The verb (China)

I remember hearing a story some 30 years ago about a United Nations conference.  The speech was in German.  After the speaker had been going on for a little while, the audience heard no simultaneous translation on their earphones, so they fiddled around with the various control knobs, thinking there was a technical problem.  Then they looked up at the interpreters’ booth and found the German-English interpreter’s lips not moving.  They raised their hands and shoulders, asking the interpreter why he was not translating what the speaker was saying.  The interpreter said, “Wait for the verb!  Wait for the verb!”  

(For those who don't already know:  the German verb, like the Japanese verb, comes at the end of the sentence.  The English verb tends to come somewhere in the middle, so one cannot proceed with the English sentence until one has the verb.)

This put me in mind of what happened on the first film shoot, carried out in Harbin (N.E. China) in January/February 1982, for The Heart of The Dragon, the 12-part documentary series on China that went out on Channel Four in 1984.

The film directors had initially thought of using a presenter for the series, and they chose an English woman who could speak Chinese.  Let’s call her Mary Smith.

The episode was Episode Two, called Caring (on different levels:  the state for its people when they go mad or bad, so we filmed a psychiatric hospital and a prison; within the family — between husband and wife, between parent and child, between grandparent and grandchild, so we chose a peasant family).  

Mary was interviewing the grandmother about life within the family in China, and at one point got on to the subject of grain vouchers, doled out by the government in those days to the people.  Mary was trying to find out what they could buy with their grain vouchers. 

The dialogue, in Chinese, went this way:

Mary:  So, apart from grain, can you use the vouchers to buy other types of food?

Grandmother:  Yes.

M:  Oil?

G:  Yes.

M:  Sewing machine?

G:  Yes.

M:  Bicycle?

G:  Yes.

M:  Tram?  (What she meant was: “to travel on the tram”, but she forgot to switch the verb.)

G:  (Totally serious, taking her literally)  Ordinary Chinese families don’t buy trams. (一般中国家庭嘛，不买电车。)

(The old lady must've been thinking, "I know Westerners are rich, so maybe they DO buy trams, who knows?")

Mary then moved on to the kind of material the Chinese like to use/wear.

M:  So, do the Chinese wear cotton?

G:  Yes.

M:  Silk?

G:  Yes.

M:  Feathers?  (Mary had now moved on to stuffing for quilts and pillows, and padding for coats, but again she forgot to switch the verb.)

G:  (Again, totally serious, taking her literally)  Ordinary Chinese people don’t wear feathers. (一般中国人嘛，不穿羽毛。)

(The old lady must've been thinking, "I know Westerners do things differently from the Chinese, so maybe they DO wear feathers, who knows?")

(China, 1982)