Language usage: slang

 

Old friend Valerio posted a photo of something he saw at Heathrow (en route to Rome) which says "Chat to us via WhatsApp", wanting to know if "chat to" was correct English. He says only "chat with" is used in American English.

    This reminds me of my time in Taipei working for Conoco Taiwan.

    A radio operator colleague's friend, Mr Yang, was a manager at a hotel who decided to run a little business on the side, training tourist guides.

    There was a national exam for it, comprising the obvious elements related to tourism: the geography and history of Taiwan, especially the popular tourist sites, and English.

    The English test was in two parts: a multiple-choice Q&A test (for the Listening element), and a one-to-one interview (for the Oral element).

    Mr Yang asked me to design a batch of sample multiple-choice papers for his course, then record them (with me and a male voice to distinguish between the Q role and the A role).

    Rather than just let the students listen to the recordings (which was all they had to do for the test), Mr Yang decided to invite me along for the feedback once their answer sheets had been marked (by one of his staff). This would give the students extra Listening and Oral practice and interaction, which was all good preparation for the interview element, and of course for real life listening and speaking (which they didn't get much of in those days). Most forward-thinking indeed, to give his business that extra pull factor.

    When the would-be students found out at enrolment that the teacher was to be someone from Singapore, a lot of them objected, saying they wanted an American. One of them, a Singaporean studying at the National University of Taiwan, said, "I'm from Singapore. I know what the standard of English is like there. I don't want to learn English from a Singaporean."

    Mr Yang said they could attend a couple of lessons to find out for themselves what the quality of my English was before deciding to register and pay. At the end of my first lesson, all the Doubting Thomases paid up for the whole course without testing me for the rest of the two lessons that they were allowed to sit through before paying up. (A lot of them said, in case you're interested, that, in their experience, not all native-speakers knew how to explain to them how the language works or why.)

    Their multiple-choice test exercises could be, and were, marked (during the break before I stepped in for the feedback) by Mr Yang's staff using the answer sheets provided by me (the setter). My presence, therefore, had to have a value-added element to it, so:

* Rather than just let them have their marked answer scripts back, I asked them to explain why their right/wrong answers were right/wrong. This gave them some practice in speaking, as well as some training in being what I now call in my teaching of Mandarin "Sherlock Holmes" (one of his skills being deductive reasoning) -- a skill they'd have to apply in real life, without the teacher being there to give them the nod (or otherwise).

* I threw in as much extra information and insights as I could into things related to the English language that they might not know. One example: names used in real life / informal reference / as nicknames, especially by Americans*, don't always match their official versions -- Bill for William is not so far out, but Chuck for Charles is not such an obvious link, nor Dick for Richard, nor Bob for Robert. (Taiwan was an ally of America at the time, so they were mostly exposed to Americans, e.g., the soldiers based there. In fact, all white-looking foreigners would be "American" to them, even those who speak with a very strong non-English accent, e.g., French, German, Italian, Spanish, because Taiwanese people didn't know enough English, nor enough about the outside world, to be able to tell the difference. The Western equivalent would be that "all Chinese people look alike" -- in my case, "all Africans" when I first went to SOAS / School of Oriental and African Studies.) When I saw them scribbling furiously in their notebooks, I knew I was on the right track.

* I taught them as much tourist-scenario-based English as possible, which also served as preparation for the one-to-one interview element of their test. One obvious scenario was shopping, so I went for role-playing, e.g., how to ask about prices / ask for other options in colour or size, etc. To one of the phrases I taught them, "That's too expensive," a student raised his hand and said, "I thought the way to say it is, [complete with an American twang] 'It's a rip-off!'" Hahahahaha, I still laugh now as I'm writing this. I had to issue the warning (and still do, now, more than half a century later) that it would be safer to steer clear of slang.

(Taiwan, 1975)

Strange logic: 03 (我先走了)

A common expression in Mandarin Chinese (and in some dialects as well) said when one's leaving a place is:  

我先走了

wǒ xiān zǒu le

"I first leave change-of-state-marker"

    The English equivalent would be, "I'm off now."

    It means "I’m leaving first", i.e., before the listener.

