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

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)

The hidden message in Chinese food 06: consuming vinegar (Taiwan)

Another Conoco Taiwan local staff lunch outing was to a dumpling restaurant.  I was absolutely amazed at how many dumplings my colleagues could each eat.  Even the women could eat something like 25 of them at one sitting.

The simplest dip for dumplings is soya sauce and vinegar (醋 cù).  One can also add one or all of the following: chilli oil, sesame oil, garlic paste, ginger, chopped spring onion, coriander.  Anything that one fancies really, I guess.

My youngest colleague, Mary Fu 傅曼麗, then only 21 (three weeks younger than I), had her saucer filled with something like one part soya sauce and four parts vinegar.  

Accountant Cray Chang 張城隆, as usual, immediately remarked, “哇，你很会吃醋！wa, nǐ hěn huì chī cù / Wow, you very much know how to eat vinegar.”  

This was an obvious pun, because 吃醋 chī cù / “eat vinegar” in Chinese means “to get jealous”, so Cray was saying to Mary, “You get jealous easily (You’re very good at eating vinegar).”

Mary’s instant response was, 我只会吃湿醋，不会吃干醋 / wǒ zhǐ huì chī shī cù, bù huì chī gān cù / “I only know how to eat wet vinegar, not dry vinegar”.

(Taiwan, 1975)