While swear words are some people’s introduction to a new language, I will never be caught dead swearing even if it’s for educational purpose. However, a comment in today’s ChinesePod lesson (about dogs http://chinesepod.com/lessons/afraid-of-… was so mind boggling that I have to share in written form.
A user wanted to confirm if 狗屁/gou3 pi4, literal meaning ’dog fart’ is the equivalent of ‘BS’. Yes, it is. I’ve never noticed that, probably because I don’t use either often. But how funny and uncanny that the two languages use different forms of animal wastes to describe a common human behavior.
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September 5, 2008 12:06 am
This is exactly why I love studying foreign languages. It’s fascinating to learn about the literal translations to idiomatic expressions.
September 5, 2008 2:28 am
It’s also interesting to note that “gou3 pi4″ sounds a lot like “go pee”.
September 5, 2008 3:54 am
Haha.. Jenny, you are too cute!
What I always find “mind boggling” is the differences and similarities in what each culture finds amusing, offensive and generally any extreme reaction to certain phrases or words that by themselves are quite harmless or meaningless. There’s also that cultural gap source of amusement and offence that can occur when one person is not aware of what they are saying has the extreme effect on the other person from another culture.
September 5, 2008 10:05 am
A bit of irreverent pizazz to language learning.
September 5, 2008 4:17 pm
i am just waiting for cpod to teach us some off-color or male-childish jokes, for educational purposes of course! and to satisfy my cultural curiosity.
September 5, 2008 4:49 pm
art,
Get us boozed up and then put us in the studio.
September 5, 2008 4:49 pm
Jenny
A more polite way of say Bull S**** is to say “you’re full of puppy poo. ” Poor puppies they don’t seem to be BS’ers they’re kind of all cute like Changye.
September 9, 2008 6:24 am
Hehe..
There was a lesson called ‘mild swearing’ on cpod quite some time ago. It was not just good for learning chunks of the language but also good from a cultural perspective. I never knew about the ‘green hat’ thing and I doubt it would ever come up in polite conversation with anyone, and especially not come up in a lesson if I was studying at university.
I hope cPod plans to do another similar lesson because it is these random lessons and concepts that hold the most value. It’s a little like saying ‘here’s what NOT to say’ when you’re in a particular situation… or “if you do find yourself being laughed at.. Check to see if you’re wearing a green hat.”
Some things, which are very important from a cultural perspective, never come up because the point of the lessons is to teach the language not the culture. That’s why I like the older lessons so much.. They had a lot more than just the dialogue. There is a little exploration in the current lessons but not as much as before.
September 10, 2008 4:27 am
Yeah! Some cpod that deals with the likes of: chi doufu, da pao, dao le, etc.!!
November 29, 2008 4:22 pm
I asked my Chinese speaking partner about “BS” a while ago: she translated it as “乱讲”, “luan4jiang3″. I might retranslate that as “crazy talk”, so it seems like a good match, although it lacks the metaphorical component of “狗屁”.
November 30, 2008 12:41 pm
Ben,
乱讲 is certainly more dignified.