Half and Half
TalkTalkChina has already commented on the idiocy of speaking in half Chinese, half English when one lacks the Chinese skills to complete a proper sentence. While this can be a sign of sheer arrogance in public (at least when speaking to someone who is more fluent in English than you are in Chinese), in the proper situation, it’s a good opportunity for language practice…and potential comedy.
Take last weekend, for example, when several of my fellow Americans and I were at a birthday party for a Chinese girl we knew. Wanting to ask where her camera was but feeling the need to flex his Chinese vocabulary, one of my friends blurted out his request in partial putonghua:
“你的 camera 在哪里？” (Where is your camera?)
Without missing a beat, the girl happily responded: “在 table 上！” (On the table!)
I thought it was clever.
Haha, the number of times my fiancee and I have had similar conversations. In fact, I can’t remember a SMS we’ve sent each other in recent months that didn’t look damn near the same as that exchange above.
↓ Quote | Posted November 7, 2006, 9:50 amYep. The conversations I have with my wife are all mixed up with Chinese and English now. We’ve even got a lot of our own made up words and expressions using both English and Chinese.
↓ Quote | Posted November 9, 2006, 5:59 am