Chinese tones: Do you have a pen? (London)

Further to my blog entry Learning Chinese: tones, first posted 160811, another word for which Westerners often get the tone wrong in Mandarin Chinese is “笔 / writing implement”, which is bǐ (third tone).  Out of Western students’ mouths, it usually ends up being rendered in the first tone, which is “vulva”（屄 bī：corpse radical 尸 shī, and 穴 xuè / cavity).

One evening, I was in the pub with my students for our usual post-lesson drink.  The conversation, as ever, was an extension of the lesson — we often talked about things related to the Chinese language or culture.  The students doing the evening classes in Chinese were all there out of interest, so it was natural that they were always interested in background issues beyond the textbook and the classroom.  

At one point, I said something that caught Ronnie’s special interest, so he wanted to write it down.  Turning to Frazer (now deceased), Ronnie asked in Chinese, “你有没有笔？(nǐ yǒu méiyǒu bǐ? / Do you have a pen?)”  

Unfortunately, Ronnie’s 笔 came out in the first tone.  

Frazer had already got up to go to the loo, just as Ronnie put this question to him, so I said, “He’s going to check.”

(London 1989)

Frazer:  hope you’re having a giggle over this!  You’re being missed lots.