Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Happy no happy?

Let me recount the conversation I had today with a woman whose English is much worse than my Chinese, but who doesn't know I can speak Chinese (actually, she talks too much and doesn't listen to her conversational partner to even know what he is saying). Her husband teaches at the university, and I have briefly talked with her a couple of times, and it is always really awkward.

Lady: Hello, sit. Sit. Sit. Sit.
(Lady forces me to sit, even though I clearly don't want to because I'm not going to be riding the bus for that long)
Me: Ok
Lady: Qingdao daxue laoshi happy no happy.
Me: I'm leaving soon. No happy.
(Lady doesn't understand)
Lady: You Qingdao University happy no happy?
Me: No happy, weihai happy.
LAdy: Weihai happy no happy, Qingdao happy no happy?
Me: Weihai happy.

In Chinese, it's possible to ask questions by stating the intended verb and then negating it. Clearly, she is using this construction for asking questions in English, and the result just makes me laugh. She was trying to see if I would be interested in taking a position as a teacher in Qingdao, but I think it would have been difficult to know this if I were unfamiliar with Chinese, even though she was speaking in English.

Happy no happy?

1 Comments:

Blogger Shah Labs said...

Neal!
When are you coming back to Atlanta? I think I'll be back on the 6th of August, but still need to confirm my tickets.
I was thinking about blogging Australiar (as they call it), but I just may be too lazy. I hope you keep writing, its become my weekly entertainment.
America happy no happy?

03 July, 2007 15:43  

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