most embarrassing moment while learning Chinese

[skylee]

I was in Taipei last weekend. One morning I ordered a double expresso at a starbucks and the staff there asked me if I wanted a 內用杯. (And he also asked if I wanted milk in the coffee. ) At another breakfast place I heard people say 外帶 when they ordered take-aways. So yes, people in Taiwan use 內用 and 外帶.

Learners need standards. Variations can be confusing. This is understandable.

[OneEye]

Standards are fine. But expecting one country to conform to another's standards makes no sense. And I'm pretty sure 外國赤佬's remark was not made out of confusion.

[skylee]

Well I don't think I should go on with this discussion when "one country" is mentioned.

[OneEye]

It doesn't have to be political, and I wasn't trying to go that way with it by saying "country". For the purposes of this side-discussion, I think we can agree that Taiwan doesn't follow the PRC standard, and so expecting Taiwanese people to speak "標準的普通話" is stretching a bit too much. I mean, how many people even in China conform perfectly to the 普通話 standard?

[Adam_CLO]

Interesting to see how many other learners learned the same way I did. Even though people speak fast - you're able to pick out a word, here or there that you understand. You then guess the rest of the meaning from that (and usually we're right). Later, as our Chinese improves, we're able to understand more of the sentences (and even the variations that might be used), which means embarrassing mistakes in comprehension occur less often.

There was one question that was often asked to me in supermarkets that I never understood in the beginning:

有會員卡嗎？ (Do you have our member card?)

It took me a while to figure out what that was about. I just knew I had to say 沒有, although I always wondered what I was saying no to.

[Lu]

The cashiers in the supermarket nearby ask first whether you have a 会员卡 and then whether you 需要袋子吗. Foreigner behind me did the same as people in this thread by answering the first question saying that yes he would like a bag. Confusion followed. I decided to untangle it.

Poster upthread will perhaps benefit from the knowledge that Taiwan speaks 国语 and not 普通话. Slightly different standards. It's for the most part perfectly well mutually understandable and nothing to get upset about. Learners who don't move back and forth a few times within their first months of learning the language really should have no problem with the slight difference.

[tooironic]

OK finally I have an embarrassing story learning Chinese that is worth telling.

Last night I went to a New Year's party. One of my Chinese friends and I were talking in Mandarin about what we were planning to do with our lives this year. I was trying to explain to him that there were certain things I wanted to do but I didn't have the courage to do them. What I wanted to say was 我的担子不够大。My friend shot me a weird look and then burst out laughing. What I should have said was 我的担子(dǎnzi)不夠大。("I don't have enough courage.") What I ended up saying was 我的蛋子(dànzi)不够大。("My balls aren't big enough.") Yes, balls. As in testicles...

Let that be a cautionary tale to all of you out there. It's almost as good as 皮包 (píbāo, leather handbag) and 包皮 (bāopí, foreskin).

[Meng Lelan]

oh jeez!

[muirm]

我的蛋子不够大

Haha, that is a good one.

I've always wondered... in English, 蛋子 can refer to a concept similar to 胆子. Is there any such connotation in Chinese?

[daofeishi]

我的担子(dǎnzi)不夠大

胆子？

[tooironic]

@daofeishi Yes it should be 胆子, sorry for the typo.

@muirm Are you referring to something like 有种 ("to have balls; to be ballsy")?

[jmido8]

One of the first times we went to hot pot, none of us could read the menu. We could only understand really basic stuff like 牛肉，鸡肉，什么的。 So we just pointed to a bunch of random things and when they bring out the food, it's a ton of intestines, brains and other stuff we didn't want to eat. The staff cracked up when they saw our faces. After that, I started asking for take home menus I could study or I'd take pictures of the menus so I could learn what the other words next to the meats meant....

[muirm]

@muirm Are you referring to something like 有种 ("to have balls; to be ballsy")?

I meant if you literally say "that guy's got balls" in Chinese, can that refer to 胆量 like it does it English? "有种" might be pretty close, but I don't have a good feeling for how directly "种子" is referencing balls (or sperm?), as opposed to just being an expression that people don't associate with male anatomy.

[Tianjin42]

It still pains me to think about it but I mixed up (the admittedly similar sounding) words 口罩 (face mask) and 口交 (blowjob) in a fairly formal situation.

It was something along the lines of 'everyone should have a good... face mask'.

[Mike Hainzinger]

My most embarrassing moment was when I didn't realize that the word for chicken was also a slang term for something else!

[abcdefg]

I had a silly moment a month or so ago, and it wasn't really about learning how to talk Chinese. I was in a small casual eatery, and saw a girl carrying the communal teapot. I hailed her and asked for a refill. She obligingly stopped and refilled my cup. I thanked her; she smiled and said you're welcome. Then she sat down at a nearby table and continued eating with her friends.

I went over to apologize and explain that I had mistaken her for the waitress and we all had a good laugh. Probably gave them something to talk about later.

[Xuelan]

Well, this is cultural rather than language but... On my first day teaching English - I didn't know I was going to be teaching English! As is typical in China, what they say is not always what happens... so I was told I was going to an informal "English corner" type of thing and just needed to keep conversation flowing and instead found myself standing in front of a classroom of 44 university students sitting at desks with textbooks open in front of them! I had 4 hours to fill and no lesson plan and no text book of my own. It pretty much went like you can imagine it went; 4 of the longest and most stressful hours of my life!

At some point, I wound up playing a game called "Have you ever?" So I'd ask a question and if they had done it, they kept standing and if not, they sat down. Then if there were only a few people left standing, I'd ask them to elaborate a little in English. It was going well, better than a lot of the other stuff I had tried. I was having to just make up the questions on the spot, mind you. So one popped into my head - "Have you ever worn a green hat?" Everyone sat down. Me - "Really? No one? You've never worn a green hat before? What on earth! Not one single person has ever worn a green hat?! Not even when you were a kid? I can’t believe no one’s worn a green hat before!"

It wasn't until later that evening after I got home that one of my students e-mailed me and explained to me that in China, wearing a green hat is another way to say a man's wife is cheating on him or you're having an affair, etc. I was fairly mortified. I’m sure I’d probably come across that little euphemism before in a book or something, but apparently didn’t pay it enough attention to remember not to say it!

[Lu]

My most embarrassing moment was when I didn't realize that the word for chicken was also a slang term for something else!

I have a friend whose nickname back home is 'little chicken' (I don't know why, he got it long before I met him). In Holland this sounds weird, of course, but there are no unfortunate implications to it. When he got to pick a Chinese name, he decided to call himself 小鸡. Fortunately he was informed of this not being a good name (by a relative of the teacher who laughed his ass off) and he changed it before moving to Taiwan.

[muirm]

For years I've known I should never say 安全套 when meaning 安全帽 or 安全带

Just a few days ago I was describing the differences between rugby and American football, and somehow 安全套 came out instead of 安全帽. She got a good laugh out of it, and I got a good 满脸通红.

As ironic as it is, I think this very thread may have had something to do with it. I swear those two words had no association at all in my head until reading about other people's mixups and saying to myself "huh, those two are kind of similar - better make extra sure not to mix them up!".

[Lu]

As ironic as it is, I think this very thread may have had something to do with it. I swear those two words had no association at all in my head until reading about other people's mixups and saying to myself "huh, those two are kind of similar - better make extra sure not to mix them up!".

That is pretty much exactly what happened with me.