A Foreigner Learning Chinese
2018-05-15ByWenXin
By Wen Xin
“An enthusiastic foreigner has started studying Chinese with me. During our first class I taught him a word.”
“What word?”
“Wife.”
“How’d you explain it?”
“I told him that ‘wife,’ could also be substituted with: Madame,old lady, ball & chain, better half, other half, significant other,wifey, spouse, partner, mate,mother of my children… I gave him over forty different words that he could use and told him in which situations it would be more appropriate to use them.”
“Then what happened?”
“He never showed up for his second class. I heard he’s already bought his plane ticket to return home.”◆
(From Tianjin Evening News. Translation: Sam Bowden)
“一个外国人，兴致勃勃跟我学汉语。第一节课，我给他讲了一个词。”
“什么词？”
“妻子。”
“你是怎么讲的？”
我告诉他，妻子这个词又可以替换为太太、老婆、夫人、爱人、对象、内子、拙荆、贱内、那口子、孩子他妈、我家领导……我告诉他四十来个词，以及这些词在什么情况下用比较合适。”
“后来呢？”
“第二节课他没有来，据说，他已经买机票准备回国了。”◆
