Chinaisms - How the English language works

[sylinchinastill]

Yes- I know exactly with 'it doesn't matter'- Hengli will say that after I have told him something that worries me. I think he means to say it will be okay- but I'm like- "yes it does, I'm worried about it.'

[awch]

I have learned the hard way that " Not a problem" or "uninmportant" can often mean the opposite - in business and personal relationships.

I often find that people say this when they don't want to discuss something and are just agreeing with me to shut me up- it means "I don't want to talk about it".

[awch]

Yue will say something is "unimportant" when it really is.  I think it may be her way of dealing with difficult or unpleasant things.  It's easier to forget about a problem that to solve it.  I think it may be part of the Chinese "group harmony" thing.

All women do this!!! You haven't learned that by now??!! Or at least some form of it- What's wrong honey? Nothing.....

[nousername]

Yes- I know exactly with 'it doesn't matter'-  Hengli will say that after I have told him something that worries me. I think he means to say it will be okay- but I'm like- "yes it does, I'm worried about it.'

yeah, that's it... thanks, for putting the finishing touch on my comment.

[yyn701]

Yes- I know exactly with 'it doesn't matter'-  Hengli will say that after I have told him something that worries me. I think he means to say it will be okay- but I'm like- "yes it does, I'm worried about it.'

yeah, that's it... thanks, for putting the finishing touch on my comment.

'it doesnt matter'=it's not a big deal

[warpedbored]

"eat finish" = eat it all or clean up your plate.

[chrisnhong]

In Xi'an last month I took a tour to see some of the sights, one of which was a building shaped like a pyramid, with a sphinx and a miniature "Collossus of Rhodes" standing outside.

 

It was called "The Hell of the Eight Ancient Wonders of the World"..

[tonyontherock]

How many times have you heard, " ...this is China".

JPD

How many times have you heard, " ...this is China".

 

Too many times by far. Heard it before I left for U.S. Heard it again when I returned to China. That is the only thing that saddens me when I travel across the border on weekends.

 

On a lighter note about New York. I once had a client coming to court with a happy fisherman tee shirt on. On the front was this man standing in the water fly fishing with his thing out and a fish sucking on it. The client came to court for a child custody case.

Another occassion, a girl came to court in a miniskirt, on her smooth leg were tatooed paw prints that you would find on the walks in a zoo. The tatoos lead to between her legs. I found that pretty cute.

A man I saw around time square had a taoo on his face, in black the Chinese character "Ji", a character used at funerals. That looked pretty cool too.

In my earlie years, when I was in Canada, I taught my roommate a Chinese greeting word "mou mou ni nai zi". He practiced it on a 12 year old daughter of the local Chinese grocery store owner at the store. Poor Jeff came back really scared. The girl's dad was around and chased him out with a meat clever. (literal translation: touch touch your nipple)

There are a few difficult sounds for Chinese speaking person, Bad-bed, vest-west, and v, f, th, in general. For Cantonese speaking people and some northeast dialects, the "l" sound is troublesome. Also, for Cantonese, "-ng" sound is used oftern becasue of the cantonese tendency to use the "-ng sound" like "ing" "eng" "ong".

When I find it I will post the ads found in other parts of the world that have funny English usage in it.

[Carl]

I am not sure about how they say it in China, because I have not heard Ying say these words, but when I was stationed in Korea I remember the Koreans always adding GEE to words that ended in AGE, such as sausage, orange, garage......i.e. sausagee, orangee, garagee.

 

Have any of those who already have their loved ones here now noticed that?

[Jeikun]

I am not sure about how they say it in China, because I have not heard Ying say these words, but when I was stationed in Korea I remember the Koreans always adding GEE to words that ended in AGE, such as sausage, orange, garage......i.e. sausagee, orangee, garagee.

 

Have any of those who already have their loved ones here now noticed that?

Nah, it's a total Korean thing. Has to do with how they pronounce their own language.

[Mengxin]

How many times have you heard, " ...this is China".

JPD

How many times have you heard, " ...this is China".

 

Too many times by far. Heard it before I left for U.S. Heard it again when I returned to China. That is the only thing that saddens me when I travel across the border on weekends.

 

On a lighter note about New York. I once had a client coming to court with a happy fisherman tee shirt on. On the front was this man standing in the water fly fishing with his thing out and a fish sucking on it. The client came to court for a child custody case.

