Fili’s world

Every once in a while I have an Israeli asking me where that Tainan place is in Taiwan. Although most Israelis shouldn’t have trouble reading an English map, there is the occasional person asking me where Tainan is that isn’t able to read English very well, for example – in my last visit to Israel my cousin was trying to explain to his 7-8 years old kid where I was at using a Hebrew Atlas.

Anyways, I was curious to see Hebrew Taiwan maps on the web, and what they might have about Taiwan. This is what I was able to find.

The most comprehensive one in Hebrew is from Masa Acher:

Doing a relatively good job. Problem is, and this is a general problem with translations to Hebrew, is that the Hebrew name for the city usually follows the Pinyin in which it was written rather than the true sound of the word, and since most cities in Taiwan carry a name that’s not in Hanyu Pinyin it makes for an awkward translation. Gao-Xiong (גאושוינג) is written in Hebrew like “Cow-o-Sh-wiong” (קאושיוונג) to try and translate “Kaohsiung”. I could never understand why Tai-Bei (טייביי) became Tai-Peh (טייפה) and not more the consistent Tai-Pei (טייפיי).

From Snopi :

Weird. This one actually writes Gao-Xiong (גאושיונג), and of all places in Taiwan decides to point out Orchid Island (“Lan Yu”) and Keelung together with Taipei, Kaohsiung and Tainan. I wasn’t aware Peng-Hu was called Pescadores Islands before.

Here’s Walla’s:

Well, this one is very simplified. There’s Taiwan, and China just next to it. I thought it was kind of cute that Taiwan looks bigger than China on this map and is colored Green

Ynet’s translated Lonely Planet map translates only half way:

Interestingly enough, there’s a city called Anping just next to Tainan (which – I believe, in reality,  is actually a neighborhood).

In any case, if you’re an Israeli coming to Taiwan, I suggest taking an English map as well, just to be on the safe side