A very good
morning to lecturers, seniors, and my fellow course mates. Today I am going to share a passage that I
have read recently in a magazine which starts by saying “what sounds good In a
language might spell disaster in another!”
This is an
important warning. NEVER speak while travelling. You might die of a
misunderstanding. Nury Vitage which is the author used to speak in simple
Cantonese but he gave up after he walked into a Hong Kong restaurant and
announced that he was hungry: “ngo tou ngoh.” But he pronounce it wrongly and
the words end up became “I have diarrhea.” Later he called out “maai dan” which
mean bring the bill. But with the wrong tones, turning it to “I want to buy
eggs”. His friends also warned him never say the word lighter “da fo gei”
because that phrase with the wrong tones mean “beat up the waiters”.
Speaking as
a frequent traveller, all languages are fairly risky. For example the word
“baba”. In Japan, it means a scary old lady, in Chinese, it means father, in France
it is a spongy object soaked in rum.
European
language also trip people up.in Germany an “Old-timer” is an ancient car, not
an ancient driver. British people that Mr. vintage met
assume that their country’s nickname “old Blighty”. Comes from the word
“blighted”, which mean destroyed and also refers to bad weather. Blighty is
derived from the Uru Bilayati which mean “foreign, European. Years ago, there
must have been a conversation that went something like this. Person from India:
“So, foreigner, you come from Foreigner Land?” Person from Britain: “So that’s
how you say ‘Britain’ in your quaint Asian tongue, let me just write that
down.”
A French reader
told Mr. vintage about a Parisian chef who in 1765 started selling a tasty
liquid he called a restorer, which is “restaurant” in French. The English got
it mixed up and told the world that “restaurant” meant “a place to eat out.” Germans
were soon dipping sops which are Deutsch for chunks of bread into the delicious
warm bowls of restaurant. The English confused again, told the world that the
new dish is was called “soup”. So, in
English sentence: “sitting in a restaurant, I drank some soup.” Actually means
“sitting in a soup, I drank some bread.”
Thank You
