www射-国产免费一级-欧美福利-亚洲成人福利-成人一区在线观看-亚州成人

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Lifestyle

Mangling the language all part of the learning curve

By thomas talhelm ( China Daily ) Updated: 2010-04-29 09:33:53

"Little monkey, c'm'ere a moment!" The man sitting next to me beckoned.

Mangling the language all part of the learning curve

It was my first time in southwestern Yunnan province and I thought my Beijing-trained ears might have heard him wrong amid the clamor of the noodle stall, so I stopped eating and listened.

Soon, a woman looked up from her bowl and shouted: "Little monkey, maidan - check!"

As the waiter ran to grab the check, my humble Midwest American sensibilities recoiled.

This noodle stall in Yunnan was only my first stop outside of Beijing, but already I was nostalgic for the manners of the capital.

I knew things would be different here. My favorite Yunnan restaurant in Beijing hangs a proud list of the province's shiba guai, the "eighteen weirds" of the province's customs.

Beijing isn't exactly a bastion of politeness toward service workers, the standard practice is to just shout "waiter!" But surely ordering people around with the epithet "little monkey" exceeded any community's sense of decorum.

That night after my meal, I called my Yunnanese friend back in the States for some answers that might assuage my outraged sensibilities.

"People here call waiters xiao houzi - little monkeys? Isn't that kind of rude?" I asked.

I had to hold the phone away from my ear the laughter was so loud.

"That's not xiao houzi! That's xiao huozi - young man," she explained.

Language mangles happen around the world, even in our mother tongues. I once met a guy at a Halloween party in the States dressed from head to toe in a homemade corduroy robe, carrying a fake sword. I asked him who he was supposed to be.

"A corduroy ninja," he explained as if it were obvious. "You know, like the Outkast song: Shake it like a corduroy ninja."

"The lyric's 'Polaroid picture', not 'corduroy ninja'," I said, watching his face drop when he realized he'd wasted days making a costume based entirely on a lyric his ears had butchered.

Sure, all languages have traps. But I suspect Chinese and its mountains of homophones create the world's most ridiculous misunderstandings.

Mangling the language all part of the learning curve

Chinese professors from my alma mater teach their students early on about the dangers of China's homophones. Their favorite example is wo xiang wen ni, which can mean either "I want to ask you" or "I want to kiss you" depending on one critical tone. The only upside for students making that mistake on their first visit to China is that they're sure to learn a new word: liumang, creep.

Thankfully, the context is usually enough to prevent blunders from becoming sexual harassment lawsuits. But sometimes an odd mistake powers its way through an exceedingly obvious situation.

On a hike near the Guilin hills that grace the back of the 20 yuan note, a buddy of mine asked our Chinese guide why there was a nasty smell coming from the farm fields on either side.

"Is that stench coming from chemical fertilizer?" he asked.

Our guide looked puzzled. "Coming from the telephone bill?"

"No, chemical fertilizer. Chemical fertilizer!"

These two words are so far apart in English that the mistake seems absurd. But in Chinese, a single falling tone turns "huafei" from a chemical product to a phone bill.

Language traps are common in the already-difficult Chinese language, but they remind me to keep a sense of humor through the long process of learning, and they're the best insurance that I'll remember the difference between kissing and asking, between monkeys and waiters.

 

Tags
Editor's Picks
Hot words

Most Popular
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 老外一级毛片免费看 | 免费在线看a | 国产手机精品a | 男吃女下面刺激视频免费 | 国产精品免费一区二区三区 | 99久久精品国产片久人 | 91探花福利精品国产自产在线 | 日本免费人做人一区在线观看 | 久久久久综合给合狠狠狠 | 中国国产一级毛片 | 日本高清在线不卡 | 一级一片免费视频播放 | 一区二区三区免费高清视频 | 拍真实国产伦偷精品 | 青青爽国产手机在线观看免费 | 成年人免费观看的视频 | 91久久香蕉青青草原娱乐 | 99在线视频网站 | 中文字幕亚洲视频 | 国产玖玖视频 | 国产一区二区三区不卡免费观看 | tom影院亚洲国产日本一区 | 久久久免费观成人影院 | 成 人 黄 色 免费播放 | 欧美日韩精品一区二区三区不卡 | 成年女人毛片免费观看97 | 91成人精品| 毛片手机在线 | 亚洲一区二区影院 | 日本在线视频播放 | 欧美国产一区二区三区 | 高清一级淫片a级中文字幕 高清一区二区 | 久久久毛片免费全部播放 | 国产精品久久久久久久久久久不卡 | 国产精品久久久久免费 | 久久亚洲一级毛片 | 成人国产在线不卡视频 | 宅男66lu国产乱在线观看 | 免费在线看黄网址 | 美欧毛片| 成人欧美一区二区三区黑人免费 |