    To me, the logic is fine if the listener is leaving as well, just a bit later (e.g., staying on a bit longer at the office to do overtime), so the speaker is leaving first, to be followed by the listener at some later point.

    It is, however, very strange logic to me when it's said by a departing guest to the host who is remaining behind (maybe not leaving until the next day to go to work).

Chinese hospitality etiquette: 03 (Playing Host and Guest roles) (China)

Tuesday being the first day of Chinese New Year, I played a few Chinese word games with my Tuesday group students.

    One of them was a clue leading to a place name, which in this case was Changsha 长沙 / "long sand".  

    This then reminded me of a book I'd read in the 80s written by an American (Mark Salzman) who'd done his first degree in Chinese at Yale, no less.  He'd taught English in Changsha for two years but was mainly there because of his keen interest in kungfu, Changsha having a kungfu master he admires.  (For those who don't know but might be interested, Changsha has a political connection with Mao Zedong.)

    I told my students about his run-in with the concierge at the school where he was teaching English, but that will have to be recounted in a separate blog.

    Fired up by the memory, I went to YouTube to track down the film he'd subsequently made (and starred in), based on his book (Iron and Silk, also the name of the film).

    Fairly soon into the film, there's a scene where his (female) Chinese teacher arrives for his lesson in his room.

    (Below is my summary of the scene.)

    The teacher sits down.  The American is ready to start.  The teacher tells him that being the host (and the student in this case), he should begin by offering the teacher some tea.

    He fetches some tea, the teacher says no, he takes the tea back to the sideboard.  The teacher says that's not the right thing to do.  He says, "But you said no."  The teacher explains that the Chinese guest has to do that -- it's part of the ritual.

    This immediately got a bonus point from me (occupational hazard, teacher mode is never turned off):  one doesn't just learn the language, one has to learn about the history and cultural behaviour as well.  (In my teaching of the language, I distinguish between grammatical usage and cultural usage:  a sentence might be grammatically correct, but it might not really be how the Chinese would say it.)

    He then sits down again to start the lesson.  The teacher says he should offer her something to eat.  He fetches some sweets, the teacher says no, and the same thing happens again: he takes the sweets back to the sideboard.  The teacher launches another explanation about the host / guest routine.  Another bonus point from me.

    At the end of the lesson, the teacher gets up to leave.  He says goodbye to her at the door of his dormitory room.  The teacher tells him that as the host (and the student), he's supposed to walk her off the premises.  Another bonus point.

    Part of the way to the main entrance of the university compound, the teacher tells him that he doesn't have to go any further.  He starts to leave her there to make his way back to his room.  Again, the teacher explains what's expected of him.  It's another stage in the host / guest role-playing game.  (Reminds me of the oft-heard expression, in my younger days anyway, about women saying no but not really meaning it...)

    The above is my summary of the scene.  Some of the details might not match the original exactly, but you can watch the film for yourself.

    I've found it charming and fun to watch -- not just for the kungfu, which is a passion of mine as well, but more broadly for the social history.  It's a China that's not around anymore for the most part:  architecturally, people's attitude about foreigners, the way of life, the materialistic quality of life.  The teachers he was teaching English to remind me of the staff of China Airlines (the national carrier for the Republic of China) in Taipei that I used to teach on Saturdays:  their accents and their cultural behaviour.  

    A time warp watching this film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOIbalP7dj8 (1:31:53)

(China, 1986)

Spoonerism: ternlan (Singapore)

Doing my Spoonerism stories with the English conversation class yesterday for listening and guided speaking has awakened a memory from my childhood days.

    The Mandarin for lantern is 燈籠 / 灯笼 / dēng lóng / "lamp cage".

    In my southern Chinese dialect of Teochew (潮州 / Cháozhōu), it's pronounced deng lang.  As a child, I always called it leng dang.

(Singapore, 1960s)

Spoonerism: Shandy the dog (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2011/08/spoonerism-shandy-dog.html)

Spoonerism: kepala and kelapa (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2011/07/spoonerism-kepala-and-kelapa.html)

Spoonerism: crooks and nannies (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2011/07/spoonerism-crooks-and-nannies.html)

Spoonerism: I'll ask the chicken (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2011/07/spoonerism.html)

You said we could lie: 02 (names for fictitious children) (London)

For the Beginners class on the evening programme, the oral test was three minutes per student, which is a long time to be speaking in Mandarin for that level.

