltine888! 

How about: "有些立体看板很像真的"? Would that work as well? (or does it sound like Zhonglish? (English-style Chinese))
EDIT: Also, is it possible to add 儿话音 here: "没两样(儿)"?


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## ovaltine888

看板 is actually not seen in mainland Chinese. My only encounter was "看板管理" which refers to Japanese "Kanban", a scheduling system in Just-In-Time Manufacturing Methodology introduced by Toyota.

I would just call billboard 广告牌.

有些3d广告牌看上去很像真的
This one sounds natural and neutral.

没两样 is rather colloquial and somewhat regional.

I will tend to say 有些3d广告牌看上去像真的一样。


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## yuechu

Oh, good to know. Thanks, Ovaltine888!


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## SimonTsai

yuechu said:


> Oh, I didn't realize that there was also a Chinese word for 3D!


We have different words for '3D' in Mandarin. For example, in a mathematics textbook, we may say '三維空間', where '維' means '維度'. But '三維看板' and '三維廣告牌' sound wrong.


> How about: "有些立体看板很像真的"? Would that work as well?


It is grammatically correct and understandable by native speakers of Mandarin, but is not as natural as it would be if '看起來' or '看上去' were added.


ovaltine888 said:


> 有些 [3D] 广告牌看上去很像真的 This one sounds natural and neutral.


Yes, that one can sound unemotional. I would put a full stop instead of an exclamation mark.


> 看板 is actually not seen in mainland Chinese.


Much to my surprise! Here are some example sentences of '看板' returned by Google:

招牌廣告：指固著於建築物牆面上之電視牆、電腦顯示板、廣告看板、以支架固定之帆布等廣告。 (營建署)​本公司加油站皆有廣告看板可供各商界友人刊登廣告。若有意願，請直接來電洽詢 [……]。 (山隆通運)​完成後的手繪電影看板，現在就掛在新竹影像博物館的外牆上。 (風傳媒)​對於力拚轉型的宏碁來說，今年數位看板也將是 [布局的重點]。 (數位時代)​


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## ovaltine888

SimonTsai said:


> Much to my surprise! Here are some example sentences of '看板' returned by Google:
> 
> 招牌廣告：指固著於建築物牆面上之電視牆、電腦顯示板、廣告看板、以支架固定之帆布等廣告。 (營建署)​本公司加油站皆有廣告看板可供各商界友人刊登廣告。若有意願，請直接來電洽詢 [……]。 (山隆通運)​完成後的手繪電影看板，現在就掛在新竹影像博物館的外牆上。 (風傳媒)​對於力拚轉型的宏碁來說，今年數位看板也將是 [布局的重點]。 (數位時代)​


我猜“看板”应该是日语来源的台湾中文，只是没有在大陆使用。


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## SimonTsai

'看板' is different from '便當' in that it sounds native and that we can easily associate its meaning with the characters, so I'm unsure if it's a borrowing from Japanese.


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## Flaminius

Simon's first link in #7 (the one to 營建署) is unreachable from where I am.  In case someone wants to view the page in its original, here is its WayBackMachine version.  All the links there are usages from the 21st Century.  The Japanese word 看板 is at least 100 years old.  I wouldn't be surprised if the word turned out to be of Chinese origin, forgotten since outside Japan and Taiwan.  But in order for the theory to be plausible, you must show an older attestation in Chinese.


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## SuperXW

Flaminius said:


> Simon's first link in #7 (the one to 營建署) is unreachable from where I am.  In case someone wants to view the page in its original, here is its WayBackMachine version.  All the links there are usages from the 21st Century.  The Japanese word 看板 is at least 100 years old.  I wouldn't be surprised if the word turned out to be of Chinese origin, forgotten since outside Japan and Taiwan.  But in order for the theory to be plausible, you must show an older attestation in Chinese.


The characters of 看板 are Chinese, just I can't find evidence that the word or usage exist in ancient China.
Therefore I also doubt if it is a Japanese words written in Chinese characters.
"Billboard" sounds like a foreign word that I couldn't think of a counterpart in ancient Chinese.


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## Flaminius

With due respect, you needn't look that far.  China and Japan had an uninterrupted trade relationship during the Shogunate Regime.  Many goods as well as words were traded back then, and 看板 could have been one of them.  It's a possibility to be sure, but I personally don't think it's a very big one.


