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Q: Shall I correct him?
So, a funny story...
There is a senior manager in my company (in a different department) we occasionally meet only at lunch hour... Now me being slow eater, I always finish food late... since he finishes early he needs to leave and take his daily nap, the funny part comes next... everyday while leaving he would say "okay, so I will pass away now"... I thought about correcting him but I can't.. because:
1) He can't speak English beyond few basic words, so I assume it will be very difficult to explain.
2) My Chinese is not that profound.
3) I am not a teacher, neither a native speaker... so I feel it will be a little awkward to give him a free lesson.
4) It's just too funny...
Do you think I should try to correct him? if yes how?
"Shall I correct him?/Do I need to correct him?"
You can take the lead by leaving early and say, "I have to go now " or any alternatives you think will suffice.
I guess you are afraid of him loosing face and the aftermath, if so enjoy your lunch and let him PASS AWAY everyday.
"Shall I correct him?/Do I need to correct him?"
You can take the lead by leaving early and say, "I have to go now " or any alternatives you think will suffice.
I guess you are afraid of him loosing face and the aftermath, if so enjoy your lunch and let him PASS AWAY everyday.
what would be weird is if he really did go off for his nap and then pass-away... spooky !!
* hmmmm... 'To hyphenate, or not to hyphenate?' that is the question that bugged mr. shake a spear for sooo long~
Yes, tell him 'pass away' means 'die', and 'pass-out' means nap.
Instead 'pass-out' he's better off using 'I'm going to have a peak under my eye lashes. Now.'
I might change my career. I'm looking into 'Correctional .........'
You can tell him... this in Chinese perhaps?
"pass away" yi si shi jiu si le. ("pass away" meaning is to die)
ni yin gai shuo "I have to go." (you should say "I have to go.")
"I have to go" yi si shi wo zou le. (just explaining the meaning means he has to leave)
or just tell him simply... bu shuo "pass away" yin gai shuo "go" huo zhe "leave".
He may lose a little face, but he will be happy you corrected him. Otherwise, he will lose much more face in the long run and he probably knows it.
Don't correct him, it's too damn funny. Besides he never has to talk to other foreigners and he'll just lose face if you do.
icnif77:
Do you really respect 'face' that way?
As English teacher, I don't think for a second of not correcting English mistakes by Chinese.
I'm correcting Principal, who looks like he likes it, and he's sincere at improving his English.
Students? I'm working with students on IELTS/TOEFL prep. How they're going to pass it successfully, if I'll 'suffer' from face thingy, and not correcting them?
Shining_brow:
"As English teacher, I don't think for a second of not correcting English mistakes by Chinese."
Cos nobody likes being corrected all the time!
There are times and places for corrections... and I'll agree that embarrassing mistakes should be corrected ASAP, I've found that ppl only like to be corrected when either a) they've told you to, or b) it's not making any sense. (or just confusing... ).
icnif77:
I don't pay attention to 'face' over correct English. That's my job
. One of my students volunteered, she'll take a pic of my wheels on Sunday, and she was 'no show'. Yesterday class was about meaning of the word 'promise' in English, with ending 'Don't ever do that in West! Westerners respect promise!'. She didn't cry, but we were very close to that. I received 'I'm sorry' and no pic.
hi2u:
Ya, I'm not a teacher, so don't care to correct when I understand what people are saying. I used to correct people, and it got tiring fast.
Shining_brow:
But Icnif, the guy isn't a student... he's a co-worker. And hasn't asked for his English to be 'improved'.
If you think you should correct everyone's bad English, you'll never stop!
Also, if that's your attitude, then you wouldn't mind if I ripped your English apart... every.single.post....
icnif77:
@Shining: I don't think, it's fair to let the guy keep saying ''I'm going to die'' instead ''I'm going for a nap''. I wouldn't feel nice, if Chinese would tell me after 6m that 'xie-xie' doesn't mean 'Good day' in Chinese, but 'Thank you', so I act similar.
What I write here is 'out of the bat', without English Grammar books present, and I'm sure you could spend time for correction of my written English. However, I don't think that's really necessary till we understand each other, and when we don't, you could just reply with 'no ming bai', and I would write it again in 'ming-bai-able' English.
I would feel uncomfortable with Chinese English speakers, if I wouldn't tell them ''that's not right''.
Considering all known facts and doubts, I would correct him only if I were a native speaker, or If I were his teacher, or his close friend.
Maybe he actually does pass away every day for an hour or so...then miraculously comes back to life. He's a Chinese superhero me thinks.
2 minutes of your time now, saves you a lot more later. And it may end up having a follow-on effect somewhere down the track.
Remember, this person is a human being. He wouldn't want to be thinking that (when he finally finds out) that you thought he was a fool for some small linguistic mistake.
Eg: - young female student said :"None of my friends were around, so I just sat at home and played with myself".... I could let it go, but I figure better to be embarrassed now in China (in front of her friends), than in the US where strangers (and perhaps people she's trying to impress) get the wrong idea about her....
icnif77:
I also dismantle 'face', when correct English is in Q. However, OP might not be a teacher.
