Situation Puzzle: 一对上海夫妻在北京

[jkhsu]

提示 #3: 其实你们现在已经可以描述一个相似的情况。可是我觉得你们还有一个问题没有问。

[feihong]

这家饭店是中餐饭店吗？

[jkhsu]

这家饭店是中餐饭店吗？是

[feihong]

朋友会说这家店的名字吗？

朋友打错的汉字是多音字吗？

[jkhsu]

朋友会说这家店的名字吗？否，她已经搞错饭店的名字了。

朋友打错的汉字是多音字吗？否，不是多音字。

[jkhsu]

提示 #2 帮助你们吗？

[skylee]

#38不是答案嗎？不就是認錯字吧了？

[jkhsu]

#38不是答案嗎？不就是認錯字吧了？

#38 是答案的一部分。夫妻俩认错字的原因有一部分是跟电子邮件有关系的。

提示 #4 :

1. 为什么夫妻俩没有觉得菜单里的汉子跟电子邮件里面的汉子不一样呢？

2. 电子邮件里面打错的汉字字型/字形跟菜单里的汉字是完全不同的。

[feihong]

我们需要猜测字型吗？

[jkhsu]

我们需要猜测字型吗？否

我写的字形/字形 = "character form or shape" 不是 "typeface / font". 如果我写错了请纠正我。

[feihong]

朋友怎么听说这个饭店？

是广告吗？

是别人告诉她吗？

这个问题重要吗？

名字的汉子很潦草吗？

我有点觉得你的意思是字体。

[feihong]

菜单里面为什么有拼音？

是给外国人看吗？

是给不认字的人看吗？

这个问题重要吗？

[jkhsu]

朋友怎么听说这个饭店？不重要

是广告吗？不重要

是别人告诉她吗？不重要

这个问题重要吗？不重要

名字的汉子很潦草吗？否

菜单里面为什么有拼音？不重要

是给外国人看吗？不重要

是给不认字的人看吗？不重要

这个问题重要吗？不重要

如果你现在描述这个情况你会怎么说？

[feihong]

具体的汉子重要吗？

是草书吗？

[jkhsu]

具体的汉子重要吗？这个问题我不懂

是草书吗？不是

Edit #2: 具体的汉子重要吗? The vast majority of characters are not affected. I don't believe, however, that this is the only character where this type of misunderstanding can occur for. So, yes, there are specific characters. I hope that answers your question.

[jkhsu]

As I said in my initial post, this situation was a real life scenario that I witnessed and thought was amusing, especially for someone learning Chinese and interested in the language. However, perhaps this situation may not be best suited for a game like this. I'm planning to give the answer tomorrow evening (Pacific Standard Time) if no one else can describe exactly what happened before then.

[jkhsu]

First of all, thanks to jasoninchina, skylee and especially feihong for participating. Obviously, I'm disappointed that this puzzle didn't work out as I expected. As I mentioned before, this is the first time I've tried using this scenario in a puzzle like this, so it was a learning experience for me as well. Here's the answer (including the bonus question):

The best way to describe what happened is to do a demonstration. If you have to look up the characters in a dictionary, then this demonstration won't work for you.

1. Uncover the spoiler tag below and look at the name of the restaurant for 3 seconds. Then close the spoiler tag.

义和雅苑

2. Now uncover this spoiler tag and look at the name of the restaurant for 3 seconds. Then close the spoiler tag.

羲和雅苑

What's the difference between those two names?

More details on the answer:

I printed the two names out on separate sheets of paper and did the exact demonstration on 4 unsuspecting native speakers from mainland China. I simply said, "Can you tell me the difference between these two restaurant names? I think it's a restaurant located in Beijing." And then, I showed them "义和雅苑" first, then "羲和雅苑". In every case, their initial response was, "Oh, the second one is just written with traditional characters." I haven't tried this demonstration on people from Hong Kong or Taiwan so I am not sure about the responses I would be get (skylee, any thoughts from you on this?).

I've been analyzing the situation and I think these were the contributing factors that caused the couple to make the mistake:

1. When you tell someone the name of a restaurant, that name will be in their mind so when they actually see the name in the menu (or signs), they're not going to assume you gave them the wrong name.

2. "义" is a very common high frequency character (around 200 according to this list) and most native Chinese from mainland China will have seen the traditional version of "义" which is "義". However, because they never write the traditional version, they're probably more prone to confuse "義" with "羲" in this situation. ("羲" is 3942 in the character frequency list)

3. Another reason for the confusion (my native speaker friend told me this) is that when you tell someone in mainland China about a restaurant named "义和雅苑" in Beijing, it's very believable to them. It sounds like a restaurant that would be located in Beijing.

There are other traditional characters that look like other characters (that have not been simplified). For example "裏" and "裹". However, when a native Chinese from mainland China sees "裹", they will almost never think it is "裏". The reason is because they probably see "裡" much more often than "裏". I have seen them think that "裏" is "裹" though.

What made this puzzle hard, I believe, is that both the characters in the email and the menu were not traditional characters. I believe feihong asked those questions and stopped there.

The questions that weren't asked was whether the character in the email had a traditional version and whether that traditional version looked like the character in the menu.

Finally, I was the one who actually received that email from a co-worker in Beijing who was confused as well! My native speaker friend and her parents were the ones confused at the restaurant.

Try going to maps.baidu.com and type in "中国北京海淀区义和雅苑". Then do the same for "中国北京海淀区羲和雅苑". Notice how Baidu has the mistake as well?

[skylee]

I looked at the first name longer than I should because of the first character. I had to make sure what it was. As to the other one, no problem at all (the difference from its look-alike is quite obvious to me).

And,

I think you mean that the first name was the name in the email, and the second was the real name. Please note that 羲 has not been simplified, nor have 和雅苑. So it is not exactly true to say that both the characters in the email and the menu were not traditional characters.

Also,

Surely, there are traditional characters that look like other characters (that have not been simplified). But there are also simplified characters that look like other characters (that have/have not been simplified). Take 义 as an example, I had to make sure that it was not 叉. So I think it has less to do with traditional vs simplified, but more to do with people's familiarity with the two sets of characters.

[jkhsu]

@skylee: Thanks for your input. I suspected this might not have been an issue for you. I agree that familiarity with both sets is the key and it's common to misread similar looking characters in general. However, based on some google / baidu searches, a lot of people seem to have made this particular mistake.

Question: How should I have answered this question from feihong?

饭店的名字是用繁体字写的吗？

[feihong]

A better answer would have been "please refine your question". Because 羲 is the same character in both traditional and simplified.