Linguistic False Friends: 03 (English / Chinese: Wordplay)

I've been teaching English conversation to a group of Hong Kong incomers at a community centre in north London, as a volunteer.

    For the lessons, I try and incorporate things British:  British English [vs American English, which a lot of people around the world are familiar with, having watched American films and videos];  British food;  British sense of humour;  etc.).

    One British trait, shared by the Chinese, that I've brought up in class is the love of wordplay, particularly in tabloid newspapers and adverts.

    When I first asked the students what "wordplay" meant, a number of them immediately said "crossword puzzle".  (That was in November last year when I took over the class -- their regular volunteer teacher had found paid work.)

    This is probably because the Chinese verb "玩(儿) wán(er) / to play" is used a lot in everyday life.  (The "儿 ér" is the tongue-curling sound that northern speakers add to the end of lots of sounds, both verbs and nouns -- not used by southern speakers.)

    It is another cultural-usage word that poses translation problems, which I shall cover in greater detail in a blog of its own.  For now, it's simpler just to say that to the Chinese-speaking brain, "wordplay" seems to = "word game" (from the "玩 wán / play" link), and therefore ends up being "crossword puzzle".

    The group has just started a new term, with fresh members.  For revision and for the newcomers to catch up on what they'd missed, I asked what "wordplay" meant.  One of the new students said: "Crossword puzzle".

    I shall have to start using "a play on words" from now on.  (It'll be interesting to see if they still think it's "crossword puzzle"...)

* (From googling)  Quote Word play is a broad literary technique used to manipulate sounds and meanings (like puns or riddles). A crossword puzzle is a structured, grid-based word game. The key distinction is that word play is a creative device, while a crossword is a formalized puzzle solved by deducing exact answers to fit an intersecting grid. Unquote

* (From googling)  Quote In the UK, "Hong Kong incomers" refers to individuals and families who have migrated from Hong Kong, typically arriving via the British National (Overseas) [BN(O)] humanitarian visa route. Over 180,000 Hong Kongers have used this pathway to relocate to the UK, settling into communities across the country. Unquote

Coincidence?? (London / Singapore / Shanghai)

 

I play a mainland Chinese crossword puzzle game on my phone.  It comes under the Chinese equivalent of WhatsApp, which I’d had to download because some mainland Chinese people wanting to do English lessons with me can’t use anything else.

    The crossword puzzle game uses four-character Chinese sayings: some are common everyday usage ones, some are more erudite ones picked from classical Chinese texts and poetry.

    A student who works in Singapore has his lessons with me via WhatsApp.  One day more than a year ago, he told me at the end of his lesson that he’d be getting married.  Lesson over, I went to play the Chinese crossword puzzle game.  Among the first round of sayings was 男大当婚 nán dà dāng hūn / “man big ought-to marry”!

    For today’s lesson (still via WhatsApp) with the same student more than a year later, I fed him a four-character saying 花言巧语 huā yán qiǎo yǔ / “flowery words clever language” which the dictionaries have given as “slick / smooth talk”.  When I went into the Chinese crossword puzzle game after the lesson, one of the sayings in the first batch that came up was 花言巧语!

    During a lesson a few months back with a different student based in Shanghai, I gave him a saying that involves a slightly more classical Chinese construction: 诸 zhū which is short for 之于 zhī yú, roughly broken down as “it into”, e.g., 付诸东流 fù zhū dōng liú / “handover it-into east flow” (dictionary says: throw it into the eastward flowing stream; English equivalent: throwing something down the drain).  

    The significance of the eastward-flowing stream:  all rivers in China flow eastwards (starting from the Himalayas), so anything that's handed over to a river goes into the sea (and gets lost). 

    The 付诸东流 saying is common enough, without every Chinese user necessarily knowing the breakdown, as they tend to learn things by rote and repeat parrot-fashion.  It’s the 诸 being short for 之于 that’s the more obscure bit, often encountered in this meaning/usage only in set phrases or literary language.  

    After my lesson with the Shanghai-based student, I went into the crossword puzzle game.  Yep, up popped 付诸东流!

(London / Singapore / Shanghai, 2021–2023)