By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Chinese words you realized you've been mispronouncing?
So, in December, when I was buying tea to take back home, the tea lady told me that I should buy some "大红袍". I thought she called it "Da Hong Bao" (which I thought was a pretty funny name), so that's what I've been calling it for the last few months. I finally just now looked it up to see why it had such a funny name...only to find that its actually called "Da Hong Pao"... Boy do I feel like an idiot.
Ever have this kind of experience where you find out days/weeks/months later that you've been calling something the wrong name?
11 years 11 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
do that kind of thing all the time though it's mostly tones for me. I often get the 2nd and 3rd tones mixed up and forget the rule that of there's two 3rd tones in a row the former word is pronounced with a 2nd tone.
Tang-Peter, that could've just been regional inflection. And since B and P are pretty similar (voiced vs unvoiced) I doubt many would have noticed...
I was told, after quite a few months of obviously mis-pronouncing (and probably being laughed at behind my back...), that the way I was saying 'thank you', sounded more like 'washing washing'... ('xie xie', vs 'xi xi'). Yeah, thanks... 'friends'!
I've found out a few minutes later that i'd messed up. In one restaurant I ordered 'sweet and sour arse' then on another occasion I accidently told a toilet reception lady that I didn't have to pay because I was taking a shit. (It's a long story).
I told a waitress in Guangzhou to die once with my pathetic Cantonese. After saying "thankyou" (mmgoi) the waitress said "no need" (mm saaii) after which I tried to reinforce the idea that saying thankyou was required by saying "saaii!" (need), though got the tone wrong and told her to go die instead.