Another occassion, a girl came to court in a miniskirt, on her smooth leg were tatooed paw prints that you would find on the walks in a zoo. The tatoos lead to between her legs. I found that pretty cute.

A man I saw around time square had a taoo on his face, in black the Chinese character "Ji", a character used at funerals. That looked pretty cool too.

In my earlie years, when I was in Canada, I taught my roommate a Chinese greeting word "mou mou ni nai zi". He practiced it on a 12 year old daughter of the local Chinese grocery store owner at the store. Poor Jeff came back really scared. The girl's dad was around and chased him out with a meat clever. (literal translation: touch touch your nipple)

There are a few difficult sounds for Chinese speaking person, Bad-bed, vest-west, and v, f, th, in general. For Cantonese speaking people and some northeast dialects, the "l" sound is troublesome. Also, for Cantonese, "-ng" sound is used oftern becasue of the cantonese tendency to use the "-ng sound" like "ing" "eng" "ong".

When I find it I will post the ads found in other parts of the world that have funny English usage in it.

My wife gets mad at me for converting RMB to US dollars in my head before buying anything.

 

Example:

My logic is...

The Taxi is 16 RMB more than the Bus. ....calc%&^&*...$2US

The bus takes 15 to 20 minutes longer and you have to share with everyone.

Answer= Take the taxi.

 

Wrong answer!!! Why? "because this is China."

The taxi is 16RMB more than the bus.

 

Correct answer= Take the bus.

 

My bad...

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

I've heard the "This is China" statement a lot, but also "Welcome to China" when someone talks to her on the phone or web cam from over here.

 

I liked to use "Welcome to China" when I was there and something negative or uncomfortable happened.

 

For example, in a traffic jam, "Welcome to China".

To which ShuPing might reply, 'This is China".

Yeah, I know.

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

I can't remember if I mentioned this one or not, but if so, I'll repeat.

 

"The baby come out" = the baby is born

"I am trouble" = I am pregnant

"Lost the baby" = an abortion (not that we were thinking about abortion, but it was/is a concern because many times it is the primary treatment prescribed for any type of complication in the pregnancy)

 

Example: "If the woman is trouble and the baby head is wrong (possible mental disability), the doctor said she must lost the baby".

 

Word of advise to any prospective fathers who's SO's are still in China, get them here ASAP.

[Jim - Portland, USA]

I am not sure about how they say it in China, because I have not heard Ying say these words, but when I was stationed in Korea I remember the Koreans always adding GEE to words that ended in AGE, such as sausage, orange, garage......i.e. sausagee, orangee, garagee.

 

Have any of those who already have their loved ones here now noticed that?  

Yes, Juxin did/does that a lot! I'm trying to break her of that habit, but at first it was just as you said ... oranGEE. SausaGEE. But she's not from Korea she's from Henan province, the heartland of China! She also used to put -AH at the end of a lot of words ... soupAH ... bookAH, kinda cute actually But she's been here 2-3 month now and is starting to drop those suffixes.

[Scott & Lai]

I am not sure about how they say it in China, because I have not heard Ying say these words, but when I was stationed in Korea I remember the Koreans always adding GEE to words that ended in AGE, such as sausage, orange, garage......i.e. sausagee, orangee, garagee.

 

Have any of those who already have their loved ones here now noticed that?

From a post I wrote in another thread last summer:

 

Yes. Lai and her niece explained to me this last year; they don't have two consonants together as one sound, so when they see such in English, they think of it as sort of a sound and a half. They then want to make it two separate sounds. So, when they were here last year, Lai and Dory (who's English is very good) and Lai's sister (Dory's mom) kept calling me "See-got" Lai can say "Scott", but she still often calls me "See-got", and I have to say I encourage that because I find it very endearing

 

In the car on the way from dinner one evening, Lai and Dory and Lai's sister would look at street signs and convert them into Chinglish. "Orangethorpe" became something like "Ahran-gee-ho": the "ng" was separated into two syllables, they don't have the "th" sound, so the "t" was dropped, and as Dory explained, Cantonese tend to get lazy about word endings, so the "rpe" was also dropped

 

Knott's Berry Farm became "Not-a-see Bera" followed by the untranslated Cantonese word for "farm"

 

Lai will also frequently add Cantonese words like "ah", "la", "wor", etc. to the ends of sentences. They don't really mean anything, but just add expression...