Wednesday was International Talk like a Pirate Day, so one of the students in my class was explaining the word pirate to our teacher. Although she thought she knew the word before it was explained, afterwards our teacher laughed and said that she thought he was saying parrot, not pirate, which do actually sound remarkably similar! I know that I make mistakes like that with Chinese, too, mixing up one sound here, or a tone there, and I end up saying something that doesn't make any sense at all, much to the amusement of the listener.
Last week, I had a woman come to my apartment, and I had to go to class before she left. I had two keys, so I gave one to her, and tried to tell her that if she needed to go anywhere, she could use my spare key. I didn't know how to communicate this, so I told her, in Chinese, that if she wanted, she could go buy fruit, or vegetables...and I listed some other things, hoping that she would understand that she had the freedom to leave and come back whenever. We both thought we understood each other. When I returned home from class, however, I observed that my fridge had been stocked with food...the woman thought that I was asking her to buy all those things for me! I had to laugh at my inability to communicate, and I did pay her for buying all that food!
Finally, I thought you might enjoy some pictures of English language in China. I'm not sure if they tried to translate these directly from Chinese, or if whoever was in charge just decided they were necessary. In any case, I was entertained. Hopefully you will be, too!
Just in case I was planning on taking my nuclear weapons in...I'm glad they warned me!
I know that this label is kind of hard to read because of the plastic on the outside, but yes, that is called Pungent Taste Powder. Any takers?
