Example:

USA 美国 - 美 mean “beautiful” and 国 is “country”

So when my mom told me we were going to move to 美国, I, having never heard of anything about this country ever before, already had a positive impression of this “beautiful country”.

France 法国 - 法 is one of the characters in 法律, law, so my first impression was, that these people probably have very strict rules and are law abiders

Britain/UK 英国 - 英 is one of the characters in 英雄, hero, so I just imagine British people like to help the innocent (this was before I learned about British colonialism lol, but I guess the 英 character still sort of partly relevent, as in they view themselves as “hero”, aka: they interfere with other’s countries bussiness a lot)

Germany 德国 - 德 is one of the characters in 道德, morality, so I had a subconcious belief they were very moral people. I didn’t even know about the holocaust yet. 💀

Mexico 墨西哥 - 墨 is ink, 哥 is brother, so I though these are dark-skinned people that value brotherhood, masculinity.

South Korea 韩国 - 韩 sounds like 寒, so I just assumed it was a very cold country (isn’t it tho?) Oh BTW, I was in South Korea… in the airport waiting for a transfer flight, never actually entered the country for real, that was 15 years go, the closest I’ve ever been to South Korea. Wanna go there someday, see the snow (cuz its a 寒国 “cold country” remember xD)

Japan 日本 - 日 is the sun, so I thought it gets like very sunny or something

These are the few on the top of my head. You can mention any below and I can tell you what my “subconcious feel” about the name is.

  • [鳳凰院 凶真 Hououin Kyouma]|[alt: 黃家駒 Wong Ka Kui]@sh.itjust.worksOP
    4·
    5 days ago

    美國 can be very 美, politics aside

    Time Square and the surrounding area is cool, although it make me anxious as fuck since I’m an introvert and because 嗰時咁細個喺外國，英語當時亦唔係幾好, so I kinda have to stay very close to 父母 to feel safe, but its just amazing how so many people can fit in such a tiny island (Manhattan, that is)

    唐人街 in 曼克頓 is a reminder that I’m not alone is this place, last I checked, there are 5 Million of us here, it’s always a good reality check when faced with the constant news of political problems and the government constantly threatening to deport people.

    My mom always said “唔洗怕，如果係排華唔會淨係趕你一個人” (You won’t be the only one to be deported, we’d all be together) lmao

    I remember 啱啱來到美國嗰時 we’d use the subway a lot, but when we cross from Booklyn, where we lived, to Manhattan, the subway goes above ground to cross the water separating the two 區 on a bridge. That was the coolest scenes, just crossing the bridge, looking outside of the window of the subway. This place is so big.

    I remember in 廣州, 住喺嗰啲樓，the apartment unit was 好窄好邋遢

    嗰時喺布碌崙租嘅個間單位 (its a townhouse in suburban area, not a apartment building)，雖然亦係覺得好窄，但係覺得好似比較新，現代，like… it’s just 睇落去好好多，睇落去順眼 know what I mean?

    There are just so many cool places like there’s 好多公園 and 好多樹 where 廣州到冇咁多 greenery，空氣冇咁好

    It really is a beautiful country, but then you have these politicians trying to ruin it… and also um… 你知啦… foreign policy… 👀