Comments on: Say what???

By: Toni

Toni — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:15:26 +0000

I’m learning Mandarin Chinese and Japanese as well. I’ve never been able to put it to use yet except maybe at a Restaurant or Convenience Store. On a couple of those occasions I was told “no no, thats Chinese, I’m Korean!” or “no no, I’m Vietnamese! That can be embarrassing also.
I think its great you’re learning Chinese.
TC

By: unclebob

unclebob — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:57:39 +0000

while not exactly a “foreign” language misunderstanding. when I was stationed in England my landlord’s 13 year old daughter wanted to show me her rubber collection. when she showed them to me I said “oh, erasers” and chuckled. Her mom suddenly caught it and started laughing too. She then let the rest of the family in on it telling them “In America rubbers mean condoms”. everyone had a good laugh.

By: Leslie Abbott

Leslie Abbott — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:13:55 +0000

Hi Lynn, Thank you. Don’t be too impressed with me trying to learn Chinese. It’s like anything. One step at a time. I’ve got a lot of steps until I could hold my own in a real conversation for any length of time.

By: Leslie Abbott

Leslie Abbott — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:09:12 +0000

That’s very funny Russell. I love it. Thank you!

I went to a talk at UC Davis on religion during the Renaissance. It was by a very distinguished visiting professor from Italy. He had a thick accent too. All was going well until he started talking about the Catholic monkeys. He of course meant monks. I thought I’d die from holding back my laughter.It was in front of a lot of people. That is the only thing I remember of the talk.

By: Russell from New York

Russell from New York — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:42:25 +0000

Thanks for your humorous adventures in foreign languages! Wars have been started as a result of faulty grammar, and if everyone followed your example, we’d all take time to have fun with it, and we might avoid such things. Speaking of “sheep” that double “ee” sound is somehow tough for Chinese speakers. Once when a friend of mine was disappointed with a martial arts performance of his students, he shook his head and told me they were all “slipping”. I was about to check the street for ice when I realized he felt that they lacked the proper energy, and meant they were sleeping. This is the same reason why my grandmother used to laugh at herself whenever she had to say the word, sheets (as this is a family website, I’ll just let you say it yourselves at home instead of spelling it out). One of the funniest things I’ve ever heard had nothing to with pronunciation at all, but word order. I was meeting up with my uncle for a gig, and when I arrived on the scene, he said, “Everything’s okay, but I’m one short person.” Of course I knew he meant he was one person short, but owing to his earnest tone and the fact the he is indeed one short person, I couldn’t stop laughing

By: Lynn C.

Lynn C. — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:16:20 +0000

Good stories, Leslie, and I am in complete awe of your learning Chinese!

I have nothing to offer on this topic though. I am completely monolingual. I took Spanish for 5 years in junior high and high school, but I flunked and spent a lot of class time outside the classroom in the hallway because I acted out. Which was unusual for me since I was a very quiet and good student usually. I do remember my translations from Spanish to English got a lot of laughs! On my first year Spanish final I got an 11. Yes, out of 100. Yikes! I’m just grateful that I can speak English a little.