most embarrassing moment while learning Chinese

[Shi Tong]

zhangbin, that reminds me of a great one I heard- someone was asking how much something cost, however, due to the way he said it, she got the wrong meaning, which was hilarious.

He said "xiao jie, duo shao qian", (miss, how much?), which on the surface looks innocent, however, people with a bit more nouse might add in a couple of words like "zhong3 gong4" or "zhei4 xieh1" to let her know that you're talking about the bill and not the woman herself!

:shock:

Mixing up 安全带 with 安全套 :lol:

[Daan]

Was at a tea house yesterday with some older people from HK I had only just met for the first time. A waiter then informed them that my Mandarin was more 標準 than theirs, just as I was denying that their Mandarin was incomprehensible, saying that they had only a bit of a Cantonese accent instead...well, that was a bit awkward ;)

Off-topic: @Shi Tong, I assume your "zhong3 gong4" was meant to be 總共 which does not have a retroflex in standard Mandarin (TW and BJ) and should be pronounced zǒnggòng. And there's no -h in the pinyin for 這些, which is zhèi xiē

[taylor04]

And there's no -h in the pinyin for 這些, which is zhèi xiē

While it is technically not a correct pinyin, it is perfectly acceptable.

这个多少钱 zhe4ge

这个多少钱zhei4ge

Both are ok, its kind of the with 那　and 哪　they both have the same pinyin with a different tone but can be pronounced differently, 那 will sometimes sound like nei4　while　哪 is usually na3

[chrix]

taylor, I think Daan was talking about the final -h, which is one way the fourth tone is expressed in GR

[taylor04]

Oh.... Thanks for letting me know Chrix, atleast i dont have to rewrite it in the most embarrassing moment while learning Chinese thread....

[Daan]

Yes, chrix is right. Sorry if I didn't express myself clearly enough

Let me throw in another embarrassing moment then, although it was more hilarious than embarrassing, or so I like to think Not paying attention to what I was doing, I managed to write down and hand in the following sentence:

中國大陸政府認為臺灣是淪陷的地區，因而反對美國政府買武器給臺灣，已經把美國的大便列入不受歡迎的人物之列了。

My teacher returned this with a broad smile on her face, saying that the Chinese government may certainly consider him a piece of 大便, but that in public announcements they would still be polite enough to omit that one stroke and write 大使

[chrix]

On a slightly off-topic note, when was Jon Huntsman declared persona non grata in Beijing? Or did you mean something else? If this had happened the sh*t would have really hit the fan...

[Daan]

Oh, it was just a sentence I made up to practise with 列入不受歡迎的人物之列

[Shi Tong]

Thanks for the advice.. my pinyin is still pants!! whereas my written Chinese is getting better.. up to 133 new learned characters now to add to my already 150 odd which I already knew

I was thinking about this last night and came up with a pretty good one.

I remember being in a games shop in Taipei where I was asked what kind of games I liked, part of the conversation went like this:

I said (and forgive and correct the pinyin if you have time!!) "qi2 shi2, wo3 bu4 xi3 huan1 jian3 dan1 de dian4 dong4", to which the shopkeeper said "ne4, ni3 bi3jiao4 xi3huan1 bi3jiao4 nan2 de dian4 dong4 ma?", to which I replied "due4, wo3 xi3huan1 nan2de".

The shopkeeper smiled at me and said "ni3 xi3huan1 nan2de ma?".. and then I twigged that I'd said I liked men.

A bit unfair perhaps!!:lol:

Please note that I've kept OUT the tone sandhi. Also, hope the pinyin was ok!

[imron]

Please note that I've kept OUT the tone sandhi

Which is the correct thing to do when writing pinyin..

Also, hope the pinyin was ok!

due4 -> dui4

[Don_Horhe]

A few days ago we were talking with my girlfriend about high waist trousers making a comeback, to which I wanted to say that not even my granddad wears them, although instead of saying 连我外公都不这种裤子, I said 连我老公

[tooironic]

Hehe. You mean 连我外公都不穿这种裤子?

[Don_Horhe]

Yeah, typo.

It was a great laugh though, she still brings it up every once in a while.

[Guest realmayo]

Ｉ mentioned to a friend the other day that I've never really liked smoking 大米.

[Chris333]

Maybe this wasn't as embarrassing as it was funny: I had a brief phone conversation with my mother-in-law in broken Chinese, during which she asked "what Chinese have you learned recently?" I answered that I learned the phrase "mind your own business!" (in Chinese, of course, but this was a while ago and I can't remember the correct pinyin: I think it's something like 'ni guan de jiao ma') Because of the bad connection she didn't hear me say "I learned" and thought I was actually telling her to mind her own business. She laughed after the "wait- no, no, that's not what I meant."

[anonymoose]

Once upon a time, in a land far far away (unless you are in China), we were discussing food in class. I was commenting that I don't like meat with bones in it, and asking why in Chinese cooking, is chicken often just hacked to pieces with all the bones in it. I don't remember exactly how the discussion progressed, but I ended up saying how there's more meat on western chickens, and then asked 中国的鸡为什么都那么瘦？

[crazillo]

My language partner said: 我倾向于吃好饭再去你的房子串门 or something like that.

That was quite a while ago and I wasn't fond of the fact that 吃好 here carries a "吃完" meaning. 倾向于 in combination with that let me to the assumption that we're going out for dinner at my place. When I invitied him, the desaster happened - I was quite embarassed with myself.

[Shi Tong]

中国的鸡为什么都那么瘦

I would have thought that's pretty normal, except if you accidently add in 女

(中国的鸡女为什么都那么瘦)?

At least, that's the way they refer to that in Taiwan.. which WOULD be embarrasing.

[LurvJenny]

I'm not sure if I'll be able to explain this properly, but I was out with my boyfriend and his family and after dinner, I kept saying xiao4gwa4 xiao4gwa4 (which is joke joke) instead of saying xiao1gwa (digest) which is something I do with my parents after every meal - walk around the garden or the mall. I think it sounds a bit weird explaining this in English, but yeah, my Chinese writing skills suck!

[abcdefg]

消化 = xiāo huà = digest

笑话 = xiào huà = joke