What are your most ganga 尴尬【awkward】 Chinese moments?
bababardwan
March 02, 2010, 01:43 PM posted in General DiscussionWhat are your most 尴尬 [awkward/embarrassing] Chinese moments?
Unfortunately I don't have any great anecdotes myself [but they don't have to be on this thread...just anytime you felt ganga] that I recall.Usually I just find them funny myself..like when I first started trying to learn Chinese and the classic tone mixup where I was trying to say I liked the food at the restaurant..xihuan ...and they were ready to march me to the kitchen to wash the dishes [perhaps they thought I was intimating I couldn't pay] much to my families amusement.
The only other one that comes up occasionally is where I start chatting in Chinese to someone I think is Chinese only to find I've got it wrong [or sometimes they are Australian born Chinese who've never learnt the language].I'm right about 9 times out of 10,but I've never learnt a good way to avoid this,as I think if you start in English it's harder to make the switch [any thoughts on that too would be interesting].
Another thing to discuss here is:
..suggestions on what not to say to get a conversation going in Chinese.
ousijia
haha!
xiaophil
Okay, I have a story in the same vein. It also isn't about me. I met this guy who went up to a girl and wanted to ask, "你有笔吗？" but got the tone on 笔 wrong. He said first tone. Don't do that guys. I don't want to spell out exactly what bi first tone means, but let's just say it might refer to an anatomical region on a female. (Now I feel a bit 尴尬.) After hearing this story, I'm always very cautious about tones when I ask for pens.
xiao_liang
Hah! Love these :) (Because I'm incredibly childish)
light487
March 04, 2010, 12:34 PMI actually see/hear more non-Chinese-speaking Chinese than I see/hear Chinese who can speak Chinese in Sydney. The closer you get to the city, the more who can speak Chinese but I am always surprised at the very Australian accents that come from the Chinese I encounter everyday. I've even overheard conversations about how they have no interest in learning the language nor have any interest in China itself.
Fair enough I suppose.. they are Australians, not Chinese.. but it always strikes me as odd that they have no interest at all... to the point where it seems like they are anti-Chinese.
sydcarten
March 03, 2010, 02:24 AMI don't have any embarrassing Chinese moments exactly, but I do have a German one.
As a teenager I went to Germany to study the German language. In the beginning I used to make some fundamental errors due to my ignorance of German word order and idiom.
One hot, summers day I went around telling everyone how hot I was feeling - in German of course.
I was saying
Ich bin heiss - I am hot
and
Heute bin ich sehr heiss - Today I am very hot.
I couldn't understand why I was getting such funny looks from people.
Eventually a girl came up and spoke with me. She said, "Look, I understand what you are trying to say, but this is not correct. In German we say 'Mir ist es heiss - (to me) it is hot'. When you say 'Ich bin heiss that is a slangy way of saying 'I am gay'.
Needless to say, I never made that mistake again.
I haven't yet embarrassed myself in Chinese, but did create a kind of situation for myself at work.
I work at a train station, and one day I saw an elderly Chinese woman wandering around on the platform looking generally lost.
I went up and asked her in English if I could help. She just stared at me uncomprehendingly. Then I switched to Chinese and got an immediate response. She started talking animatedly to me in rapid Mandarin. I could only understand one word in five, but somehow I got the gist of her story. She was trying to get to a certain station for the first time where her son would pick her up, and she was going to see her grandson for the first time.
I was able to give her the information she needed to catch the right train.
Since then I have seen her at my station several times, and every time she spies me she comes over and begins chatting away about her family. This would be OK, but she doesn't need my directions any more and usually she seems to come at inconvenient times when we are dealing with an operational problem, so if I see her now I just disappear.
xiaophil
March 03, 2010, 09:04 AMOkay, I have a story in the same vein. It also isn't about me. I met this guy who went up to a girl and wanted to ask, "你有笔吗？" but got the tone on 笔 wrong. He said first tone. Don't do that guys. I don't want to spell out exactly what bi first tone means, but let's just say it might refer to an anatomical region on a female. (Now I feel a bit 尴尬.) After hearing this story, I'm always very cautious about tones when I ask for pens.
bababardwan
March 03, 2010, 11:52 AMThanks guys,great tales.I wonder what the furtherest one has ever gone in a Mandarin conversation thinking one has the gist and nodding affirmation and minimal encouragers,only to realise way down the track that one had the completely wrong take on things.Then the dilemna..do you just quietly note that you'd got it wrong and keep quiet about it,or do you fess up and get back on track? How far is too far? [ A bit like when you've known someone for quite a time and somehow their name never stuck and no-one seems to be mentioning it...is it too late to ask?] And where's that rewind/replay button...did I say something ridiculous because I had the gist of the convo wrong...does something need correcting there? Does this scenario ring any bells? If so,how did you dig your way out?
orangina
Humility is the name of the game in language learning. I've found if I don't understand, or realize I misunderstood, it is best just to fess up. The trick after that is to keep the conversation going, and in Mandarin. If they speak English they will often switch at this point and if they don't, they will often just give up. But even that is better than letting someone think you understand their meaning. A good 不好意思 never hurt anyone.
