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Q: What's the dumbest miscommunication you ever had here?
These threads are always entertaining, and I could use some entertainment right now, mid-sandstorm-pocalypse.
Years ago when I first got here, I didn't really know about the word "laowai" yet. I was in Hohhot for a thing and thought I heard a local call me "laobai", which in my really broken Chinese I thought meant he was calling me "Old White". Terribly upset over what I percieved to be a racist (and age-ist) comment, I returned the favor and screamed back to him "xiaohuang", or "Little Yellow", which he looked very confused about. Only later did I realize what an asshole I must have looked like. Ah, memories.
Was buying a pair of headphones and I thought they said 105 kuai, but it ended up being 150 kuai. It didn't matter it was worth it. Got me a nice set! :
Same issue as 99Silva. I've had more than a few dumb ones, though.
I wanted to buy a pair of winter gloves, and everyone was charging 20+ RMB. I thought that was ridiculous, so I went to the next vendor.
Me: "多少钱？" (duo shao qian. How much?)
Vendor: "jiu shi ba yuan!" (就是八元！Just 8 RMB!)
I heard "Just 18 yuan," and went "Hmm... 15! 十五元！shi wu yuan!" The guy laughed at me, "Ho, ho, ho. Ooooookay! (in English)."
crimochina:
when it comes to bargain, make them use the calculator!!! it's best to play dumb.
Misunderstandings frequently arouse from my pithy attempts at speaking Cantonese. Unlike Mandarin's 5 tones (if you count the "toneless" one), Cantonese has 7, with the extra two being the same as Mandarin's 1st "flat" tone, only at different pitches.
Anyway, the word for "can" (会) is pronounced as a high-pitched "sik" (using the character 识), while "eat" (吃) is pronounced as a lower-pitched "sik" (using the character 食). Questions such as "Can you eat English" (你食唔食英文啊) and so on frequently come up.
I've had plenty; most recently my mother in-law asked me what I was cooking and I mistakenly told her I was cooking drugs. Also since I got married i've had to change the names I use for the in-laws. Well i'm not calling anyone 'mum' and 'dad' so the wife said I should call then 'sishu' (pronounced 'sir shoe') and 'sishen' (pronounced 'sir shun'). I wasn't familiar with these terms so when it came to me using one of them for the first time I got confused and accidently called my father in-law 'Susan'.
