Embarrassing experiences learning Mandarin
( bbs.chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2014-11-17 13:53Smattilda (UK)
When I first went to Taiwan, my friends recommended a dumpling restaurant to me. They said "dumplings" in Chinese is " shuǐjiǎo ". So, I went in and said "wo yao shui jiao", but they couldn't understand me at all. I was standing in a dumpling restaurant, with dumplings on every table, and they couldn't understand my pronunciation (in retrospect I am sure I was saying shuìjiào). Some body language cleared up the misunderstanding, and they said "O!!" So if you go to a dumpling restaurant, don't tell them you want to sleep.
|
|
|
Teacher Jingsi Cheng quizzes her students on the Chinese words for mother and father during a Chinese language class for 7th and 8th graders at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School in St. Petersburg. This is Cheng's first year teaching in public schools in the United States. |