As for not knowing if someone is ABC or not, I often start "Hi, 你好!" That way it is easier to let them pick a language to respond in. (So, ABC means American Born Chinese... is it the same for Australian or is it OBC... Oz Born Chinese?)
bababardwan
orangina,
Once again I completely agree with you.I was talking about a friend of course ;).Seriously though,I can't help but fess up if ever I'm in that situation as I like to have everything clear and no misunderstandings.Yeah,I think it's important to be able to laugh at yourself. At least then you aren't held back from giving it a shot.I've never let looking like a fool worry me [heck,otherwise I wouldn't post here so much,hehe].
xiaophil
Baba, I think you missed Orangina's question. Is there a special word or acronym for Chinese Australians?
Orangina, If I meet someone in America, I always assume they are Americans and simply say, "hi." I think many Chinese Americans would feel annoyed, possibly angry, if people were always saying 你好 to them, especially the ones born there. (I don't know if you were referring to speaking to people in China or America.)
I agree that one should fess up if one doesn't understand. But you know, there is gray territory. Sometimes I am 70% I understand them. Then what? I usually go with the conversation a little longer and see if I indeed understood. If I didn't, I say something like, 对不起，我以为我刚才明白你的意思，不过我没懂，你能不能再说吗？
sydcarten
they call themselves ABC's here in Oz too
sydcarten
I agree, I don't think it's appropriate in Australia to speak Mandarin as a first option.
When we meet people here you can't always be sure what ethnic background they have until they tell you.
Even when they have Chinese ethnicity it isn't always their first language, and they may not speak any at all.
Some years ago I had a girlfriend from Shanghai who spoke virtually no english at all. She couldn't even count to ten.
It was because of her I first became interested in learning Mandarin. She used to talk a lot, and somehow, over a period of time, the words just started organising themselves in my head and slowly started to make sense. It was a weird experience.
I remember one day I took her to Cabramatta, a suburb of Sydney that has a large Vietnamese and Chinese presence. The shopping centre is a mecca for foodies looking for 'the Asian experience'.
When my gf and I entered a shop together she would start talking to them in Mandarin. Sometimes they responded to her, but at least 8 out of 10 times they would look at me and say, "Can you tell her I don't speak Chinese!"
bababardwan
thanks for pointing that out xiaophil. Sorry orangina, I forgot to reply to the last part.To tell you the truth I have seen the term ABC since I joined CPod and learnt that it referred to American Born Chinese and while I could see that the A could also be used to refer to Australian I'm not sure I've heard anyone use that acronym here before,but sydcarten obviously has.Perhaps it's been more commonly used in Sydney than Brisbane..I really don't know.Maybe some other Aussies can shed some light.
xiao_liang
I hear BBC and CBC quite often (British.. and Chinese...). But then I've also seen CBC for Canadian born, so I guess it depends what country you're in! I expect in australia, ABC would mean australian born.
But to second what people said above, I think it's always best to avoid assumptions of nationality. Especially in today's multicultural society :)
bodawei
ABC is a common term in Sydney for Australian born Chinese Barbs; I heard this first and then only later learnt that it also referred to American born Chinese. My classes in Sydney were usually about 80% ABC and maybe 90% Asian (including non-ABC Chinese, eg. French Chinese, mainlanders?!, HK, Indonesian, Malasian, Korean, 等等).
Just a comment on assuming Chinese-looking people speak (Mandarin) Chinese, quite a few Chinese in Australia cannot speak Chinese (but they are learning fast - hence the composition of Chinese classes!)
BTW - the disappearance of the word 'Mandarin' is raising some issues, isn't it (see my sentence above.) If I had used the now accepted term 'Chinese' it may have been less clear. I have watched the disappearance in Australia - in five or six years courses have gone from:
Mandarin
to
Standard Chinese
to
Chinese.
Now if you say 'Chinese' people immediately ask 'what kind of Chinese?'
xiao_liang
Hmn. In England most British Born Chinese tend to speak Cantonese, being usually hong kong or southern immigrants.
