The house of Babel

If you are foreigner to Chinese and mess up “Yan” and “Yang”, I probably will spend one hour to tell you the difference. When I delivered the baby, I was messed up almost by everybody. There was a roommate named “Yu”.
The first thing was that the nurse almost gave Yu’s baby to me to breastfeed. And then all the time when I called the nurse, they got angry at me, “did you just call us?” After I came back home from the hospital, they made an appointment for me because they thought I had C-section. And then they send us a paper saying I had C-section. I did not have C-section. It was “Yu”.
How should I do?

After I got pregnant, sometime I found that I spoke incoherently.
M: Hi, honey, can you get a bull from the chicken for me?
H: We have neither bull nor chicken around here. It is bowl, and from the kitchen?
M: Yeah, get me the bowl from the chicken or kitchen, whatever, you know my meaning.
M: Do you need a pearl for dessert?
H: Perl? Or pear? I only can eat pear.
M: I go party now.
H: Now? In such time?
M: why not, I can go party at any time as I want.
H: it is potty. Not party.
Sometime Chinese, Japanese and English just want to run out from my mouth at the same time.

For foreign languages students, showing on TV, standing near to the great person, doing simultaneous interpretation is their dream. Such case is much easier than for the middle important people. Normally you can predict what they will say and the same kind of sentences were repeated for thousands of times.
In the middle important people rank, the most difficult thing is to do simultaneous interpretation for Chinese. For example, the boss of some company and some professor, normally in their talk or speech, it is full of garbage, hardly you could find any actually useful information to interpret. They spit out one paragraph of “I love poo”, and think their part was done now, and then wait for you to interpret.

I was born in China, the country that worships dragon. We were told that we were descendants of dragon. But we do not know what dragon really is. In TV, normally it was described as a mythical monster traditionally represented as a gigantic reptile having a lion’s claws, the tail of a serpent, wings, and a scaly skin. In the foreign dictionary, it is also taken as a fiercely vigilant or intractable person, or something very formidable or dangerous. From such feature, it is exactly like snake. Maybe it was just a thing that got beautified from snake.

You know there are many onomatopoeia in Chinese and Japanese.

When I heard the sound from the outside of the car, I can say that is 叭哒叭哒 in Chinese, or バタバタ　in Japanese. I did not know what kind of word to use in English. Honey answered click.

From the pronunciation, I could not imagine that connected the same sound.

Normally, we can get the close sound or noise from the pronunciation of onomatopoeia. But for English word click, I had to look at the meaning of it. It is a brief, sharp, nonresonant sound:

Normally everybody knows that 一 (yī) means the number one.

For foreign students, they will get shocked by the other uses of 一 (yī).

1, (adj.) same

我们是一个班的。(we are from the same class.)

2, (adj.) whole ; all ; throughout

一路上都是雪。(The whole road was full of snow.)

3,  a little

笑一笑,十年少。(A smile prolongs life.)

4,(conjunction) used before a verb or a verbal measure to indicate an action to be followed by a result

她一看到妈妈就哭了。(Once he saw his mom, he cried.)

5, (conjunction) if

一不小心，就回出错。(if you do not pay attention to it, you will get wrong)

一 also has multiple pronunciations.

when you use that alone, or it was used in the end of the word or the sentence, the pronunciation is yī.

十一(shíyī) 五一(wǔyī) 六一(liùyī)

when it comes to the front of other words that has the fourth pronunciation, it is yí.

一半(yíbàn) 一共(yígòng) 一世(yíshì)

when it comes to the front of other words that has the first, second and third pronunciations, it is yì.

一点(yìdiǎn) 一天(yìtiān) 一年(yìnián)

It seems that the character 一 reflects the abundance of Chinese in phonology, grammar and semantics.

Learning a new language is a long trip. we have to practise little by little and day by day.

