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Q: Has China changed the meaning of some English words for you?
Being here has completely "ruined" the words "open," "shy" and "friendly" for me. I will never think of them the same way again. Have the people here changed the meaning of English words, perhaps using them in a way that has "ruined" them for you? Are there any that have made you laugh or shake your head, or just left you confused?
Would you care to elaborate as to why those words don't have the same meaning to you?
The word Da is not a musical note to me anymore now it means Big!! The word Way now I have to think if it meant as a hello or just a way to go.
Well, in a way my GF has frustrated me not with a few words, but with my whole English. She claims I do not know how to pronounce correctly, she learned NE USA type of English pronunciation, and my accent is from the deep South. She claims I also talk too softly, hard for her to hear me. But I talk to her, not for the whole restaurant to hear as she does. She may have an ear problem.
But back to the English thing, she has good command of English, she learned by herself, and by listening to DVD's of the show Friends, she probably has over 60 of them. Her English is quite good, hardly an accent. But her problem is that she tries to talk too fast, and in doing so she mispronounces many words, becoming hard to understand and forcing me to ask her to repeat herself but slow down a little, Then she gets mad and claims she does Speak excellent English, and I am the one that does not.
So, for the sake of peace, I always utter the last word, "Yes, dear "!.
PS: some words that here have different meanings are : truth and lies ; sister, brother, cousin ; and to me above all is "lover" (here means husband).
Harmony, harmonious, and the anything that begins with "As you know...".
"not at all" i never want to hear that again. "stupid" "dumb" have lost all meaning for me. i will never use those words the same way ever again.
Handsome just means not ugly and love just means nothing.
Take medicine can range from tablets, liquid to injections.
Logic, of course, and impossible. Every time I hear those used here all I can picture is that scene from the Princess Bride: "INCONCEIVABLE!" - "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!"
HELLO HELLO HELLO
I'll never be able to hear anyone say hello again without twitching. Also, "humble"; "x minutes later"; "bye bye" (I catch myself saying this. I'm afraid of going back to Canada and getting punched in the face).
"Festival"
Everything is a damn festival. Qing Ming Festival, Moon Cake Festival, Lunch Festival, Sleeping Festival. And then they ask, "In Canada, what is your favorite festival?"
Stop it!
GuilinRaf:
Just today one of my students aske me how was I going to celebrate the "Fools of April Festival".
deefoe:
I was pretty close to saying a few times when I heard "april fools festival"
"its not a fucking festival!!!! festival is not a suffix or period, so stop adding it to EVERY DAMN THING"
For me, "maybe" has taken on a whole new meaning. Here, it seems to be used in the place of "no" in order to save face. The bad thing is, I've started saying it myself, while before coming to China, I never said it in response to a question.
One phrase which my students say on occassion is "Oh my Lady Gaga," which really irks me, but I try to ignore it.
GuilinRaf:
I have a cure for my students who use "maybe". Since part of my class involves class discussion, in addition to "yes" or "no" they have to explain "why". If they say "maybe" I tell them that is a yes AND a no so they must answer both!
Many times they backtrack and stick to just one or the other. I guess for them, it is bad enough having to answer ONE why, going for two....
"why" . I am so tired of hearing it that I now say it when ever I get orders. Then I get " no why" , which for the time being seems funny, but ask me about it next week.
Relations... as in "I want us to have good relations together". Ummmmm, right.
Also the word maybe, being used to mean yes, or no, or maybe, or probably, or probably not, or I don't know, or any combination of these!
Strong means fat, if they say how strong you are it really means you're fat
