foot massage - niē jiǎo vs. zú dǐ àn mó - Did Pimsleur use the wrong term?

[James3]

I'm using Pimsleur to introduce me to Mandarin, and on my current lesson (Mandarin IV, Unit 24) they introduce some massage terms. For example, they mention foot massage, back massage, soaking your feet, how back massage can release heat, foot massage can unblock energy channels, this is my first time to get a foot massage, etc.

 

Well, when practicing my new vocabulary with a language exchange partner from Harbin, she let me know that when speaking of foot massage, "zúdǐ ànmó" was preffered over "niē jiǎo."  When I asked why, she said that niē jiǎo was pretty informal, and it'd probaby be better if I used zúdǐ ànmó. It seemed she had more to say on the topic, but kind of restrained herself.

 

By now, I have experienced a language exchange partner from one part of China disagreeing with the word Pimsleur introduced for referring to something, whereas a language exchange partner from somewhere else in China is fine with it.

 

At first I was just a little curious about this, but then I remembered the same thing happens in the U.S. - people from different parts of the U.S. use different words to describe the same thing. One person call it a soda, another a Coke, someone else calls it a soda pop, and others call it a soda, etc.

 

But how about you?  What's your opinion on these 2 choices for saying "foot massage?" Or, do you use yet a different term?

[陳德聰]

If you already have in mind that different people say different things regionally, you can also add to that feeling that there are tonnes of different ways to say the same thing.

 

To me 足底按摩 zúdǐ ànmó is more specific than 捏脚 niējiǎo, but I would concede that 捏脚 is more colloquial for me. In my mind they're the same thing, but there is probably a register issue there too, since I probably wouldn't suggest to someone I'm not comfortable with that we go 捏个脚... It's weirdly more intimate sounding than 足底按摩 which is a specific type of foot massage. You might be interested in some words like 足道 zúdào and 按脚 ànjiǎo, but you need to keep in mind it's not about Pimsleur choosing the "wrong" word. There are a lot more ways to say "foot massage" in Chinese than there are in English.

[James3]

Thanks 陳德聰, I see now that, like you say, there's more ways to say foot massage in Mandarin than I thought. Appreciate the info. I'm guessing the more intimate nature of 捏脚 niējiǎo is what was making my language exchange partner suggest I use 足底按摩 zúdǐ ànmó instead.

[abcdefg]

I'm guessing the more intimate nature of 捏脚 niējiǎo is what was making my language exchange partner suggest I use 足底按摩 zúdǐ ànmó instead.

 

For whatever it might be worth, I've never heard or seen 捏脚 niējiǎo a single time for foot massage anywhere in China, north, south, east or west, including in Harbin. Your language exchange partner probably wanted to steer you away from such a seldom-used term.

 

足底按摩 zúdǐ ànmó is pretty stiff and formal, and while I have occasionally seen it written on store fronts and advertising leaflets, I have seldom (if ever) actually heard it said. I always get foot massages when I travel in China, so I've had a chance to sample the relevant language broadly.

 

And, as pointed out above, there are plenty of ways to say foot massage that are in everyday common use, and some of them are misleading. For example, around here (Kunming) people will often inquire about and request 泡脚 (which literally just means soaking the feet) when they really mean a foot soak followed by a foot massage.

[James3]

 

For whatever it might be worth, I've never heard or seen 捏脚 niējiǎo a single time for foot massage anywhere in China, north, south, east or west, including in Harbin.

 

Well that's interesting. Not exactly a popular term, it sounds like. Glad I ran this by my language exchange partner.

 

 

 

For example, around here (Kunming) people will often inquire about and request 泡脚 (which literally just means soaking the feet) when they really mean a foot soak followed by a foot massage.

 

泡脚 pào jiǎo​ was also a term mentioned in my Pimsleur unit. Sounds like they were correct on this one. At least it's not very often this happens - that something I learn on my Pimsleur lesson turns out to be off the wall. Still being a newbie, I really have come to appreciate a native speaker (and even people learning Mandarin as a 2nd language, who know way more than I do) helping me review my lesson. Keeps me from committing to memory something that's either obsolete or just not commonly used.

[abcdefg]

Agree that it's an excellent idea to validate things learned from a textbook (or Pimsleur) by running them by a native speaker informally like you are doing with your language-exchange partner.

 

Living in China I still follow a similar process, except I do it face to face with teachers or "language-brace" friends. The latter are native speakers whose judgment I trust and I go to them when puzzled about how to say this or that.

 

Then the next thing I do is submit the new language to the "acid test," namely use the new words, phrases, or grammar patterns outside on the street. If I get puzzled looks, I return to the above resources, try to figure out why it didn't work and refine or modify my approach. But if it works, then I file it in the "useable" category and make efforts not to forget it. 

 

I can recall during my early years here having trouble with some things that were really basic and simple. One such item was how to ask for the bathroom. Several ways to say it, as you know. I would go into a restaurant and ask different people for directions to the bathroom four or five times during the course of an hour, using different wording each time and noting the results, seeing what worked best.

 

If those restaurant workers had compared notes after I left, they would have concluded that I was a pretty sick fellow, maybe an unfortunate foreign tourist with a terrible case of travelers diarrhea. I remember one weekend in which mastering the "asking for the bathroom language" was my main project, and everywhere I went made a point of asking for it a lot.

 

After that weekend it was never a problem and I had developed a repertory of useable phrases. If I asked one way and got blank stares, I just proceeded to method number two or even number three. The question was good in that it was one which was difficult to supplement with pantomime.

 

Gradually I developed increased sensitivity about which ways to pose the question were more polite and which ways were direct but rough, mainly for bus station use. Situational nuances, like what wording was best when a guest in a friend's parent's home, and so on.

 

Well, I've rambled on -- more than you wanted to know.

[anonymoose]

niē means to knead with the fingers, so niē jiǎo literally means knead feet with fingers, which is basically what a massage is, so this is more like a descriptive term, whereas zúdǐ ànmó literally means foot massage. Therefore, I would prefer the latter as a more standard term.

 

I guess you could think of like the difference between "foot massage" and "foot rub". If having a foot massage is something you do quite often, it would be clear from context if you said "let's go for a foot rub after work today" what you mean, but obviously as a language learner, this is not the standard phrase you'd want to learn for massage.

[陳德聰]

I don't think 捏脚 is that weird... Like "Hey what do you wanna do now?" "咱们去捏个脚吧"

[tooironic]

From what I've seen and heard, the term 足疗 is more commonly used, though it typically involves both a foot massage and a pedicure.

[陳德聰]

Perhaps your language exchange partner just isn't as used to hearing things like "老婆，可以过来帮我捏一捏脚么?"

[James3]

Thanks everyone for your input. I really appreciate your time, to read the post in the first place, and also your taking the time to reply. As I'm using The Pimsleur Method so far, I'm quite illiterate at the moment, lol, which limits me quite a bit. But you gotta start somewhere. I'll be learning to read/write eventually.

[mihao]

From what I've seen on the shops signs in Beijing, 足疗 seems most popular. As for informal names, I've heard 泡脚 being used in Hangzhou.