    This was the strategy I taught the generations of students during my 23 years of teaching on the evening programme, presenting the plan graphically on the board.

    The student is in a bubble in the middle, marked Self, with details such as surname, name, age, nationality.  (That might be 30 seconds of the test time covered.)

    Radiating from that central bubble, like a satellite network, are four different identity bubbles:

    1. Family (the one they were born into), with details such as parents and siblings, plus their names and ages.

    2. Family (the one they've created), with details of their spouse and children.  (I told them all to be married and to have lots of children, to fill up the speaking time.)

    3. Their studies:  I told them all to be full time students, because they knew how to say they were learning Mandarin, and describe their teacher and fellow students.

    4. Their work:  This was the part of their life I told them not to venture into, as their Mandarin wasn't anywhere near good enough to talk about their work in real life, e.g., Hilary was an IP (Intellectual Property) Rights specialist lawyer; Chris Welch was a professor of aeronautics and space engineering at Kingston University.

    Student Dennis, unattached at the time, in answer to my questions in Mandarin, "Are you married?  Do you have any children?  How many? Boy or girl?  What are their names?", would giggle after each of his made-up answers.

    Student Tom didn't even bother to spend time and energy on this.  He simply gave the names of his two fictitious children as Gubo and Palanka, the two characters in the mainland Chinese-designed textbook we were using at the time.

    Palanka could be the Chinese rendition for Blanca, a common enough European name, but I was at a loss (this was pre-googling days) to put a finger on a provenance for Gubo.  Plumping for Albania (since it was, like China, one of the few communist countries left in the world at the time) was exotic and always produced a smile, so I stuck to it.

    Tom coming up with Gubo and Palanka for the names of his two fictitious children took me by surprise.  My eyebrows went up, as I checked in Mandarin, "Your children are called Gubo and Palanka?!?"

    He gave me a look of frustration (and something else -- maybe a touch of derision?) as he switched to English, "It was you who told us to play this silly game."

    Yes, he passed the oral test.  Couldn't fault him on lack of imagination.  Nor even for telling the examiner off....  I did say that they could lie -- as long as they lied grammatically.

(London, early 1990s)

You said we could lie: 01 (age) (London)

Old friend Valerio and I have been talking about using AI for our queries.

    We've both had some wrong answers.  Sometimes, it's due to the question not being worded in a way that lets AI know exactly what the questioner is looking for, as I discovered when the answer was off course, and re-wording the question a bit got me what I was expecting.

Valerio said:

Quote

The interesting thing with AI is that you can prevent bad responses if you explicitly tell it not to do it. If you don't say " don't lie" it has no reason to tell the truth.

Unquote

My response to the above was:

Quote

Hahahaha, how devious of it! “You didn’t tell me not to lie.”

Unquote

    This reminds me of my teaching evening class students.  To encourage them to speak, I said to them, "You don't have to tell the truth.  You can lie, as long as you lie grammatically."

    One day, a student said in Mandarin during an exercise in class that he was 16.  The evening course didn't admit students below 18, and this student was in his 30s at least (and looked it), so instinctively, I said in surprise, in Mandarin, "You are 16 years old?!!?"

    He came back with, in English, "You told us we could lie."

(London, mid–late 1980s)

Going round and round in circles: 02 (London)

The first blog about Going round and round in circles (https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2020/04/going-round-and-round-in-circles-london.html) reminds me of a phone conversation I once had with the secretary of one of our film directors on The Heart of the Dragon.

    The Heart of the Dragon was a 12-part Channel Four TV documentary series about China in the early 80s, made by a company specially set up for it, with each producer/director having their own company working on all sorts of other projects.

    Nigel’s company, Hawkshead Communications Limited, was a corporate training filmmaking company, specialising in communications.

    One day, a call came in from the Hawkshead secretary for Nigel.  He wasn’t in, so she said she’d like to leave a message for him.

Secretary:  Tell Nigel I can do it and you know what I mean…

Me:  Do what?  I don’t know what you mean.

Secretary:  No, those are the names of the training films:  “I can do it” and “You know what I mean”.

(London, 1983)