But there's been a huge influx of chinese students due to a push from UK Universities for foreign students (since they pay 8x more, rather than any noble internalisation-based reasons), and this has led in my limited experience to a rather dramatic redressing of the balance in commonly spoken chinese.
light487
I actually see/hear more non-Chinese-speaking Chinese than I see/hear Chinese who can speak Chinese in Sydney. The closer you get to the city, the more who can speak Chinese but I am always surprised at the very Australian accents that come from the Chinese I encounter everyday. I've even overheard conversations about how they have no interest in learning the language nor have any interest in China itself.
Fair enough I suppose.. they are Australians, not Chinese.. but it always strikes me as odd that they have no interest at all... to the point where it seems like they are anti-Chinese.
xiao_liang
March 03, 2010, 12:15 PMHah! Love these :) (Because I'm incredibly childish)
ouyangjun116
March 03, 2010, 01:00 PMDue to my like of fun and hanging out in some of Shanghai's more notorious bar areas.... I picked up a handful of bad words that I would often use for fun and entertainment purposes.
But even today I mix one up all too often. For example, I'll go to the fruit market and be looking for 香蕉 (xiang1jiao1)， but I often get 香蕉 (xiang1jiao1) and 性交 (xing4jiao1) mixed up. It's really a problem I've had recently and I'm afraid to ask how much for 1 斤 (jin1) of banana's due to this.
Oh, and there's another one that is much better, but I think it may be completely inappropriate for these boards, so for now I'll leave it off.
pretzellogic
ouyangjun, go there! I feel like some whimsy today. Let us be the judge of inappropriate.
xiao_liang
I second that! But then, I do love a bit of filth. :)
BEBC
Don't be shy
ousijia
March 03, 2010, 02:21 AMhaha!
pretzellogic
March 03, 2010, 08:24 PMouyangjun, go there! I feel like some whimsy today. Let us be the judge of inappropriate.
xiao_liang
March 03, 2010, 08:59 PMI second that! But then, I do love a bit of filth. :)
BEBC
March 03, 2010, 09:07 PMDon't be shy
sydcarten
March 04, 2010, 01:14 AMthey call themselves ABC's here in Oz too
sydcarten
March 04, 2010, 01:26 AMI agree, I don't think it's appropriate in Australia to speak Mandarin as a first option.
When we meet people here you can't always be sure what ethnic background they have until they tell you.
Even when they have Chinese ethnicity it isn't always their first language, and they may not speak any at all.
Some years ago I had a girlfriend from Shanghai who spoke virtually no english at all. She couldn't even count to ten.
It was because of her I first became interested in learning Mandarin. She used to talk a lot, and somehow, over a period of time, the words just started organising themselves in my head and slowly started to make sense. It was a weird experience.
I remember one day I took her to Cabramatta, a suburb of Sydney that has a large Vietnamese and Chinese presence. The shopping centre is a mecca for foodies looking for 'the Asian experience'.
When my gf and I entered a shop together she would start talking to them in Mandarin. Sometimes they responded to her, but at least 8 out of 10 times they would look at me and say, "Can you tell her I don't speak Chinese!"
xiao_liang
March 04, 2010, 10:40 AMI hear BBC and CBC quite often (British.. and Chinese...). But then I've also seen CBC for Canadian born, so I guess it depends what country you're in! I expect in australia, ABC would mean australian born.
But to second what people said above, I think it's always best to avoid assumptions of nationality. Especially in today's multicultural society :)
orangina
March 03, 2010, 04:14 PMHumility is the name of the game in language learning. I've found if I don't understand, or realize I misunderstood, it is best just to fess up. The trick after that is to keep the conversation going, and in Mandarin. If they speak English they will often switch at this point and if they don't, they will often just give up. But even that is better than letting someone think you understand their meaning. A good 不好意思 never hurt anyone.
As for not knowing if someone is ABC or not, I often start "Hi, 你好!" That way it is easier to let them pick a language to respond in. (So, ABC means American Born Chinese... is it the same for Australian or is it OBC... Oz Born Chinese?)
John
March 03, 2010, 01:47 AMI can't think of my own at the moment, but I can think of one that happened to my friend which was super embarrassing just hearing.
This is back in my English teaching days in Hangzhou. My friend was also a teacher of spoken English in a local university. He was meeting a pretty girl for the first time, and wanted to communicate to her what his job was. Unfortunately, he had just learned an interesting, somewhat similar word.
What he wanted to say:
我是口语老师。(Wǒ shì kǒuyǔ lǎoshī.)
What he actually said:
我是口交老师。(Wǒ shì kǒujiāo lǎoshī.)