Spontaneous fun with words: 06 (London/Paris)

Just done a lesson with my student Hélène in Paris.

One of the sentences for translating into Chinese is a doctor telling the patient his heart and blood pressure are normal.

The Chinese word for “heart” is 心 xīn.  

If it refers to “heart” the organ, one has to add the generic 脏 zàng / “internal organ”: 心脏 xīnzàng / “heart internal-organ”.  

This is because it is also used in an abstract way.  For example, 

1. to think a thought to oneself (not articulated aloud), one says: 我心里想 wǒ xīn lǐ xiǎng / “I heart inside think” = I inside my heart think;
2. one says a kind-hearted person is 好心 hǎo xīn / “good heart”.

After I’d explained all this to my student, she said, without even realising she was doing a pun, “I’ll have to go and learn it by heart.”  Inspired word play!

(London/Paris, 2021)