Student Ed and I spent lots of our lessons in academic year 2012/2013 reading works by famous Chinese writers.
A common Chinese literary device is to ask a rhetorical question, then go on to provide the answer. Or, a statement would be made about something, to be followed by an expansion on the point.
At the beginning, Ed would get to a point (rhetorical question, or just a statement), and immediately ask, say, “But why does she want to do that?” or “What’s the reason for that?” I’d say to him, “You’ll find out if you read on.”
After a few more times of this, it became: “Wait! Move on and you’ll find out.”
After that, it got shortened to: “Wait! Move on!”
Talk about oxymoronic instructions!
(London, 2013)
Haha this is funny.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of when one says: "Don't tell me!" as an expression of surprise for hearing something unexpected. It is often followed by "Tell me, tell me" because one in fact wants to hear the rest of the story...