I am living in New York. I think everybody knows that it is a state of the northeast United States. It was admitted as one of the original Thirteen Colonies in 1788. First explored by Samuel de Champlain and Henry Hudson, the region was claimed by the Dutch in 1624 but fell to the English in 1664-1667. The building of the Erie Canal and railroad lines in the 1820’s and 1830’s led to development of the western part of the state and great economic prosperity, establishing New York City as the financial center of the nation. Albany is the capital and New York City the largest metropolis.
Also everybody knows that there is a York city in England. And then you can find a lot of place were named after the place names in England. There are New York, New Jersey, New Orleans, New Hampshire and so on.
I was thinking about the intellectual property issues. For example Japanese always yelled at Chinese about that Chinese copy some of the Japanese names. Did anybody ever think about the Kanji characters, which were most from China. I hope they quit using all the Kanji characters that came from China.

One character is in my brain forever. This character is 的, which is a character has more than one pronunciation.
It was the time when I was in elementary school. In some exam of Chinese subject, I racked my brains to try to figure out what the pronunciation was for the words “的确良”.
Before that exam, I remembered so clearly I did not know this word.
After the exam, I went back home. My mom told me,

你 穿 的 就 是 的确良
nǐ chuān de jiù shì díquèliáng

I finally understood that there are three kinds of pronunciation for that character.

的  [de] (From nciku)

* 1. 用在定语的后面 used after an attribute ; to
* 2. used to form a noun phrase or nominal expression
* 3. used after a verb or between a verb and its object to stress an element of the sentence

eg 我的书包(my bag)

的  [dí] (From nciku)

* 1. true ; really eg 的确
* 2. taxi eg 打的

的  [dí] (From nciku)

eg 的确良(dacron ; terylene)

的 [dì] (From nciku)

* target ; bull’s-eye

eg 中的

In Chinese, there are many words with multiple pronunciations. I did not find such phenomena in English. That was interesting.

I think in every language and dialect there is the subjunctive mood, because there is no beauideal person in the world. Everybody would do some mistakes in some time. When you did some wrong, normally we regret and think if I were given different condition, I would do that better.

In Chinese, typically there are 假如(jiǎrú)、如果(rúguǒ)、要是(yàoshì) to express the subjunctive mood.

如果上天能够给我一个再来一次的机会，我会对那个女孩子说三个字：我爱你。

如果非要在这份爱上加上一个期限，我希望是——一万年！

如果我没学日语,我的英语肯定比现在好得多。(If I had not studied Japanese, my English level should be much better now)

如果我是你,,,(If I were you,,,)

The funny thing is that even in different version of the same speech, the conjunction for the subjunctive mood are almost the same.

In my hometown, we like to say 要是,,,  ,,,就好了。

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大话西游台词之东西南北版 (From 大话西游台词之东西南北版_读书频道_新浪网)

原版

曾经有一分真挚的爱情放在我面前，我没有珍惜，等我失去的时候我才后悔莫及，人世间最痛苦的事莫过于此。你的剑在我的咽喉上割下去吧！不用再犹豫了！如 果上天能够给我一个再来一次的机会，我会对那个女孩子说三个字：我爱你。如果非要在这份爱上加上一个期限，我希望是——一万年！

天津话版

说借话可是那阵了，有一份倍儿真的感情摆在我眼皮底下，我倒霉催的，愣没当回事，等没了吧倒醒过闷来了，唉没法儿啊，世界上最点儿背的事儿也就借意思 了。你拿刀片子赶紧在我脖子上拉吧，肉呼嘛？！不过如果老天爷能再让我来一回的话啊，我跟你说我豁出去了!我非跟那闺女说仨字儿： “我耐你！”如果非死乞白赖要在前面弄个头的话啊，我估摸着大概齐是一万年?

