How to avoid a cross language misunderstanding. − 10 November, 2004
There were two places we the teachers in Jiang bei would often frequent when it came to eating out. "The village", which wasn't a village, just a place where the workers who were building houses would come to eat and drink and the "strip". Just the long road behind the school with restaurants all down one side of it.
Eating out was done everyday, food is so cheap in China it doesn't make any sense to stay in and cook. You also get to do a lot of laughing and socialising and get drunk. Fabulous. Although, we were always on the look out for new and exciting places to eat. Occasionally someone would find a real belter. Like the Indian Kitchen off of gugeli dajia. With real Indian Chefs, making real Indian food. God I miss that place.
Anyway eating out saw me through a difficult first week living abroad and beyond.
One day one of our flock discovered another place to eat. So with much excitement we were all going to head out and sample some of it's delicacies.
He called the place "Village 2", because it was pretty much next door to the other village. Just a walk Northwards by about 20 minutes.
I went, my large Irish mate went, Ganbei master was there, the Northerner, Tom, Leroy, the polite English teacher and the Australian.
I doubt if any foreign blood had ever been to this part before. We were pretty much all stared at most of the time. We walked down a dirt road, aside it trenches, I think to let water run off. Cars and tuc tucs were running up and down the street and we obligingly moved out of the way, rather than be run over.
We found a place to eat, some way down the road. There was a large picture of fish and other animals over the front of the door. The usual accompaniment of fluorescent external lighting was in show.
We made our way in, were shown to our seats and ordered a dish of nearly every animal you could care to think of, with rice and then beer.
A table of Chinese workers was off to our left and they invited Tom over to chat with them.
Tom was Chinese, but was born in England and couldn't speak any Chinese fluently, but had learnt a few words since coming over.
We were all having a great time, good food, beer and laughs.
This was about the time Tom decided to try and teach the guys some English.
"Wo" he said, pointing to himself, then said "I".
Then he pointed to the guy sitting in front of him and said "Ni" The guys at the table didn't do much eating after that, they just stared at Tom.
"Ni, is you" he said some pointing at him.
He reiterated it again for them.
"Wo" pointing at himself
"I" Pointing to himself.
"Ni.... you" pointing at him.
The fuwuyuan (waitress) came over to us quite worried and said something to us and pointing to Tom in the corner with his new friends.
Ganbei master suddenly clicked turned to us and laughed "Is he telling them he loves them?!?"
We all looked at one another and burst out laughing.
wo I ni (我爱你) means I love you. So Tom had been communicating something other than he thought to the bloke.
Which was more or less at the point we were bundled out of the restaurant and into a guys white van. We were being driven home, nice I thought, although Ganbei master joked that it was probably for our safety. That probably wasn't too far from the truth either. The guys looked pretty cross on leaving.
Moral of the story. Don't teach a complete Chinese stranger to say "I" and "you" in English. You might be telling them a little more than you mean to...
Eating out was done everyday, food is so cheap in China it doesn't make any sense to stay in and cook. You also get to do a lot of laughing and socialising and get drunk. Fabulous. Although, we were always on the look out for new and exciting places to eat. Occasionally someone would find a real belter. Like the Indian Kitchen off of gugeli dajia. With real Indian Chefs, making real Indian food. God I miss that place.
Anyway eating out saw me through a difficult first week living abroad and beyond.
One day one of our flock discovered another place to eat. So with much excitement we were all going to head out and sample some of it's delicacies.
He called the place "Village 2", because it was pretty much next door to the other village. Just a walk Northwards by about 20 minutes.
I went, my large Irish mate went, Ganbei master was there, the Northerner, Tom, Leroy, the polite English teacher and the Australian.
I doubt if any foreign blood had ever been to this part before. We were pretty much all stared at most of the time. We walked down a dirt road, aside it trenches, I think to let water run off. Cars and tuc tucs were running up and down the street and we obligingly moved out of the way, rather than be run over.
We found a place to eat, some way down the road. There was a large picture of fish and other animals over the front of the door. The usual accompaniment of fluorescent external lighting was in show.
We made our way in, were shown to our seats and ordered a dish of nearly every animal you could care to think of, with rice and then beer.
A table of Chinese workers was off to our left and they invited Tom over to chat with them.
Tom was Chinese, but was born in England and couldn't speak any Chinese fluently, but had learnt a few words since coming over.
We were all having a great time, good food, beer and laughs.
This was about the time Tom decided to try and teach the guys some English.
"Wo" he said, pointing to himself, then said "I".
Then he pointed to the guy sitting in front of him and said "Ni" The guys at the table didn't do much eating after that, they just stared at Tom.
"Ni, is you" he said some pointing at him.
He reiterated it again for them.
"Wo" pointing at himself
"I" Pointing to himself.
"Ni.... you" pointing at him.
The fuwuyuan (waitress) came over to us quite worried and said something to us and pointing to Tom in the corner with his new friends.
Ganbei master suddenly clicked turned to us and laughed "Is he telling them he loves them?!?"
We all looked at one another and burst out laughing.
wo I ni (我爱你) means I love you. So Tom had been communicating something other than he thought to the bloke.
Which was more or less at the point we were bundled out of the restaurant and into a guys white van. We were being driven home, nice I thought, although Ganbei master joked that it was probably for our safety. That probably wasn't too far from the truth either. The guys looked pretty cross on leaving.
Moral of the story. Don't teach a complete Chinese stranger to say "I" and "you" in English. You might be telling them a little more than you mean to...
Comments:
kga245 (December 20, 2006. 05:36pm)
:-)