Mr. Weys taught classical Chinese at SOAS.
The routine was: each student would get called by name, then start reading aloud one line, then translate.
During the reading aloud, students would often give the wrong half of a two-character compound if only one of the characters was presented in the text. For example, 邀 yāo (from the compound 邀請 / 邀请 yāoqǐng / “invite invite”) would get read as qǐng (請 / 请).
Mr. Weys would say, “The other one.”
The first time he did this, we’d be a bit confused, not knowing what he meant. After a couple more times, we’d twig, and choose the other sound of the compound.
I have since been applying this in my teaching (yes, students all make the same mistakes, whichever generation they might be), and say, “The other one.”
When students produce garbled renditions and I give them a coherent one, they’re often surprised and ask, “How did you know that was what I meant / wanted to say?!”
My reply: “You are all like my babies. A mummy can decode all the goo-goo ga-ga’s of her baby.” This was said with Mr. Weys in mind: his knowing that when the student gives the wrong sound, s/he really means “the other one”.
(London, 1978–1981)
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