A Hong Kong Chinese colleague in the film company was in Beijing in the early 80s. In those days, restaurants and everything else shut around 8.30pm. She went to a restaurant, and there were some Italians at the next table who turned out to be able to speak English, so she joined them. A jolly time was had by everyone, which was noted by the waiters and waitresses, hanging around waiting for them to leave (ha! that’s why they’re called waiters!!).
When they finally left, at 9pm, the staff were lined up on both sides of the main door to see them out like royalty, so eager they were to ensure the revellers did actually get off the premises. The Italians and the Hong Kong Chinese woman were going in different directions, so they waved and called out a loud ciao! to each other. This completely baffled the staff, because ciao in Italian sounds exactly like the f-word in Mandarin Chinese. They couldn't work out why a group of people who’d got on so well at the dinner table earlier should be taking leave of each other with the f-word.
(Event happened in 1983)
I didn't know that ciao was an f-word in Chinese...now I need to find out which one...
ReplyDeleteYou won't be able to find it in most dictionaries.
ReplyDeleteI did find it in the "Dictionary that is the end of all dictionaries" (which is of course one of the many names by which Google reveals Himself to us), as the very first entry with the search "what does chow mean in Chinese."
ReplyDelete