Mess with the Taiwanese
I'm back in Taiwan now, and just successfully messed with my wife's head again.
Every time I'm in China, I try to learn a new phrase that is used there but not in Taiwan.
Then when I get back, I start using it continuously to the annoyance of my KMT-voting but slightly anti-China wife.
This time the two phrases were:
"Da4 Guai3" and "Xiao3 Guai3" literally Big Turn=Left Turn and Little Turn=Right Turn
The trick is you have to casually use these phrases as if they were completely normal Chinese - and, why, yes they are. Then when your Taiwanese counterpart acts flustered, you repeat them louder and louder. What? Don't you understand Chinese? Ha ha ha!
7 comments:
Taiwanese will giggle behind your back if your tones are off:
"Da1 Guai3" should be "Da4 Guai3" shouldn't it? Perhaps tonal spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh) would help you remember your tones better: "dah goai" not "da goai"
GR is also more compact (only 4 letters for each tone; 2nd tone nonexistent):
..1....2....3.....4
guai -- goai guay
Red A speaks Chinese words all in first tone, probably because he is Da4 Gay.
/Thank you very much
//Try your waitress
///Don't forget to tip your veal
Just typing fast....thanks for catching the problem.
I originally wanted to include actual characters but I could not figure that out.
Red A
Could always start calling her your 女同志 in place of 好朋友...she'll wonder why the hell you're calling her a lesbian when, in China, it means "female comrade."
Actually, it means lesbian in China too. Trust me.
Oh yeah? My "Beijinger" Chinese books sucks even more in my eyes, now.
It's a new usage, and started down South. Shenzhen, if I remember correctly.
Besides, they never put any of the cool stuff in books for Chinese learners.
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