东北话版

曾经有一轱辘贼啦纯洁的爱情搁在俺的面前，俺没希地答理，不知咋整的，就整没了，俺觉得，俺这辈子最窝囊的事就数它了，如果上天容个空的话，俺想对那个女娃说： “俺稀罕你。”如果非要整个头的话，俺希望是一万年！

江苏南通话版

吾有阵子，有个乖乖珑地咚的太的爱情盛在吾前头，吾个死人呀，吃了乌龟虚了呵，怎么就不晓得珍惜呀。世界上个死人最逊的篙子就是路个篙子了。姑娘，你也 知道，吾很逊但是吾很好呢。哎呀。反正我现在是么混么混后悔的不得过呀，吾也晓得你现在看到吾眼睛眉毛就长了，所以说你弄个刀儿砍了吾个颈项拉倒了撒！你 说好不好撒！！！

湖北话版

伙计，窝给你硕个事塞，原来有一个蛮真蛮真的感情放到我们前头，我当时茂晓得珍惜，你家说我勺不勺！那好的东西不晓得留倒，看早好了了，等窝墨起来的时 候，他，你妈的，就茂看到了，假如天老爷，再把我一个机会，窝肯定会对那个姑娘芽唆。窝爱你家，如果非要加个日期——一望年！

北京话版

想当初有一段儿啵儿真的感情落我跟前儿了，哥们儿我竟然牛逼烘烘地没给丫当回事儿，您说我孙不孙子？直到那个妞儿跟人家跑了，我这才琢磨过味儿来：我真 他妈是个大傻×！！(操，你丫那刀片儿落我脖子上半天了，到底什么时候帮我放血？？？）如果能再原谅一次我们这些失足青年，我会跪在丫面前再装一次孙子， 保证吗儿好听说吗儿： “媳妇儿，哥们还是想泡你丫的！！”如果今儿个非要让我在哥儿几个面前表个态，给丫加上一个所谓的时间状语:——哥们，那您说一万年成吗?

上海话版

勒拉老早老早以前格辰光，有一份老真诚格爱情放勒吾面前，吾眼睛戳黑特了，把自家捣糨糊，呣末爱伊，世上最窝心、最悲脆格事体啊就各能了？侬格刀快点放 勒我头颈高头，开下起好来！！八古老梯牙能够娘吾再来一记阿哎物？吾会得得各儿小姑娘刚，我爱侬！如故要来了咯个爱上夹个辰光艾子，吾希望是一繁 年！！！！！！

重庆话版

那二年子，有那么巴实的一mol感情摆在老子面前，老子居然没有甩它的。等老子一想过来啬，他龟儿的居然完都完了！！！！恁个世界上最不安逸的事也就摆在眼皮子下头了。不过如果老天爷再给老子一个机会的话，老子一定会对到她说：“老子爱你！”

四川话版

内年，有个很安逸的感情摆在老子跟前，老子居然没张死它。等老子想起来舍，他妈的居然就没得喽！！！咋子世界上最不爽的事也就摆在这眼皮子底下了。不过如果老天再给老子一个机会的话，老子一定会给他说：我爱你。

客家话版

安九以前有只七佬，涯磨气好好珍惜，到头来今正晓后悔。假杀老天爷奔多涯一次机会喂话，涯会讲：涯安中意鱼。又假杀爱呵厄也加只期限厄话，涯芒系一万年！

Using ~迷(mí) to make new nouns was very popular in 90’s. The original meaning of 迷(mí) is “be fascinated by; be crazy about something.” It was a verb, eg 着迷(zháomí).

And then it was used to express some kind of people, such as fan, enthusiast who were fascinated by or be crazy about something.

Now the power of 迷(mí) to make new nouns tends to be weak.

All you can see are the words that were made some years ago. such as:

电脑迷(diànnǎomí)
艺术迷(yìshùmí)
车迷(chēmí)
美剧迷(měijùmí)
羽毛球迷(yǔmáoqiúmí)
小说迷(xiǎoshuōmí)
吉他迷(jítāmí)
漫迷(mànmí)
股票迷(gǔpiàomí)
钓迷(diàomí)