Wednesday, October 15, 2008

What’s the Word-a Horse Up

Some interesting tidbits from last night’s Chinese class.  If someone asks you what you do for a living, or what kind of company you work for, a common way to reply is below.  (I’ll use banking as the company type.)

wǒ men gōng sī shì yín háng gōng sī.

Literally translated this means “Our company is bank company.” Why “our” (wǒ men) instead of “my?” A politeness custom.  You never refer to “my” company, it’s considered rude.  You always refer to “our” company.

If you’re in a bar drinking the customary way to say “Cheers!” is gān bēi! Literally translated this means “dry glass,” as in “empty the glass of liquid.” My follow-up question to that was “How would I ask for a dry glass?  Like if the waitress gave me a glass that was wet, would I just call out gān bēi to the waitress?” No, because when you use these words in speech you have to use particles following them to indicate possession.  Here’s the correct way to say it.

gān de bēi zi

This literally translates out to “dry (possession or ownership) glass (is an object).  The particle de comes after a word to indicate that the person or thing which precedes it is in possession of what follows it.  In this case, you are indicating that dryness is in possession of a glass, which is an object.  Then zi indicates it is an object.  If you’re talking in the abstract about a glass you would just use bēi, but since we’re talking about a specific glass, the one that I want, you have to add the particle zi to indicate that you mean a specific glass. So the conversation would go something like this.

“Fú wù yuán!” (Waitress!)
“Unh!” (General noise meaning “I’ve heard you.")
“Wǒ yào gān de bēi zi.  Zhè ge bēi zi shī.” (I want a dry glass, this glass is wet.)
“Hǎo le!” (Okay!)

Also, when I go to my friend’s house I always have to tell the cabbies to turn right immediately after the traffic light.  I’ve tried in half-assed Chinese to tell them this, but by the time they figure out what I’m trying to say they’ve already driven past it.  What I want to say is “After the stoplight, immediately take the next right.” This is the Chinese.

Guò le hóng lǜ dēng mǎ shàng yòu guai.

This literally means “Past red green light up horse right turn.” I thought “How the hell does up horse mean immediately.” Then I remembered that in Chinese the word for “up” also means “get on something.” If you were going to say “get on the bus” you would say “up bus.” So the English translation of this would probably be “mount up,” as in “Get on your horse, we’re getting the hell out of here.” Thus “up horse” means “immediately.”

You know the thing that sucks?  I’m putting so much effort into learning and understanding this language, but I have no doubt that within six months of my return to the US I’ll immediately forget all of it.