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## T.D

May I add that, the adjective <real> is describing the images on the billboard, not the billboard itself.
有些3d广告牌看上去像真的一样 sounds like "the board looks real", which is not what you actually wanted to say, I suppose.


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## ovaltine888

T.D said:


> May I add that, the adjective <real> is describing the images on the billboard, not the billboard itself.
> 有些3d广告牌看上去像真的一样 sounds like "the board looks real", which is not what you actually wanted to say, I suppose.


It's true, but it is idiomatic. It is just the way people say. We all know that we are talking about the content of the billboard.


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## T.D

ovaltine888 said:


> but it is idiomatic. It is just the way people say. We all know that we are talking about the content of the billboard.


I don't know...but let's agree to disagree.

As for billboard, I believe younger people will be able to understand what a 看板 is. I personally learn this word from 看板娘 kanbanmusume。

PS: Although 没两样（儿） is fine by me, I guess we are more likely to say 没什么两样 or 没啥两样。


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## SuperXW

Flaminius said:


> With due respect, you needn't look that far.  China and Japan had an uninterrupted trade relationship during the Shogunate Regime.  Many goods as well as words were traded back then, and 看板 could have been one of them.  It's a possibility to be sure, but I personally don't think it's a very big one.


汉字、汉语是中国传入日本，但日本根据字义发展了一些自己的词汇。
这些词汇虽然使用汉字，中国人也勉强可以联想到含义，但不能算是汉语。
比如“受付”“手纸”是日语，“收款”“信件”才是汉语。
还有据说很多常用的自然科学和社会科学的词汇，比如“经济”“政治”，是在近代日语回传汉语的。
因为在中国大陆我不记得见过任何时期的文字使用“看板”，所以怀疑也是日语词汇。


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## SuperXW

T.D said:


> May I add that, the adjective <real> is describing the images on the billboard, not the billboard itself.
> 有些3d广告牌看上去像真的一样 sounds like "the board looks real", which is not what you actually wanted to say, I suppose.


我同意oval，口语没有那么严格。正如我们说“看电视”，其实是指“看电视节目”。因为语境中不可能出现“假的3d广告牌”，所以默认是指广告效果很真实。


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## T.D

其实我不太清楚3D广告牌到底是什么东西。。。他是像投影仪一样的一个“图像投射装置”，还是像LED一样的一个“屏幕”呢？ 如果是后者的话应该没问题，如果是前者的话我还是稍微觉得说它“像真的“有些奇怪。


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## SimonTsai

I think a 3D billboard can be literally 3D or a screen. For example, here is a cat in Tokyo:





The cat is not a sculpture but a digital image that looks very real. And here is Lorax presented in 3D:






Flaminius said:


> The Japanese word 看板 is at least 100 years old. [...] you must show an older attestation in Chinese.


I couldn't find any instances of the word '看板' in Chinese as such, but I found something else:

本國商人咸集於會館，看板則知某貨共有若干。 (小方壺齋輿地叢鈔 by 王錫祺, 1877)​
'看板' in the sentence above is not a word but seems to relate to it in some way. (And maybe you can find it in 都繁昌記, a work in Chinese written by a Japanese.)


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## Flaminius

The oldest Japanese attestation of the word is found in 文明本節用集 a.k.a. 雑字類書 (1474+), according to 日本国語大辞典, an authoritative dictionary of this language.  Since 看版 is listed under the 器財門 category, it was still used in the concrete sense.

I managed to find 通の看板 in the preface of an illustrated storybook from the Yedo Period (l.2):
七珍万宝『苦者楽元〆』歌川豊国画 江戸、伊勢屋治助、1788年。​This phrase should mean something like 专家的自恃.  Notice the extended use of the word 看板.  Here, it is used synonymously with reputation, or brand.  I take it to mean that the word was so old by that time that it had had enough time to develop various metaphorical usages.


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## SimonTsai

Now I believe that '看板' is very likely to be Japanese in origin.


Flaminius said:


> Since 看版 is listed under the 器財門 category, it was still used in the concrete sense.


Just asking, is there any difference between 看板 and '看版' and between 器材 and '器財'?


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## Flaminius

No difference that I know of.  In fact, character-allomorphism with identical pronunciations is so common between modern and historical varieties of Japanese that it's very exhausting to worry about each case.  Another example from the 節用集, 学問 > 学文.


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