Rubber bananas
johnb
July 16, 2007 at 01:25 AM posted in General DiscussionA real life example of tones mattering...
I was in a coffee shop over the weekend, and a foreign guy and his Chinese girlfriend came in to order a cake. The guy spoke passable Chinese, and the entire transaction was done in Chinese. The funny part went something like this:
Clerk: 你要哪个？(which one do you want?)
Guy: 我要那个橡胶的。。。(I want the rubber one)
Clerk: 哦。。。(uh...)
Girl: 香蕉的吧！(the banana one!)
Banana (香蕉, xiang1jiao1). Rubber (橡胶, xiang4jiao1).
excuter
July 16, 2007 at 10:55 AM
I don´t like bananas anyway, but if I need some rubber for whatever I´ll shure be carefull now ;-)
AuntySue
July 16, 2007 at 10:42 AM
He'd be in trouble in one of those restaurants that have realistic looking models of their dishes on display, he might actually be sold the rubber one.
It's nice that the clerical staff help out in the shop when it's busy.
KennyK
July 16, 2007 at 09:18 AM
maybe that guy listened to the podcast on "buying condoms" too many times :P
rich
July 16, 2007 at 08:57 AM
Wow, I'll watch that one when I'm buying my favorite fruit.... probably already did and didn't know it.. who knows.
danjo
July 16, 2007 at 12:54 PMSometime last year a student of mine, who along with classmates had cooked me a delicious meal, asked me 香不香? I assumed she had said 想不想? meaning "would you like some more?" and said 不香. Oops.