Silly moments to share?

[Joecy]

Another language mistake, involving the use of tones in Chinese, got me in some hot water back when I was living in China. I have mentioned this before on the board here, so I will give the brief version. There is a Chinese chili sauce that I love, called "Lao Gan Ma." I put it on everything except ice cream. Great stuff. Lao Gan Ma is literally translated as "Old Dry Mother" and it has a picture of the old mother on the label. Anyway, I had ran out and I decided my Chinese was good enough for me to go to buy some at a little market just outside the campus. I went in the store but couldn't find it. So I went to the counter and asked the little old man there where they kept the Lao Gan Ma. His eyes got real big, then he started yelling at me and chased me out of the store with a stick. Freaked out, I went back to my apartment and told my wife what happened. She asked me what I had said and I told her. She literally had to pick herself up off the floor laughing. I had screwed up the tones something awful and basically only got Lao right. "Gan" evidently is also a kind of bad word if said with the wrong tone, and Ma is also horse. My wife explained that I had basically called the guy something like "Old Man who has sex with horses."

laughed out loud!

My husband like Lao Gan Ma too. His Chinese is very limited, so he called this brand: Lao La Nv Ren. (old spicy woman)

 

Yep, Gan with 4th tone, is bad bad bad!

[Mick]

Hi Joecy: no, I am not teaching in China any longer. I taught over there from 1997 - 2003. I taught English and American Literature my first year, then moved down to Guangdong to teach graduate classes in Journalism, along with Creative Writing. Actually, teaching journalism was not so difficult, even with the Chinese system. I was fortunate in that the university I was teaching at was founded and received a lot of funding from a Hong Kong multi-billionaire who was from the Chao Shan area of Guangdong, near Shantou and Chaozhou. Although the university was part of the "state" system, it was run on a western model and many of its graduate programs were taught in English as there was a big push from the founder to modernize the curriculum on all levels. I steered clear of any controversial topics to be sure, but so long as I didn't encourage the future journalists to make scathing criticisms of the government, I was pretty much free to teach whatever I wanted. Some of the classes focused on the nuts and bolts of print journalism, such as interviewing techniques, information gathering, evaluating sources, and especially how to streamline prose. For example, I would give them a topic to research and write a 1000 word essay, all in 24 hours. Then I would give it back to them and make them edit it down to 750 words; then 600, and so on. Lots of fun. Also taught about spin doctoring and such, which is how to slant a topic to agree with your opinion when, in fact, it may not do that at all. All of my students were fluent in English, written and verbal. I also taught graduate English majors, mostly American and British Literature.

 

Oh, and by the way, glad you liked the story about the Lao Gan Ma. My wife and I still have a belly laugh about that incident whenever we think of it. Li went down to the store and explained to the old man what I was trying to say and he also laughed until his sides hurt. A foreigner can get in a lot of trouble with a tonal language if they are not careful.

Edited June 9, 2014 by Mick (see edit history)

[Joecy]

Hi Joecy: no, I am not teaching in China any longer. I taught over there from 1997 - 2003. I taught English and American Literature my first year, then moved down to Guangdong to teach graduate classes in Journalism, along with Creative Writing. Actually, teaching journalism was not so difficult, even with the Chinese system. I was fortunate in that the university I was teaching at was founded and received a lot of funding from a Hong Kong multi-billionaire who was from the Chao Shan area of Guangdong, near Shantou and Chaozhou. Although the university was part of the "state" system, it was run on a western model and many of its graduate programs were taught in English as there was a big push from the founder to modernize the curriculum on all levels. I steered clear of any controversial topics to be sure, but so long as I didn't encourage the future journalists to make scathing criticisms of the government, I was pretty much free to teach whatever I wanted. Some of the classes focused on the nuts and bolts of print journalism, such as interviewing techniques, information gathering, evaluating sources, and especially how to streamline prose. For example, I would give them a topic to research and write a 1000 word essay, all in 24 hours. Then I would give it back to them and make them edit it down to 750 words; then 600, and so on. Lots of fun. Also taught about spin doctoring and such, which is how to slant a topic to agree with your opinion when, in fact, it may not do that at all. All of my students were fluent in English, written and verbal. I also taught graduate English majors, mostly American and British Literature.

Love this! more later...

[tsap seui]

Hi Joecy: no, I am not teaching in China any longer. I taught over there from 1997 - 2003. I taught English and American Literature my first year, then moved down to Guangdong to teach graduate classes in Journalism, along with Creative Writing. Actually, teaching journalism was not so difficult, even with the Chinese system. I was fortunate in that the university I was teaching at was founded and received a lot of funding from a Hong Kong multi-billionaire who was from the Chao Shan area of Guangdong, near Shantou and Chaozhou. Although the university was part of the "state" system, it was run on a western model and many of its graduate programs were taught in English as there was a big push from the founder to modernize the curriculum on all levels. I steered clear of any controversial topics to be sure, but so long as I didn't encourage the future journalists to make scathing criticisms of the government, I was pretty much free to teach whatever I wanted. Some of the classes focused on the nuts and bolts of print journalism, such as interviewing techniques, information gathering, evaluating sources, and especially how to streamline prose. For example, I would give them a topic to research and write a 1000 word essay, all in 24 hours. Then I would give it back to them and make them edit it down to 750 words; then 600, and so on. Lots of fun. Also taught about spin doctoring and such, which is how to slant a topic to agree with your opinion when, in fact, it may not do that at all. All of my students were fluent in English, written and verbal. I also taught graduate English majors, mostly American and British Literature.

 

Oh, and by the way, glad you liked the story about the Lao Gan Ma. My wife and I still have a belly laugh about that incident whenever we think of it. Li went down to the store and explained to the old man what I was trying to say and he also laughed until his sides hurt. A foreigner can get in a lot of trouble with a tonal language if they are not careful.

Great story about some of your times in China, Mick. So nice to learn of other's experiences.

[Catherineli]

Wow, Ronny has many experiences in China. Mick's "Lao Gan Ma" story is so funny--- hahhaah, that is your lesson from the hardknock school in China. but you know what? As long as you have enough vocabulary to express yourself in Chinese, never mind too much with the tones. Only professional broadcasters speak the tones 100% correct. Many native Chinese pronounce the tones wrong.

Gan is also used in a general term like the following:

 

(1) What are you doing? = Ni zai gan shenme? Gan= do in colloquial Chinese

(2) I'm working ( in kitchen, garden, office---) = Wo zai ganhuo. Gan= working in the set phrase ganhuo

 

More and more I like our forum, like my encyclopedia! xiexie da jia!

Edited June 10, 2014 by Catherineli (see edit history)